We are down to our final two days in DC. Wednesday Matt had a few conference sessions in the morning, so I went out and got our tickets for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. It was about a 6 mile hike, round trip, so not my cutest picture, but nonetheless, I got the tickets!
I met Matt back at the hotel and then we headed out for our 11am Capitol Tour.
We went to meet our tour guide in our Representative's office in the Cannon Building.
Lots of long white halls, Matt trying to look serious and official, everyone around us was wearing suits!
We met our guide at the office and met a few of the other interns. Most were from Texas, which makes sense, but there was one from NY! There was an A&M helmet (and some other schools) in the first room we walked into.
Off to the left was McCaul's office. His desk was a little messy :) We didn't get to meet him, though he was in DC because the Congress was in session.
We walked with our tour guide in some tunnels from the Cannon building over
to the Capital Visitor's Center (CVC).
The freedom statue in the CVC is a replica of the statute currently on the top of the Capitol dome.
From there we went down to "the crypt." This was built initially to be the burial site of George Washington, though he was instead buried at Mt. Vernon. Now the crypt houses 13 statutes to represent the 13 original colonies.
In the center of the crypt is the Compass Stone. Our guide was a college boy, so naturally he cut off our feet in the picture and therefore we don't have a picture of the spot, oh well. This spot was originally the very center of DC. Its also supposed to give you good luck for 1,000 years if you touch the spot.
The statue of Lincoln in the crypt is said to be the the most accurate representation of what Lincoln actually looked like.
From there we headed up to the Rotunda, which is directly above the crypt and where you can look up and see the dome!
The paintings around the Rotunda (which look like carvings) are a timeline from Columbus to the Wright Brothers.
The top of the dome
The wall paintings around the Rotunda were all done before 1865. The Rotunda is where presidents funerals have been held.
Fun Fact: The statute of Ronald Reagan in the Rotunda has chips of the Berlin Wall in it (under the statue, on top of the base).
From there we went to the north end and the Old Senate Chamber, which was used from 1810-1859.
We then went across to the South end, and passed by John Boehner's office on the way to the National Statuary Hall/the old House Meeting Room. Texas is represented by a Sam Houston statue. Fun Fact: Our guide told us that when the old meeting room was used, John Adams sat near the "whisper spot", a spot where from there you can hear even a whisper from the other side of the room!
That ended the guided portion of the tour, from there we were able to go into both the House and Senate meeting rooms. We of course couldn't take any pictures in there, but it was really cool because in both rooms there were Congress people speaking from the floor.
Feed from the House floor! They were discussing Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (HR 2231)
Behind those doors is the Senate floor!
After we sat in on the House and Senate, we took some pics outside!
Matt's just a bill, on Capitol Hill.......
From there we walked across the street by the Supreme Court (which seems to be getting a face lift and had a painted tarp across the front). It was a big day at the Supreme Court as just that morning they had ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional in its ban against same sex marriage. I will make not further comment on that...this is not that kind of blog :)
All of the supporters of the ruling had left by the time we go there, but there were tons of news reporters still out and about!
Library of Congress
From there we headed to lunch, a place I just randomly found on the map that morning, Good Stuff Eatery.
OMG, it was delicious! I'm craving these burgers now. I ordered the Obama Burger and Matt got the Sunny Side Burger.
We also got milkshakes to go, since we had to get to the BEP. Matt ordered the toasted marshmallow and I got chocolate, of course. Matt said it was the best milkshake he has ever had!
We were quickly running out of time to get to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing by 3pm, so for the first time we had to get a taxi (besides going to dinner at night). We arrived just in time!
Matt modeling the five steps of printing money.
I preferred to stand next to a million bucks!
Of course, you couldn't take pictures on the tour, but I'll say, even if we had, I don't think we'd be able to re-create the money printing process! Too bad :(
A few facts we learned on the tour: There are only two facilities in the US that print money, the one we toured and one in Fort Worth. The design of notes is changed about every 7 to 10 years to help fight counterfeiting. The BEP prints 24 hours a day, averaging $1.6 billion dollars a day. 95% of this is replacement currency, 5% increasing the money supply.
We saw them printing the 2009 $100 bill which is not yet in circulation (but will be soon!)
Matt's height in $100 bills!
From there we headed toward the hotel to rest a bit before dinner, but stopped at the Smithsonian Folklife festival.
When we were ready for dinner, we headed out, stopped by a few stores (I got some souvenir earrings!) and then ended up at Pi Pizza where we were talked into some adventurous toppings. Good choice!
On Thursday we didn't have a ton of time because we had to check out by 1 and based on our experience the rest of the week, if we went out, we'd definitely need to take a shower before heading to the hotel, so for our last day, we decided to sleep in and partake in the hotel breakfast buffet. Matt's breakfast, a usual vacation picture for us :)
We spent the rest of the morning packing up, being lazy, and watching the news. After checking out we grabbed one last snack at West Wing Cafe and Matt answered some work emails before we headed to the airport. While waiting we got an update that Baby Emma Gail Binford had made her entrance into the world! We can't wait to meet her next week!
At the airport, eating.....again :) Don't judge, we are on vacation
That about wraps it up! Great trip! I'm so glad I got to tag along!
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