Washington DC - Day 2

Our second day in DC started at the Supreme Court. The court was in session and I was hoping to get in to see the justices! When we got to the court, the line was VERY long. It was probably 9:45. I asked the security guard which line this was, because there were supposed to be two lines - one to get in for the entire session, and one for a three-to-five minute viewing of the courtroom, which was the one we wanted to be in. He explained that they had already seated the 50 or so people for the morning session, so this remaining line was the 3-5 line. I did a quick calculation and figured that there was at least an hour's worth of folks in front of us and the sky was threatening to drench us at any moment. Given that this line didn't start moving until 10 and we had a tour appointment for 12ish across the street at the Capitol, we opted to skip the courtroom experience and just see the exhibits inside instead.



The Supreme Court had, by far, the most educational movie about its function. The movie featured all of the justices talking about how they work. The courthouse had this really cool staircase inside, too:



When we left the Supreme Court, it was raining, so we quickly made our way across the street to the Capitol. We had to wait outside for a bit to get through security. We had a quick snack and then visited the displays in the Capitol Visitor's Center before our tour. The Visitor's Center just opened in the last year or so, and it was quite nice, but honestly, the tour was lame. Now, I'm comparing it to a tour I took when I was in college, and we were guests of a congressman, but still - we only got to see three rooms on the tour! Here's a look up in the Rotunda:



If you read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, you know what the painting is at the top - the Apotheosis of Washington:



The hall of statues:



This room was the "tomb" under the Rotunda, and here are the girls with General Stark of NH:



I had hoped to visit the Library of Congress of the Capitol, but we were starving, so we walked up to Union Station and found the Capitol City Brewery in the old Post Office Museum across the street. HIGHLY recommended if you get to DC! After that, we thought Sophie would take a snooze if we strolled for a while (we were about two miles from the hotel). We decided to walk partway back and then catch a train. Well, we kept finding interesting things to sidetrack us, so we ended up walking the whole way - and only the last three blocks in the rain! Here's the friendship arch in Chinatown. DC's Chinatown is pretty lame - all chain stores with Chinese signs, and honestly, we didn't really see too many Chinese people there!



The back side of the White House:



We weren't very hungry for dinner after eating a late lunch. Our friends, the D family, stopped by and we had some snacks.