US Capitol Building

While preparing for our trip Jake asked me to contact Senator Crapo and arrange whatever tours we could.  We were late enough in the process that there was some concern that the White House Tour would not come through for us due to security clearance issues.  But in the end I was able to schedule tours of the US Captiol Building, the White House, the US Supreme Court, and the Washington Monument.  When combined with all National Mall museums and the like it made for a packed, exhausting couple of days as we raced from end to end of the National Mall.

The US Capitol Building was our first stop, and it was amazing to see it in person.  Jake in particular couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

The Capitol sits up on a bluff overlooking the rest of the Mall, and was a beautiful site even with some ongoing construction around the dome.

But getting inside and taking the tour was amazing.  They have immense numbers of people moving through the building, and the logistics of doing the tours was mind boggling.  The use headsets for all the tour members so the guides can talk softly and everyone can still hear.  In many rooms there would be several tours there at the same time, 4-5 in the rotunda.  We ended up separated from Jake, Todd, and Anna, and afterward were able to compare notes, which was kind of fun in a way.

To me the clear highlights were the rotunda itself, which is immense and impressive, particularly in the details painted on the ceiling and the frieze, and the National Statuary Hall, into which each state contributed two statutes of individuals to represent their state.  Ethan made sure we found Brigham Young and all the other statues from the places we have lived (Utah, Idaho, and Oregon).  One other fun place was the original US Supreme Court room, a dark room deep in the depths of the capitol.  It was amazing to contemplate all the history of a building such as this.

Unfortunately Congress itself was in recess, so we were not able to actually sit in and see lawmaking in action. Still it was fascinating tour.  Afterward we hit the obligatory gift shops and looked through a bunch of displays showing the history of the building and the like.  Truly you could spend a full day there, although we had places to go and didn't hang around too long.