D.C. Day

We arrived in Washington D.C. Thursday afternoon and found a Motel 6 - right across the street from Walter Reed. Yup, the day we show up the hospital's commander is fired, and then the next day the Secretary of the Army resigned. I have listened to numerous NPR stories about lack of sufficient care for soldiers once they get home. Those stories, along with the state department's impossibly low casualty estimates for U.S. forces, Iraqi forces, and Iraqi civilians made me question why people weren't more concerned. Then I watched Bob Woodruf's report the other night and kept wondering if all of our soldiers were getting the same kind of great treatment they gave him - he actually answered that himself in the second half of the show where he did some investigative work and found out what kind of care soldiers were lacking.

Part of the story I read on-line about Walter Reed detailed the fact that soldiers and their families were put up in vermin infested apartments across from Walter Reed - I should have paid more attention to this part since our Motel 6 was literally right across the street. 15 minutes after turning out the light Thursday night we heard a rustling sound. "What are you doing?" John asked me. "Nothing," I said, "I think something is in our snack bag!" He turned on the lights and went over to the table to investigate, but found nothing. Off went the lights again.

Five minutes later the noise was back. On went the lights and John went to investigate again (I stayed in the bed). He moved things around on the table and then picked up the plastic bag containing some dates and protein bars - and a mouse jumped out at him. "Oh!" he said, and dropped the bag back on the table. To my embarrassment, I actually let loose one of those little girly squeals because as the mouse left the bag it headed toward me and disappeared behind the nightstand right beside me. John built an ingenious little mouse trap that would make the mouse fall into the deep trash can when it came to get the bait (a piece of protein bar). He then promptly went to sleep. I, on the other hand, lay there in the dark listening. I finally heard the mouse go up onto the table again, but I guess he had wanted the dates, not the protein bars, because he didn't take the bait. As soon as I finally got to sleep the phone started ringing (no one there) and a fire truck pulled up out front. Since the fire alarm on our floor didn't go off and no one seemed to be leaving we went back to sleep.

We got up at 6:30, got dressed in our best and got on the bus and then the train into Union Station. We arrived at Senator Maria Cantwell's office and from there one of her staff members took us, along with 4 others, on a tour of the capitol.

We got to ride on the underground tramway between the senate office buildings and the capitol , definitely a nice feature due to the often inclement weather.

We came into the capitol building from the basement and immediately into the ornately painted "Brumidi Corridor".

Brumidi painted murals reflecting great events and people in American history as well as beautiful nature scenes.

As part of the design, he purposefully left open spaces for future events to be memorialized. After all, Brumidi started paining the capitol in 1856 when the nation was still very young - he wanted to make sure there was room to record the events to come.

One such panel that is now complete memorializes the moon landing, and another, the crew of the space shuttle Challenger.

Brumidi was also responsible for the paining of The Apotheosis of Washington in the center of the Capitol Rotunda and the frieze surrounding it.

Although the frieze looks like carved marble, it is actually painted. Brumidi originally designed it and painted about a third of it before falling and supposedly hanging on to a ledge for about 2 hours until he was rescued. As he was in his late 70s at the time, I am dubious of this legend, but it's possible. In any case, after an incident where he fell he decided he was done painting. Four different artists worked at various times to complete the frieze in the same style as Brumidi and it was finally finished in 1953.

After viewing the rotunda, we entered the original chamber in which Congress met, now a room full of beautiful statues donated by different states or commissioned by Congress. They were all sculpted in very different styles, colors, and materials, but all memorialized important people or events.

One of my favorite rooms was the original chamber of the Supreme Court. Although the lights inside are electric, they imitate the original lamps that would have been used. There was a low twilight glow to the room that today would not be considered light enough to read by. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why everyone was so meticulous in their handwriting - before electric lighting if it wasn't clear there was no way anyone would be able to see it well enough to read it. :)

After the tour we were given tickets to go into the Senate gallery. Luckily, the Senate was in session and we were able to observe for about an hour as various Senators came in and out. At one point there were about four Senators in the room along with all of the pages, officers, and the acting President of the Senate. Senator Thune was speaking about why he thought that HB1, constructed to address some of the issues brought forth by the 911 commission, was flawed. There he was speaking about nuclear proliferation, homeland security, and his concerns over the bill and NO ONE was paying any attention. Yes, I know that all of the real work in the Senate is done in committee, but it was pretty weird to be sitting there listening to a Senator propose amendments to national security and have no one paying any attention to him.

We went into the House gallery, but as it was a Friday, the House was not in session. Overall, it was a great experience and well worth the trip!