16 June 2009

Washington, D.C. - DAY 4 - Tuesday, June 9th

We finally made it to day 4 of our fantastic trip of the summer. This day began extra early. We had to be at the Capitol at 8:45 a.m. Ugh. After our late night in Alexandria, the alarm went off especially early.

We made it to the Rayburn Building. We met a girl named Katherine who led us there from the metro. She is interning with a congressmen from Florida. We were headed to Jim Matheson's office. We made it. He has an old Parowan High School basketball championship banner in his office. His dad was the coach. We met Aaron. He was going to take us on our tour of the Capitol. We went through security. My mom has lots of stuff in her purse. They took her hair spray.


The new visitor's center at the Capitol is neat. Some of the statues are there. It's underground with skylights allowing you to view the Capitol. It has a museum and movie theaters. The movie was good, but I think I dozed off. Sorry. It probably had to do with the late night before and not necessarily my responsibility to civic attentiveness.

We visited the Rotunda. The artists painted their faces into their paintings for some secret recognition. Eva was dying of thirst and I snuck Starbursts to her.

We visited the House Chambers. It always amazes me how congressmen will talk and give their speeches, but no one (or hardly anyone) is their listening to them. Are they all in their offices watching CSPAN? I don't get it?

We at lunch in the Rayburn Building.

We went back to the hotel to check out and stow away our bags in a back room. We headed back out and would return before going to the airport.

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The following explains the part of the trip that Auntie Judy and Cousin Haley failed!!! We didn't plan as well as we should and probably disappointed a whole crew of certified life guards. We'll do better next time. Sorry Staples
* * *

The Stapley girls as well as James had a burning desire to visit the American Red Cross Headquarters. They should have a museum. It's open like all other museum, right? You go and see cool Red Cross stuff, right? They used to have a museum, right? . . . . Well, they don't anymore. No museum. No entrance without a scheduled guided tour. Not much to see. Bummer dudes. Sorry.

We explained that we had some kids who REALLY wanted to come in, so the nice security guard let us all come in and look at the main hallway. There were a few artifacts and some signs that said Red Cross. This wasn't exactly the highlight of the trip, but it was all we could do. Go Red Cross!!!


Next, we sat on the steps of the Red Cross Building and sadly tried to plan our last activity before heading to the airport. Hannah sat in a puddle with her new white shirt. We saw Tibetan Monks in orange. Judy asked who wanted to go to Union Station. No one voted, yes. So, we went to George Washington University and to the bookstore. We all got fresh, new GWU Colonials T-shirts. I also bought a souvenir Mrs. Fields cookie in a package on the snack isle. Eva really liked the Foggy Bottom Metro stop.


We rode back to the hotel on the metro. Grabbed our bags and road the hotel shuttle to the airport. The van didn't quite fit 14, so we had to go in 2 shifts, but we made it.

We finally found the President in the airport. Phineas got his picture taken with Mr. Obama. After that . . . well the rest has already been reported in a prior post . . . . lightning and rain, stuck on a plane, miracle crew on board, saved the plane in Atlanta for us, got home really late . . . or early depending on how you look at it. My mom and her huge purse got MY hairspray taken away at the airport. Uncle Steve and Uncle Evan were both wearing Puke, I mean Duke, memorabilia at the airport. That was weird, but Evan's wasn't really Duke, just a blue D for the Dodgers.

What an amazing adventure!

Thanks to Mama Judy for all her efforts!! She's a great tour guide in addition to being a great mom!!




What's next? . . . Let's plan next year's trip!

1 comment:

Staples said...

YAY!!!!!!!!!! That was fun to read all your posts!!! GOod times!!! Next year???