When we finally did start, we ran into a few (OK, more than a few!) challenges. We almost missed our Capitol tour because we couldn't find any parking at two different Metro stations. We panicked, but then noticed a long row of empty metered spaces. We raced off to a nearby bank and bought some quarters. Cost us twice as much to park, but we're on vacation, and didn't care. (Convenience trumped frugality today.)
We made it to the Capitol about 10 minutes late, but thanks to our reservations, the lady gave us a badge for the 10:30 tour. Boy, were we relieved!
The tour starts in the brand-spanking new $621 million Capitol Visitors Center. It was GORGEOUS! It took six years to build, and just opened last month. Talk about good timing! It was huge, marble everything, and spacious enough for the hundreds of visitors waiting in line. They led us into a beautiful theatre, with a rich wood ceiling and tons of seats, where we watched a movie about the Capitol building and how it was built.
Then it was onto the tour. We received headsets, which amplified the tour guide's voice. My mom's headset broke five minutes into the tour, so she swapped with Mark, who wasn't listening anyway. He was more interested in taking multiple pictures of everything.
The Capitol is so beautiful, inside and out. It's like a treasure box -- a beautiful piece of art with even more beautiful artwork inside. We went into the breathtaking rotunda and stared up at George Washington ascending into heaven.
Next, we moved onto a couple smaller rotundas with gorgeous chandeliers, and in keeping with our "day late and a dollar short" theme, ended up in the Hall of Statues, where President Obama (I love saying that!) held his Inaugural lunch on Tuesday. I was excited to find the California state statue -- Father Junipero Serra. (I was on a "mission" to find him.)
After the tour, my mom made it very clear that she was hungry and someone would die if she wasn't fed pronto (and it wasn't gonna be her). We ate in the Visitor's Center cafeteria, where I encouraged my mom to order the bean soup. She refused. Two minutes later, I heard another lady request it.
"We don't have any," said the cook.
"What?" asked the woman. "Do you get a lot of requests for it?"
"Every day!" replied the exasperated cook.
"Then you should make it!" the woman told him, and I thought she had a pretty good point.
Our plan for the afternoon was to visit the remaining memorials we've missed; namely, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. So we left the Capitol building, and noticed a few protesters over at the Supreme Court. We wondered what was going on, but didn't really give it much thought.
Until we saw the Capitol police squadron come outside. Even then, we thought, "Oh, look, it's the police changing of the guard." (Yes, we think we're very clever.)
Then we noticed another platoon of police officers across the street, and we realized maybe something more than a little protest was going on. Turns out there's a huge Pro-Life march that's held after every Inauguration and guess what -- it was our lucky day!
All political beliefs aside, I'm just gonna say I dislike the Pro-Lifers very much, because man, did they mess up our afternoon! We sat at the Capitol Building Tourmobile bus stop waiting patiently, and watching the number of protesters grow and grow. We waited an awfully long time for a bus, so I called Tourmobile, only to find the Capitol stop was closed this week due to all the "activities." (Hi, a little sign at the bus stop might be nice!) The lady recommended we walk over to the Air and Space Museum to catch the bus.
And that's when we really saw how big the protest was! The streets were all closed off, and the Mall was packed. Somebody said that 30,000 people come to town for the protest. It sure looked like that many.
We never did find our bus at the museum, because the street was closed off. So we hiked on down to the next stop, about 30 yards from where we'd watched the Inauguration. We got there just in time to watch the Tourmobile we'd searched 90 minutes for drive off. At least the driver was nice enough to wave at us as he drove by, refusing to stop.
Well, I am not proud to admit it, but the next 15 or 20 minutes did not go so well. I perhaps taught my son a few new bad words, and I will admit that I wasn't exactly the shining example of courtesy. My mom has plenty of experience with grumpy Dinsdales not reacting well to stressful situations, and she took this moment to step aside and ignore me. (She is a wise woman.)
Finally, another Tourmobile appeared, and drove us to the Jefferson Memorial. This time it was Mark's turn to melt down, so I doubt he'll remember much of ol' Mr. Jefferson.
The next Tourmobile showed up in just enough time to drop us off at the Lincoln Memorial. "Don't worry," the driver told us, "Another bus will be back in half an hour." (I think it was an invisible bus, because we never saw it.)
Mark and I raced up the stairs to see Honest Abe. Doesn't matter how many times you see it, he's still impressive. Mark was all excited to take a picture with a five-dollar bill showing the Memorial.
I also took him to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. He was very interested in that, and in reading some of the notes left behind. He asked me why wars start (since wars -- English, Civil, and otherwise -- are discussed and memorialized relentlessly in this city), and I couldn't really give him a good answer.
He liked the Wall, but said he didn't love it. "It was too quiet," he said, and I reminded him the quiet is just being respectful. Poor guy, he visited a lot of "quiet" places this week, and he was a trooper.
A Park Ranger told my mom the closest Metro stop was about 7 blocks away, so we decided to hoof it up there. Turned out to be a little bit further, but this time, we just chalked it up to our Challenging Day.
We returned to Virginia and went out to dinner, where the waitress promptly gave me the wrong meal, then charged me twice for it. At that point, my mom said, "It goes along with all our other challenges today!" We decided that we'd had enough, and we'd better get ourselves home, away from the general public. We just couldn't take any more crazy things coming our way!
So the bad news is, our luck was a bit off today. But the good news is, we overcame it and still had a great day. We toured the Capitol, the Memorials, and didn't even let 30,000 protesters trying to ruin our day succeed. As we've learned this week, D.C. was founded on battles. And today, we emerged victorious from ours.
1 comment:
EXCELLENT! Could not have been more well written!
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