No, we didn’t fly to Rome. This is the fountain in front of the Library of Congress, our meeting place for an all-day tour. We managed to avoid the steep hill beside the Capitol building but Siri was playing with us and took us a block out of our way for no reason. Maybe she thought there were too many pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Rick, the tour guide, had a funny line. If you say “medical” you can actually take water or food inside government buildings. They can’t ask you why. When someone felt hesitant about lying, Rick stated, “What better place could there be to tell a damn lie?” Sad but true.
Our first stop was across the street at the Capitol where I immediately found a statue of Jeanette Rankin who is the only person to vote against WWI and II. Rankin is a family name and she must be a relative because she looks just like my cousin Marilyn! Goes to show, I come from an independent lot.
Every state selects two statues to display at the Capitol and they switch them out from time-to-time. Jeanette’s was from Montana. I thought Mississippi’s choice to display Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States, surprising.
Here’s the reflecting pool, original site of the Botanic Garden and the Bartholdi Fountain from Episode Three—A Day at Mount Vernon.
I would have liked to stay when our Capitol tour ended. We had a chance to peek into both chambers of congress and the Library of Congress was open that day. But we went on with our Washington tour. We didn’t even make it to the gift shop!
There were many sites we’d already seen, but these proved to be brief stops. We got some great daylight pictures.
Above and below: The Vietnam Memorial.
Another visit to Mr. Lincoln.
Flowers were everywhere. These were laid at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
The MLK Memorial.
A much less-crowded visit to the Jefferson Memorial.
We got as close to Joe Biden as we will likely ever get. While watching out the bus window beside the WWII memorial, three helicopters flew low over the mall. From watching DC videos on-line, I knew Biden was in one of those. Sure enough, one headed for the White House lawn and the other two peeled off. I should have snapped a picture but didn’t think quickly enough.
On to the Potomac in Georgetown where we ate lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant—Guapo’s. The food and chips were great. The hot sauce wasn’t spicy, but it was hot as in not cold. That was interesting and really good also.
After lunch, we took a relaxing and enjoyable boat ride on the Potomac.
The boat took us under the bridge that goes to Arlington Cemetery.
We headed for other monuments including Roosevelt’s.
It was lovely there, beautiful and sunny, not at all like yesterday at 2 when we were sitting in the rain watching the parade. What a difference a day makes.
A representation of Roosevelt’s fireside chats.
We got to walk through Lafayette Park and up to the White House fence.
The tour ended at the federal archives—where we went yesterday. Since we were done, the bus driver dropped us by our hotel. He was super friendly and talked about how Washington D.C. has recently returned to promoting tourism.
We decided to head back to Milk and Honey for dinner. I couldn’t resist having the yummy Parmesan grits and shrimp one last time.