Capitol Chaos

After finishing up Tim's parole in Spain, it was time to begin the home stretch: the U.S.

As part of our education, it had been decided that we would visit DC.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The famous rows of uniform tombstones

Vietnam war memorial on the National Mall

WW2 memorial

A view of the Capitol

We started out by visiting Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We watched the changing of the guards ceremony at the tomb and did a tour around the cemetery. One of the other things we did at the cemetery was visit the house of Robert E Lee, one of the most important confederate generals of the civil war. As it turns out, his house isn't in the middle of the cemetery by chance. When the Lee family had to flee the estate because of the Union army, the union decided to convert his estate into a gravesite for all the men he had helped to kill, starting on his back porch. One of the reasons behind this was so that is he ever tried to return to his home, he would have to live with his victims next door. After unsuccessfully attempting to visit Kennedy's grave, we headed to the national mall for the remainder of the afternoon. One of the main factors in the decision to visit was that our congressman for Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, (GJ, Rifle, Aspen, Veil, etc) Jeff Hurd, was actually a family friend who we knew for years prior to him becoming a politician. He had somehow found time in his schedule (a feat considering that he had more hour's worth of things scheduled than there are in a day) to have dinner with us. We had expected to have a short meal with a guy who was just barely awake, but boy were we wrong. He was just as awake as ever, and not only that, he offered to give us a private tour of the Capitol. When we finished with dinner, we headed down to the Capitol and began the tour. we were able to go wherever we pleased thanks to having a congressman with us. He was able to get us into any room and could tell us just about whatever we wanted to know. We were even able to go into the house of representatives and sit in their chairs and have a conversation. He also gave tim and I both a voting card and an official congressional record (and maybe a signed notice that we could skip homework).

He then invited us to return the next day and (for tim and I) go on the house floor during an active vote with all the congressmen (for the record, the public is hardly ever allowed in the house of representatives, let alone on the floor and during an active vote).

The Rotunda inside the Capitol

The west balcony (where the president is inaugurated)

Congressional record and voting cards

The next day (after cancelling the original Capitol tour, since it had become a bit redundant) we returned to his office building and waited for him to wrap up his meeting. His assistant took my parents up to the balcony and he took Tim and I to the floor, where we got to walk around and meet a couple of congressmen. We also got to put in his vote for him on the voting machine! after that we said our goodbyes.

There we are

During the last of our time in DC, we visited the Constitution, the Library of Congress, 1/3 of the Smithsonian Air and Space (closed for renovations, including all the highlights), and the International Spy Museum. Overall, DC was only really made worth it by Mr Hurd, so we are grateful to him.

Declaration of independence

One of the first printed books ever

Happy to be back in Colorado!