Today was our last full day in DC, so we started off going to the National Zoo.
Here's a trick: if you take the Metro to the zoo from downtown DC, get off at the Cleveland Park station. Then you don't have to walk uphill to the zoo's entrance. When you leave, take the Woodley Park station. It's downhill all the way!
The zoo was great, of course. We walked quickly (the day was going to be full and we couldn't spend too much time gawking at animals), went by the panda exhibit, and stood in the shade while a baby elephant peed in front of us. The kids loved that.
The National Zoo is a beautiful place, complete with a few significant hills that, on a normal day, would be nothing to walk. But on a muggy, hot, and blindly sunny day these same hills made short order of us, and by the time we were walking out the gate toward the Metro station, we were sweat drenched and cheek flushed.
Next stop: our Congresscritter's office to pick up our special fancy pants passes for our tour of the Capitol. Our guide for the day was a young intern, working diligently during his four-week tour in public service. (Interns and staffers all seem very, very young. I mean fresh-from-college young. For the most part they all have that certain look about them, the look that says, "I was president of my debating / student body / whatever club in college and I've come here to be president of YOU." We sat by some of these Alpha Sigma Zeppo types on the Metro, and I overheard them talking the DC intern staffer talk: babes, beer, and utterly elementary and vapid analysis on cap and trade issue papers.)
Our guide took us through the bowels of the Capitol, down through secret tunnels and hallways and doorways. And security. Always security. Everywhere. When we popped up in the Capitol visitors' center I was very disoriented thinking south was north, east was west, and eggs were bacon.
Our guide then took us into the Rotunda, which is spectacular although inaccessible without the right jangle of badges and clearances clipped to your clothes. Then we went to the House Chamber itself (after abandoning all electronic devices in a little plastic tote bin) and sat in the balcony while we watched no one below us busy at work. Alex asked why the words "In God We Trust" was over the Speaker's chair, and our guide talked about how that's all from the Constitution, a story I cannot stand because it's utterly untrue. So I had to jump in and clarify a few points from 1956 (even when I mentioned the Jefferson Bible, a version Jefferson edited himself to rip out what he considered supernatural or corrupted, I was met with incredulity).
In all, the Capitol tour was very interesting, and we learned quite a bit (I learned that people in Congress love large doors), but the highlight of the day was yet to come: our tour at the Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress is a gorgeous building (completed on time and under budget according to our docent). This particular tour was about the architecture of the place. Before its restoration the walls were covered in soot and dirt and, generally, no one had taken care of the place. But now, now it's a gem. At one point, our docent was telling us a story of his volunteer training there and how he got to hold an original Mozart composition and then, right after, an original Beethoven. He said while he was holding them he had gotten choked up and teary-eyed. I was getting teary-eyed just listening to him!
It was a lovely story in a lovely building at the end of our last lovely day, tainted only by this know-it-all father outside near the picnic tables. (He wanted me to take a picture of his family with the Capitol in the background, but he kept barking orders at me: "get the building in the back!" "Center it!" "Is if focused?" So I just snapped the picture without too much effort, and as soon as I gave the camera back he immediately checked the little LCD screen to make sure I did an adequate job. Nice.)
So that was that. It was now time to change our mindset. Tomorrow: New York.
