First Day in Washington, D.C.

We were very blessed to find out about a place to park our truck/camper at Union Station.

(Where Amtrak trains and subways come in and out of the city.) 

We pulled right in and only had to pay $20.00 for parking all day! 

This was quite a bit cheaper and faster than if we had taken public transportation into the city from our campground. 

The next two pictures are of the outside of Union Station.

 

(All the pictures in this post are a combination of photos from both my camera and Valerie's camera.)

 

 

 Our first stop was the Supreme Court building.

It is under renovation, so the columns you see are actually a mural canvas covering of the building.

Everything was very fancy! 

 

Famous spiral staircase.

The official court room!

 What?  The Ten Commandments on the door of the courtroom? 

 Next stop, the Capital building.

 The bigger kids took an official tour of the Capital.
Awesome!  "In God We Trust" is on the inside of the Capital!

 

 Next, the Library of Congress!

 

We had a tour guide walk us around and tell us a bit about all the paintings on the walls and ceilings, and also the sculptures.  She told us about the little boys that are on the outside of this staircase. She said they are called "Putti."

 

"Putti is the plural of the Italian word putto. The Italian word comes from the Latin word putus, meaning "boy" or "child". Today, in Italian, putto means either toddler winged angel or, rarely, toddler boy. Putti, in the ancient classical world of art, were winged infants that were believed to influence human lives."

She said that when the "Putti" came to America and were sculpted here, they were given work to do!  So each of the different boys have symbols in their hands of different jobs or occupations!  ; -)

After leaving the Library of Congress,

We walked all the way down the Capital Mall.

All of a sudden we heard lots and lots of sirens,

and then saw many motorcycle policemen and other unmarked police-type vehicles

ushering in many of these black cars and SUV's. 

Hmmmm . . .we wondered if the President could have been in one?

 

 Taking time to enjoy the little things at the Capital Reflecting Pool outside of the Capital.

Playing frisbee football on the Capital Mall lawn.

 Funny story . . .

With our last minute change of plans yesterday, we ended up being in such a hurry to get going into the city that we forget to get Benjamin's pants on! 

We needed to wait to dress him until the clothes were finished drying in the laundromat,

and while we were getting everything ready to go, we put him in his car seat.

Then, in the hustle and bustle of leaving the campground,

off we went with no pants for Benjamin!

We also forgot his shoes!

(But he always takes those off immediately anyway.)

So this was a little embarrassing all day, as we had to walk him through security check stations everywhere we went!  

At this time, it was about 8pm or so,

and we still had lots to see!

So we kept walking to try to see the Lincoln Memorial and the White House!

We walked, and walked, and thought we spotted the White House!

We saw some policemen guarding it, and it was white and lit up.

But, we thought it was odd that we could walk right up to it! : -)

(It ended up being the Treasury Department building!

Finally, after asking some other tourists, (who happened to be foreigners ;-)  we found it! : -)

At this time, it was 9:30pm, and we had a looooong walk back to the camper.  So, we decided to have a select few walk/jog back to the camper and pick the rest of us up.  Me and the little ones, and with my wonderful helper Victoria, waited for about an hour before the camper arrived.  Of course, Joe fell asleep while we waited.  Just as we were getting into the camper, a huge downpour arrived, and it rained heavily all our way back to the campground!  We thank the Lord for giving us such a great day, with only one little shower while we were in the Library of Congress, and then holding the thunderstorm back until we were all safely into the camper.  We arrived back at the campground just before midnight!