Thursday, July 30, 2009

We got up incredibly early, ate breakfast, and headed into Washington DC for our appointment with Senator Harkin. We were to meet him at 10:30 but we wanted to make sure that we could get through traffic and find a parking place for the bus. Traffic is an issue to the DC and Baltimore area.
Dispute heavy traffic, We made it into the city in good time. We found a place to park afew blocks from the Capitol building. We cut through Union Station and walked up the hill to the Capitol. We had some time so we stopped at the Supreme Court building on the way. After determining which side of the building that we were to be on, we began the wait. We had not waited very long and one of six Senate photographers arrived and shortly after that one of the Senator’s aides came. We were introduced to Alex, an intern that had just graduated from Grinnell College and was going to be going to law school this fall.
The Senator was running slightly late. He had been at the morning press conference. When he finally showed up he gave us a warm greeting and we had our picture taken with him. He told us alittle bit about himself, answered afew questions, and gave advice for the not to miss things in Washington. Today, there was going to be a meeting about the health reform bill. He is the chair of that committee. Unfortunately, it was because of us that he was late.
Alex took us on the tour of the Capitol. We were able to stay in our group of fourteen, and got done sooner than those that had gotten tickets on their own and had to wait in line and go on the tours of fifty. Senate and House tours are highly recommended for your next trip to the Capitol! The new Capitol Visitor Center is spectacular! They added more office and meeting space. And a theatre that showed a very well done film on the history of the Capitol. We went to the old Senate Chamber, the Rotunda, the whispering place in the Old House, the center of the city, and the lobbying . It was an amazing place to visit, all the things that we had heard about in history class that happened there.
We returned to the bus to find a dead battery. We prayed that AAA would come quickly, but a good Samaritan who was walking by saw the drama and asked to help. He went and got his car and gave the bus a jumpstart and went merrily on our way.
Brad is our resident historian; we gave him the task of planning our afternoon. He did some research and suggested a trip to Manassas National Battlefield followed by a trip to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. We headed out I-77 and got a good taste of DC traffic. We were seriously slowed down. We got to Manassas and Brad and the kids hit the battlefield for a whirlwind tour. They stopped at the Stonewall Jackson statue and went to the Stone House.
The Air and Space Museum is close to Manassas and were able to get there for the last two hours of the day. We saw the space shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay, a concord jet, space capsules and many other really cool things. When they closed, we had to leave, but there was some talk of hiding out and seeing what happens like in Night in the Museum Parts I and II.
We went back home, made homemade Pizza and had shower time. After nightly Devos, we all went to bed. There was talk of staying up, but everyone was more tired that they wanted to admit.
Tomorrow is another busy day…..