Another day in Washington, D.C.

I took a small detour in my weekly posts about my trip to Spain in March to attend my nephew’s wedding in the D.C. area.  So this week I’d like to share a bit about another day I got to spend in our nation’s capital.  This was the day after the wedding and the day before my daughter and I went home.  Similar to my last trip to D.C. last fall, this one was another short visit.  This trip was with my sister, her son (the one that didn’t get married) and my daughter.  We parked at the Vienna metro station about 9:45 a.m. and took the train into D.C.  We had reservations for a tour of the capitol building at 1:50 and planned to visit both the Botanic Garden and the Library of Congress and also get lunch prior to our tour of the capitol.  We did manage to squeeze it all in but I wish there would have been time to see more of those gardens.  But, I’m so happy I got to go there.  It was one of the highlights of the day for me!  Following are photos from our short visit.  I hope you enjoy them!

First we visited the Botanic Garden since we didn’t get to D.C. in time to take the 10:30 tour of the Library of Congress.  And we only had about 30 minutes but I did get a few nice photos of lovely flowers:

sisters on the metro

cousins on the metro

sculpture at Botanic Garden entrance

beautiful orchids

yucca plant flowering

a different type of orchid, close-up

same orchid from far away

more beautiful orchids

cactus

and yet another orchid!

how about some more orchids? (I can’t get enough of them!)

not sure what this flower is but I saw it as we exited

We had to hustle to make it to the 11:30 tour of the Library of Congress but we made it and just barely! We stuck with the tour for about 30 minutes then checked out the exhibit of Thomas Jefferson’s library.  I had never been to the Library of Congress before and my goodness, what a lovely place!  Our guide told us it was built to impress and it is definitely “over the top” with many sayings and printer’s marks all over the walls.  It’s definitely worth a look and very impressive!

Afterwards we took the tunnel to the capitol building where we had lunch in the “restaurant”.  It’s actually a cafeteria with many different types of food to choose from.  I got a salad from the salad bar, Miss M had a veggie wrap, nephew got sushi and sister got a turkey burger.  We all thought the food was very good so while it’s a cafeteria, I highly recommend it for lunch if you’re visiting the capitol building.

hustling to the Library of Congress

lovely stained glass ceiling-Library of Congress, D.C.

even the floors were beautiful!

Library of Congress, D.C.

“A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep or taste not of the pierian spring.”

Our tour guide called this the first baseball team :)

the reading room from the overlook(Library of Congress, D.C.)

guide to Jefferson’s library exhibit

really old books!

ceiling in Jefferson’s library exhibit, Library of Congress, D.C.

Gutenburg bible

one of the many torches of knowledge

When we checked in for our 1:50 tour of the capitol we were given the option to join the 1:30 tour since it hadn’t left yet.  We had a very amusing guide which made the hour (or so) tour very fun.  I learned so many things from him but the tale he told at the end of our tour was one thing that stood out.  It’s a question that comes up often at my house:  is the tomato a fruit or vegetable?  Hubby has always said that it’s a fruit because it has seeds.  Did you know that there was a decision by the Supreme Court that the tomato shall be classified as a vegetable?  Yes indeed.  I thought our guide was kidding but I googled it and found Nix vs. Hedden from 1893!  So those of you that say it’s a fruit?  You’re breaking the law!  Too, too funny.

Leaving the library on our way to the tunnel

tunnel to the capitol building

Sadly, we couldn’t see the great art due to renovations

even the dome was covered in cloth :(

every state has two statues. these are just some of them

view of D.C. from the capitol. that’s the Washington monument in the distance

Well, I forgot a few photos for the last gallery and there seems to be a glitch with photo galleries whereas I cannot edit any gallery in this post.  So, rather than start over I’m creating another, small gallery for the photos I forgot to include.  These are statues of Norman Borlaug whose name caught my eye as there is a Borlaug Hall on the St. Paul campus of the U of MN where I work.  Sure enough, it’s the same person.  The other statue is the only one not specific to a state and it’s of Rosa Parks.  What a nice tribute to her role in the Civil Rights movement.

Rosa Parks

A few last photos of the capitol and Library of Congress from the outside:

nation’s capitol

Library of Congress