{"id":126,"date":"2014-08-28T22:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T22:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karenandjon.co.uk\/blog\/?p=126"},"modified":"2024-09-29T09:28:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T08:28:36","slug":"us-capitol-smithsonian-air-sea-space-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hweb.uk\/?p=126","title":{"rendered":"Washington DC: Day 10"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US Capitol & Smithsonian Air, Sea & Space Museum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A fabulous first day in Washington!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had tickets booked for a tour (free!) of the Capitol this morning at 9.30am so had to hot-foot it over to the Visitor Centre for 9am.  Breakfast would have to wait until after the tour.   Washington is a much more compact city than New York so we were saving the metro for when we head to the zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.15am in the morning and where was everyone? The streets were deserted \u2013 such a contrast to the craziness of NY at any time of day. We arrived at the Visitor Centre and breezed through security \u2013 again \u2013 no-one was about!  We had 30 mins before our tour started so had a wander around the Capitol Museum.  There are lots of statues dotted around the main foyer.  As we later learned, each State can supply two statues on display of people from their state of significance.  Some were very well known \u2013 Rosa Parks, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, Andrew Jackson but most were only significant and known if you were from that state.<\/p>\n\n\n

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At 9.30 we made our way to the South Theatre for the tour to begin with a 15min film on the history of the Capitol. \u00a0As the British burned down the Capitol and the White House in 1812, we weren\u2019t too sure how the tour guide would react to having us on the tour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the film we were split into smaller groups and we had to choose our tour guide as we were first out of the theatre.  We headed to our guide \u2013 Lauren \u2013 and she was brilliant and spoke very knowledgeably about the Building, the history and the statues.  She found out where everyone was from \u2013 2 families from California, 1 from Michigan and us from England.  This was so she could point out the statues and information pertinent from these places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First stop was the crypt and we are able to stand at the heart of DC \u2013 the start where all the districts radiate out from.  You can be in NW, NE, SW, SE DC at the same time!  The star was very dipped after so many people had stood there over the years.  From the crypt, we headed to the old Supreme Court Room \/ Court Room and then headed up to the Rotunda Foyer.  Unfortunately, there was a cloth \u201cdonut\u201d attached inside the rotunda as there\u2019s repair work going on, but the very top of the mural was still visible and Lauren pointed out the key figures.  There\u2019s a very impressive frieze inside the rotunda too, depicting the history of the US \u2013 it took 75 years to complete!<\/p>\n\n\n

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