DC trip

Krista, my coworker, and I went to DC today. We drove about two hour to the nearest train station for the Metro. Then took the train in to the Capitol area. From there, we walked all over the Mall by all the Smithsonian museums. We visited the Library of Congress first. It is gorgeous inside and out. They had a huge exhibit on early American writings from all the Continental Congress stuff to the Declaration of Independence, writings about the Boston Tea Party, journals from the suffragist movement. Then we saw the Thomas Jefferson library of several thousand volumes which made up the entire LoC after a fire destroyed the whole collection. Then we saw a huge exhibit to Lincoln, his time in Illinois, running for President through his assassination. It was super cool. This was the Bible he was sworn in on, and Barack Obama also used. Also Lincoln looks a lot like Viggo Mortensen. Just sayin... Then to see the Main Reading room, we had to abuse this one woman until she finally let us go through. She said we had to be with a tour group, but we didn't want the whole tour. We do our own tour. :)

then we walked around the Capitol building. Tons of police everywhere. You could see the Washington monument (the obelisk) way off in the distance.


Then we hit the National Gallery of Art to see the exhibit on Pompeii and the Roman Villa exhibit, where pictures were strictly prohibited. Boo. They followed us around like vultures, and yelled at me for standing too close. Crazy docents. But it was beautiful, so I bought the book on the exhibit to study in detail later tonight. Then we browsed the rest of the library and saw the only DaVinci in the United States, and a ton other beautiful art and indoor gardens. and I had gelato at the gelato bar: Zeppo Inglese which tastes a lot like strawberry cheesecake. It's dairy free! So Rachel could eat there.

Then we were pretty exhausted so we headed back. Krista gave some guys directions. We are such librarians. And now I want to watch National Treasure again. :)