Playing Tour Guide

 Alexis and I met up at the South Capitol Metro (she's getting around fine on her own!) and walked to the Cannon Building to meet Logan for a tour of the Capitol.  It got put together at the last minute but worked out because this is Logan's last week in DC and Congressman Stewart is back in Utah so the office was slow.  We got our own personal tour!

 Because this bldg is closer to the capitol we walked through the underground tunnel.  If you come from the senate offices you take a little shuttle cart.

 Each state gets two statues of prominent people in the Capitol.  These are Utah's two representatives.  Know who they are?  Brigham Young and Philo T. Farnsworth.

 Logan and Alexis (both smarties) had many great conversations about all kinds of things as we toured. This is the Visitor's Center and below is the cast for the Statue of Freedom that is on top of the capitol.

The original Supreme Court

 They're doing a lot of repairs in the halls and we caught one artist doing some work.......

This is where the appropriations committee still meets.  Gorgeous!  I'd have a hard time concentrating with so much beauty surrounding me.

 Two different busts of Lincoln.  The first when he was a young legislator and the second after he had been serving as president.  That job definitely ages you.......

 We got to come out on the balcony that overlooks the National mall.  Right down below is where the inauguration ceremony takes place.

The Ceiling of the Rotunda

The original senate chambers

Normally we'd get to see the current chambers of both the house and senate but they're re-weaving the carpets and won't allow anyone in.  Our tour took about an hour then we headed out of the back of the capitol.  From there you have the....

Library of Congress

Supreme Court

They're refurbishing the Supreme Court so they still have the faux drape on the front of it.  

 We opted to go peek inside the Library of Congress.  Alexis was pretty consistently having her breath taken away by the architecture.  So fun to show her around!

This is looking over the main reading room

 It's fun being a tour guide!  We headed back to our apartment for a little snack and so Alexis could meet Tom  In our orientation for this program we were told 80% of international students leave the US without ever having seen the inside of an American home so they encouraged us to have our student over.  We visited awhile then picked up Logan when he got off work for a run to Costco.  He needed to refill some things at the home he's been staying in and I thought it might be interesting for Alexis to see what American warehouse shopping is all about it. We also introduced her to the awesome Costco hotdog!