Washington, DC - the prequel

We're a little out of order with our posts - thus, the prequel. We're backing up to the beginning of our DC adventure with this batch of photos.

We booked a night bus tour with Gray Line upon our arrival in DC. We didn't want to waste a bit of our time near the city. The RV park is well suited for visitors to the city, with a bus connection to the Metro line and a pickup point for Gray Line as well. The driver took us directly to Union Station and as it turned out, we didn't have to change buses. Big Al, the driver and guide, was terrific. Dusk was just falling as we came to the station, thus the blurry photo of the cherry blossoms. Rain was predicted, but we only had overcast skies as we began.

As dark settled upon the city, we arrived at the capitol - just in time for the glow of the interior lights to begin a preview of the night view. We were glad to glimpse those cherry blossoms before it was too dark.

We could tell that they were spectacular and this preview whet our appetite for a return trip on our own during daylight!

The night tour included many of the monuments and landmark buildings - beginning with the Capitol and the White House and continuing on to include:the Washington monumenta night skyline that showed the Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln MemorialWe stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial and it began to rain. By the time the bus stopped at the Lincoln memorial, it was raining really hard.

Fortunately, we took over at Abe's feet and loved reading his infamous addresses on the interior walls of the memorial. We long for statesmen in our time that can speak with such wisdom with very few words!

The next stop was the Jefferson Memorial, but we passed so that we could dry out a bit. We did get out at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center. We learned that three large halls are within the one building and can now appreciate telecasts from that location much better.

We can highly recommend the night tour on the bus. The special lighting on the various monuments is very beautiful and we would never have the courage to venture out after dark on our own! The preview was terrific for gaining our bearings for our self-guided tours the rest of the week.

We took advantage of the local bus stop at the park to make our way to the train station. The station isn't far and has adequate parking, but we were a little taken back by the number of vehicles we saw with plastic where windows once were and duct tape holding car trunks together. We liked the secure feeling of our truck being parked behind the security gates at the RV park.

Our daylight adventure began with a trip to the Library of Congress. Our group includes some avid 'National Treasure' fans, so it was fun to see the sights included in the movie.

The interior of the Library of Congress was quite surprising to us, with a trend towards lots of gilded surfaces and fancy touches like this stained glass ceiling.

Very ornate with tons of sculpted images of both authors and historical figures and philosophers.

Next was a stop in front of the Supreme Court.

We stopped in at the Capitol, but didn't take a tour as lines were very, very long! The downside of visiting during cherry blossom season was the length of lines everywhere. We focused on touring the exteriors and catching some prioritized stops on the inside of the many, many options! One of the Capitol staff members surprised us by tracking us down with tickets to enter the House side of the Capitol. The tickets are free, but normally you must wait in line or make advance reservations to gain access. We had chatted with the staff on our way in and were browsing the most public visitor area of the Capitol when the very accommodating young man tracked us down, tickets in hand. We weren't allowed to photograph anything inside the Capitol for Homeland Security purposes.

We took our tired feet back to the train station and saved more touring for the next day!