Vacation – Day Three

We were glad that we did most of the outdoor sight seeing on day two because Friday morning ended up being cold and rainy!

We saw the Capitol from the outside but were disappointed to find out when we got inside that there was NO way to get a tour unless you schedule it in advance.  We did spend a lot of time in the main area and in the museum that anyone can get into … well anyone willing to wait in a long security line, in the rain.

There is an underground tunnel that leads you from the Capitol to The Library of Congress.  Such a beautiful building.

  

The Library had an exhibit of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library.  No pictures were allowed. =(

“On learning of the burning of the Capitol and the loss of the 3,000-volume Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend, newspaper publisher, Samuel H. Smith (1772-1845) asking him to offer Congress his personal library of between "9 and 10,000 volumes" as a replacement. Jefferson promised to accept any price set by Congress, commenting that "I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from this collection . . . there is in fact no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." Records indicate the total of volumes received by the Library of Congress was 6,487. This more than doubled the holdings that were lost in the fire of 1814.”

While in the vicinity of the Capitol we snapped a photo of the U.S. Supreme Court from across the way but didn’t brave the rain to get a closer look.

After visiting the Library of Congress, we ate lunch in a tiny cafe while it poured rain.  We bought a couple of cheap umbrellas from a street vendor that lasted us to the subway...literally.  We had to throw them away after that.  We got off at the Metro Center station so we could buy some much needed rain jackets at Macy’s before heading above ground again.

Next, we headed to The Smithsonion Museum of Natural Science (so cool!).

The picture below is of The Hope Diamond in a temporary setting. Unmounted, it weighs over 45 carats!  That’s almost as big as my wedding ring!

 

We didn’t know that The Museum of American History closed earlier than the Museum of Natural Science so we got there just in time to watch them lock the doors.  Yeah, we didn’t plan that very well and missed out.  So we decided to take the subway to Union Station for a look around. 

 

We ate a nice dinner inside Union Station, did some souvenir shopping, and then went back to the hotel to get rested up for day four.