Monday, June 4, 2018: Today was an early start (for me anyway) as we were going into DC for a Capitol tour. Christine had arranged one with her representative from Philadelphia, Dwight Evan, at 11:00. We were planning on taking the Metro so we didn’t have to drive and find parking.

The nearest Metro was about 8 miles away and we weren’t sure if there would be parking so we were using Lyft again. It showed it would be a 15 minute ride but when we got into the car, the driver’s Waze app said 30 minutes and about twice as many miles.

Christine pulled up Google maps and we followed those directions. The Waze directions didn’t seem to even end up at the Metro station. First weird Lyft experience of the day.

We got into DC fine and were a little early so we walked past the Library of Congress, saw the Supreme Court, and the outside of the Capitol Building. We then went to the Longworth Building to meet the congressman’s representative for the tour.

Jefferson Library of CongressSupreme CourtUnited States Capitol

The woman, and neither one of us can remember her name, was a summer intern and it was her first tour. She did a great job and we wouldn’t have known it was her first if she hadn’t told us.

She took us in a tunnel that goes between the office building and the Capitol. There were tons of people on either professional tours or with staffers. Up the stairs and into what was supposed to be the crypt for George and Martha Washington. I guess the family and the congress fought over where GW should be buried and the family won. So the crypt now contains statues from each of the original colonies plus Lincoln. Each state got to submit 2 statues of someone meaningful to their state and they are displayed in various places around the Capitol.

We also saw the original senate room that became the space for the Supreme Court, and then the Old Senate Chamber, then the Rotunda. The Rotunda was probably the highlight of the tour for me. There was a mural painted in the dome with lots of historical significance. It was dizzying to look up and try to make out the various people and scenes.

The Rotunda

There were large paintings around the walls depicting the revolution and early exploration. A frieze is painted all around tracing American History. It was all very impressive.

Then we went to the statuary hall and I found the Washington statue which was of Walt Whitman in frontier garb. This hall was the former Hall of the House of Representatives and the way it was built made it easy to hear someone whisper on the other side of the room. We tried it but were unable to hear the guide as there were some people standing right next to us talking and it was overall very noisy in the room. She was kind of disappointed it didn’t work.

Old Supreme Court Old Senate Chamber then Supreme Court until move across the street

After a few more places she took us to the the House gallery. She only had two passes so didn’t go with us. We had already been thru two X-ray checkpoints but had to leave our phones and/or cameras since no photos are allowed. The house was not in session but this was still the case.

Then it was lots of lines and waiting. We then came to another check point and they physically went through our purses while we went through another machine. I had a pair of flip flops in my purse and my car key. They made me turn them in at a counter before we could go into the gallery. Flip flops, really? The sign where we turned in our phones said nothing of keys or shoes.

After all that, we basically squeezed into the gallery, sat for 2 minutes and left. Not worth the trouble in my opinion.

We had wanted to see the National Museum of African American History and Culture but when we went online in the morning to get a free ticket they were already gone. But there was a possibility of showing up at 1:00 and getting a ticket. It was now about 11:35 and the museum was quite a hike away so we once again got a Lyft. We arrived and saw a huge line and thought we would never get a ticket. However, they were still handing them out. So, we stood in line again for 10 minutes or so before they started letting people in.

We went all the way to the top and went through the Culture exhibit. It was pretty fascinating with displays of dress, food, entertainment, film, and many other things. Then we went underground to the History exhibit.

It was extremely crowded and the first part was hard to even see the exhibits. It opened up a bit after a while and we were able to see more. All I can say is that is was very quiet in the areas around the bringing of people to the Americas and slavery exhibits. All we could think of was what it must be like for all the African Americans going through it with us. I would highly recommend going but try to get tickets for a specific time before 1:00 as I doubt it would be so crowded.

It was after 3:00 by this time and we were both getting hungry so we called another Lyft and were heading to a Mediterranean restaurant by Jose Andres called, Zaytinya. When booking a ride on Lyft, you can either put in an address or, like Google maps, type in the name of the place. Christine did that and we were going along chatting with the driver when he pulled up in front of a place that was not Zaytinya. Turns out the address he got from his Lyft app was not the same as was shown when she booked it. He was nice enough to take us there anyway.

Zaytinya has a mezzo menu inspired by Turkish, Greek, and Lebanese cuisines. We ordered 6 items and they brought a couple of baskets of hot pita-like bread. They had shoulders of lamb roasting on a spit right by our table so I wanted something from the meat section, but other than that we got all vegetarian. We got baba ghannouge, crispy brussels afelia, mushroom saganaki, dolmades, spanakopita, and pan-roasted sweetbreads.

Bill and I had just been talking about sweetbreads on Saturday and I had only had them once in NYC at a Greek restaurant and loved them. They just aren’t available very often in the U.S. These were done very well as was everything else.

Sweetbreads

The saganaki and spanakopita were probably my faves of all the rest but they were all really, really good.

We were not too far from a Metro station so left to walk there and there was a Capitols Hockey rally going on just down the street from the restaurant. Lots and lots of red Caps gear all around.

We waited until we got to the station to get a Lyft and were sitting in a round-a-bout drop off area when it said the car was there. Well, there were no cars there and so Christine called the driver. He was at the “Kiss and Ride” area, which I had never heard of before. It was downstairs again by the bus area we had mistakenly gone to earlier. It was rush hour, of course, and he took the freeways back to the hotel whereas we had gone back roads on the way there.

We got back to our room and relaxed for several hours before going downstairs for some wine. The hotel has a food and cocktail area. The first couple of nights when I got back to the hotel there was nothing going on in that area. Last night there were a lot of people either eating dinner or having cocktails. We sat there for an hour or so then went upstairs to watch the hockey game.

It was a long day and my feet and calves were killing me by that time. It doesn’t seem to matter what shoes I wear, I always have issues.

Christine heads back to Philadelphia on Tuesday and I am going to head to George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Oh, the weather was pretty good on Monday. A bit cloudy in morning but cleared up in afternoon and but not really hot or humid. Tuesday is supposed to be sunny and in the 70’s so I think I am lucking out that it isn’t too extreme, except for the rain on Sunday.