Washington - The Day We Thought We Would Catch On Fire

So it's still hot as fire here in Washington. In fact, I'm quite sure it's hotter today than yesterday. It's 100 degrees and you feel every bit of it. Also, I pulled out my good camera and realized I left the battery in the charger in the room. Luckily, I had E's camera to use but the quality isn't that great.

We were all pretty tired from our day yesterday, but got up early to catch the train into the city. We were scheduled to tour the Capitol Building. Our day started here where we visited our local Congressman's office to get our tickets and meet our tour guide.

Our tour intern (Scott) was a guy from my hometown so that was cool. As it turns out, Eric has worked with his Dad in the past. Small, small world.

As soon as we got to Patrick McHenry's office, he walked in to meet us, which was a nice surprise. We were able to talk with him for awhile and he invited the girls to sit in his office chair.

O started to laugh at him, which told me she was growing very comfortable there.

That is not a good thing sometimes. Comfortable to O means 'anything goes'. While he was graciously explaining his job to E, O decided to do a riverdance in his office.

I'm not kidding.

Thought I would die.

I was glad to leave and start our tour of the Capitol Building. Connecting the Cannon Building (where the Congressmen's offices are) and the Capitol Building are underground corridors. Very neat (thank you, Patrick B for the tip - we loved it!)

There is just so much to take in, with so much history. It was fascinating to all of us.

Well, not really to O. She mainly loved the escalators and doors. She thought there were lots and lots of doors.

This stone the girls are standing on is the very center of the city. E thought this was cool.
The ceiling of the Rotunda. Beautiful.

This particular sculpture was of women who have changed the course of history, one being Susan B. Anthony. I didn't get a good picture of it, but it appears to be unfinished. Our tour guide told us many believe the remaining place was meant to be a bust of the first female president. E whispered to me she wanted her picture taken beside of it since she would be the first female President.
After I took it, she told me she actually wanted to be a first lady instead of President because no one tries to kill the first lady :) ha! She's been seeing a lot about President assassinations (or attempts) over the last 2 days and she's very curious about it.

Eric and I have been on mission trips to Washington in the past, working with homeless people. Before we came, we talked about this trip being very different. However, we've still seen quite a few homeless people, one of which was digging through trash and eating what he found. This broke E's heart and prompted her to stop and pray for him.

In my heart, I know God will use her to change the world, by impacting either one person, one family, one community or who knows ... one nation. The sky is the limit! She has such a compassionate heart for people.



Because she's so sweet, we didn't mind making the next stop at the National Gallery of Art.
Eric and I wouldn't have chosen this as one of our stops on such a short trip, but it was very important to E! She loves art and reads about different artists more than I ever thought of. Actually, I've never thought to - ha!

When we arrived and she got her map, she came to life and to say she loved it was an understatment. I just pretended to know what she was talking about half the time. Interestingly enough, this is where she spent her souvenior money, buying prints of her favorite artists for her room. She adores Claude Monet, which reminds me of this post.

What was O doing during this time?

Enjoying snacks ofcourse! She may be the first and only person to eat peanut butter crackers on the viewing sofas in the middle of the impressionists gallery.

She said they gave her remarkable energy! (her words), which was great because we had quite a walk to the National Museum of Natural History.


At this point, the heat was really getting to us so after looking at a few exhibits (this entire museum would take a whole day to go through!), we started walking to catch the train back to our hotel. It really is miserably hot here. It's so hard to even catch your breath.

It's been a short trip, but we've packed a lot in for such a short amount of time.

Most of all, it has been GREAT to get away for a little while and enjoy each other.

I asked O on the train to give me a face showing me how she felt about leaving Washington and this is what I got ...

I don't think she means it, though. She tells us every 20 seconds how she is dying to go back to the hotel and cool off.

Today, I think we all agree with her :)