It was our second day in D.C. Our mission - a tour of the United States Capitol...nothing was going to stop us....or so we thought! But before we get into that...finding some breakfast along the way was a bit of a priority as well! So we parked the car (in a garage this time!) and started the trek towards the Capitol building. As we walked down the street we were greeted by a familiar yellow sign......
Au Bon Pain! Seeing those pastries in the window stopped us in our tracks! It certainly is like the name means - "From Good Bread"- definitely some "good bread" :-)
We grabbed our goodies and sat down to a lovely breakfast of pastries, sandwiches, yogurt and fruit.
A little bit of sharp breakfast banter and we were off......
As we walked our steps slowed, police cars and a complete security motorcade blocked streets heading in the same direction we were going....
Reporters and cameras lined the street! Our simultaneous thoughts were.... A) Is the President here? and B) Would we sill be able to go for a tour? We made sure to let Daniel do all the talking...who could resist his accent! Hahaha... it did seem to work every time. The police officer Dan asked, told us to proceed to the visitor center as they would more than likely still be giving tours.
We made it in...but only after chugging two very large bottles of water....... - WHAT!....We didn't want to waste it :-) Not allowed in with full water bottles. However, by the skin of our teeth...were just in time for the tour that was about to begin! We were given freshly sanitized headsets and intercom checks ensued to assure we could all hear our guide.
To the Crypt we went. Originally intended to be the final resting place of President George Washington this impressive vault is a hub within the capitol building. Leading to many different partitions, this is the spot where all the tours seem typically commence and branch out from this point.
Through staircases and halls we went....
and then to the Rotunda and Statuary Hall.
After the Capitol tour was over another long standing dream of Daniels was to sit in on a senate/house of representatives session sooooo due to more time constraints we decided to try and sit in for a senate session. Next, through security checks.
Got a snap of Daniels Pass for posterity:-)
After experiencing a session...we needed to pick up the pace if we were going to make it to the Library of Congress before it closed. Through the tunnels we went!
That is Jared's "hurry up and stop taking pictures..." look he does so well!
Up the stairs we went to....see some of the most beautiful and grand architectural details you could possibly see!
There were quite a few exhibitions going on as we were there...yet, sadly our time was limited.
This truly became one of Janna's new happy places!
After trying to explore as much of this stunning library as possible we headed back out
Next, we ventured into the cool late day air. We decided to head back to the capitol to catch the sunset.....and then we saw a bunch of people who had made our Capitol tour so very special! We chatted for a bit with our newfound friends and snapped a picture for the beautiful memories!
On our walk back to the car we met another tiny friend! Not gonna lie....we wanted to take this little guy home with us!
We ended the day with the best lasagna dinner at our friends house and reminisced about the wonderful day! We had decided to squirrel away an extra day in D.C. as there is sooooo much to see....one could possibly go nuts trying to see it all in such a short time! But we will leave all of that for another day:-)
X ~ The Sibs + Daniël
