After submitting applications weeks in advance through our Representative, we were able to secure tours of both the White House and the Capitol on the day we spent in Washington, D.C. It was Dawn's first trip to our nation's capital so everything was new. We rode the Metro several times, including during rush hour when we had to stand and hang on! And we walked. And walked. And walked some more. In fact, according to Google Maps, we walked 5.8 miles not including the walking in our tours! We saw monuments, toured the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Museum and ate a hot dog from a street vendor for lunch. Richard met us for dinner and we did a tour of the monuments at night- spectacular! The weather was perfect and we had a fabulous day!
The White House tour goes through several rooms where we saw furnishings and artwork from many administrations. We saw the famous oil painting of George Washington that Dolley Madison saved during the War of 1812 when the British burned the White House. But the thing that made the biggest impression was that the White House has at least four full-time florists on staff to arrange and take care of the MANY fresh floral arrangements in the White House every day... but that's a topic for another post.
Our Representative, Jeff Flake, was able to meet with us for a few minutes in between votes. His intern (taking the picture) gave us a wonderful tour of the Capitol including taking us into the Gallery where we could watch the proceedings. In case you're wondering, the guy on the left is Hunter, an intern for the American Red Cross, who joined our tour.
One day we had tea at Tea on the Tiber, a Victorian Tea Room in historic Ellicott City. We meant to have our server take our picture but we got busy talking and forgot. After tea, we visited several antique shops and a chocolate shop. It was another fabulous day!
While Dawn was here, I received word that a dear friend in Arizona had lost her battle with cancer and was now with Jesus. I love God's timing. He provided a friend when I needed one... a friend who is a great listener and distracter. I was feeling sad about not being able to go to Kay's memorial service and she understood... it's hard to say good-bye. I look forward to the day when I see Kay again, whole and healed- and introduce her to Dawn!
Yep, we found another "Maryland Crab!"
I think it's good that Jeff Flake came to talk to you - that's really uncommon. He's usually good about that... if you can vote! haha. :) I'm anxiously awaiting the blog post on the florists. I think you should have mentioned that to Flake to put in the budget cuts - why cut education when you could cut the florists?! Sure, it's jobs, but really, who wouldn't get a job as a florist with "White House Florist" on their resume?!
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