D.C. Day 2

Today was a beautiful day in D.C. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and clean and birds were chirping! To begin the day a few of us (including Dr. Hansen and Barnes) walked down to a Farmer's Market for breakfast. On the way there we passed right by the Capitol and of course, I took a picture =D

The beautiful capitol building!

As we were walking, we also passed by the absolutely gorgeous Library of Congress. It was breathtaking!

A side view of the Library of Congress. The top of the dome was a gold tipped statue!

Another view of the Library of Congress!

This was a statue/fountain in front of the building. I believe it was statues of Greek God.

More of the statues. 

More Greek Gods. I loved how detailed everything was!

I love love love the Library of Congress =D. So we finished walking to the Farmer's Market, and it. was. amazing.! It was the first time I'd ever been to a market like that and I was astounded at all the fresh food! I thought, "this is the way to live!" Could you imagine waking up and just heading over the local Market to buy your food??? You wouldn't have to pay all those groceries that do whatever they can to cut cost - including sacrificing quality. In addition to the produce outside, there was a building right next to it that had all the fresh cuts of meat, fish, and cheese. You just walked in and picked out what you wanted and paid for it! It was soooo cool. 


Anyways, we at breakfast at the market and it was literally the best breakfast I've ever had (sorry mom! =D) But seriously, it was eggs, biscuits, hashbrowns, and sausage and it was not even greasy at all!! You know how sometimes you order eggs and they taste like they've been cooked in the same oil as everything else? Well this tasted nothing like that! Everything was so fresh and deeeeeelicious!


We finished eating and had to quickly book it back to the Capitol because our tour of the Capitol building started at 10. The following are some of the pictures I took and the stories that go along with them =D

The lovely visitor's center sign

This was a man. an Indian man. Other than that i don't remember what it was a picture of - but I love his cape =D

This was inside of "The Crypt" room inside the capitol. The story goes that there was this famous guy in history that they were going to burry beneath the exact center of the capitol. (The center is that white spot on the floor, which happens to be a star.) Well, they built the tomb for him, but he died before it was finished. Since he died, he was buried with his family until the tomb could be finished. Well, after it was finished, his family didn't want the body moved, so now there is an empty tomb in the middle of the capitol, and it's directly underneath that floor.

Some beautiful columns inside the crypt

One of the statues in the crypt. There are 13 statues that surround the circular room. These represent the 13 original colonies.

This is a picture of the ceiling inside the dome of the capitol. This painting was completed in 11 months!

This is the side of the dome. That long strip of paintings towards the top is a huge chronology of the history of the United States, starting with the landing of Christopher Columbus and finishing with the flight of Kitty Hawk. In contrast to the painting on the dome, which took 11 months to complete, this chronology took 85 years to finish.

More pictures of the amazing "Apotheosis of Washington".

The detail is stunning!

I don't remember what this is a picture of - but it is soooo detailed!

These were random steps I saw sitting on top of the chronology painting inside the dome. I wonder where they go to.....

This was inside the National Statuary Hall Collection room. It's the ceiling, and it is sooo detailed and beautiful!

More of the National Statuary Hall Collection Room. Inside this room, and throughout the capitol, are two statues of important people from each states in the U.S. So, there are 100 statues in total.

More of the amazing ceiling!

A close up of the detail on the ceiling! Can you believe it???

Inside the room, you can see many of the statues from each state

This is where Abraham Lincoln's desk used to sit. Before becoming the National Statuary Hall Collection room, it was where the members of the House used to gather. So, this is where Abe's desk was =D

Here's where John Quincy Adams used to sit. If you stand right on his plaque, you can hear everything in the room perfectly clear, even if someone is whispering. It was rumored that he sat at his desk and listened in to all the conversations around him, that way he would always know what his opponents were thinking =D

This is a picture of the hallway into the chambers. We couldn't go in because there were no sessions going on since it was Saturday.

More ceilings =D

One of the statues from Utah - Brigham Young

Once again....the amazing ceiling!

 So, after we toured the capitol, we took an underground tunnel to go see the inside of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately we couldn't take a tour because we had to get back to the hotel and register for the Conference. But, here's some pictures I took anyways of the Library =D

Oh my gosh look at the detailed ceiling!!! No, but really...it's amazing! The pillars are made out of marble and the ceiling is tile!

The stairs, columns, and wall are all made of beautiful white marble!

More marble and tiled ceilings!

The lady in the back is made of all tiles 1 inch by 1 inch. 

An overview of the glorious splendor of the marbled Library of Congress!

All of us who went and toured the Library of Congress!

After the Library we quickly booked it back to the Hotel so we could begin the first day of classes. We worked until well in the evening on gaining background knowledge of the organizations we would be advocating for. We also got tips on how to talk to our Senators and Representatives' Legislative Aids. It was an exhausting but very rewarding day =D

D.C. Day 1

Soooo....all day today I was so excited and nervous about going to D.C. We had to leave our apartment in Provo to head to Salt Lake at 7:30am. We picked up Taylor, and arrived at the airport in plenty of time. Taylor and I were like the first ones there =D We waited for some other people from our group (we had 32 students total going on our trip). They got there and Taylor and I headed to go hunt down some food for the airplane, since our flight would cover most of breakfast and lunchtimes. We found this delicious Chinese food, and bought some so we could eat it on the plane! It was so good...way better than anything here in Provo! The flight was about 4 1/2 hours so I just did homework and studied for a test. Landing was way cool, because as we started our descent all these trees and parks started popping into view. I was shocked! I thought D.C. area was going to be nothing but buildings, but that was just not true! It was green and tree-ish and I loved it. When then flew right by the Washington Monument. I felt I could just reach out and touch it! It was exciting =D

We landed and got out of the airport to our first adventure - the metro! We had to pay our fare into these little machines shown above. You inserted the cash and a little card with a cute panda on it popped out. You then had to insert this card into a little turnstile so it could track how far on the metro you went. It was pretty neat. Here's some pics of the station where we got on the metro at the airport:

Taylor and I on the metro

We got off the metro and walked a couple block from our station to the hotel. Which can be found at this website: Washington Court Hotel. I didn't bother taking pictures of the hotel because it's gorgeousness can be seen on the website! I felt like a queen staying in this beautiful hotel, where prices are upwards in the $200/night range. Needless to say, it was beautiful!


We quickly dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then it was time to go sightsee the monuments! We went to the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WW2 memorial, Korean War memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Veterans War Memorial. Pictures are shown below. My absolute favorite was the WW2 memorial. It was sooo pretty and such an honor to visit that piece of history. One of my other favorite things was there was a place where we stood, and behind us was the Washington Monument, in front of us was the Lincoln Memorial, to our right was the capitol, and to our left was the Jefferson Memorial (which we unfortunately didn't get to see on our trip).

The capitol dome at night

The Washington Memorial

Closer...(I love the circle of American flags)

Even closer...

Almost there...

Standing to where I can reach out and touch the wall

The BEAUTIFUL WW2 memorial. The picture doesn't give it justice. But around the sides of the memorial is a pillar for each of the 50 states. In the middle of the memorial is a gorgeous water fountain

The sign on entering the memorial

This was just left of the sign. The detail of the workmanship was amazing!

You can see on the right, in a half circle is 25 of the state pillars

here's a side view of the amazing craftsmanship of the memorial

"Women who stepped up were measured as citizens of the nation, not as women . This was a people's war and everyone was in it."

A side view of 25 of the pillars

More pillars, and a fountain

This is the Arizona pillar. Every pillar had a wreath at the top

These were in the middle of the first set of 25 pillars. I believe it is eagles holding up a wreath.

"The heroism of our own troops...was matched by that of the armed forces of the nations that fought by our side. They absorbed the blows and they shared to the full in the ultimate destruction of the enemy."

This was such a gorgeous semi-circle of stars, that was reflected in a little reflection pool.

This is the plaque that explains the wall of stars. The wall holds 4, 048 gold stars, and each star represents 100 American service personnel who died or remained missing in the war. It was so sobering to look at the wall and see all those glittering gold stars.

"Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."

Here's Oregon's pillar!

So, Taylor is from California, and I'm from Oregon. And what would you know, our pillars where right by each other!

The beautiful Lincoln Memorial

This was on one of the walls of the Lincoln Memorial. I did not have time to read it unfortunately.

This was a second wall of the Lincoln Memorial. I also did not have time to read this wall. 

By the end of our touring the monuments, it was cold and our feet hurt so bad! So we took the metro back to the hotel, and slipped into bed. All in all, it was an amazing day!