A day of Government and Birthdays!

Our morning started early with a 5am wake-up call.  We hurried out the door to make it to the White House for our 7:30am tour.  We made it through tight security and viewed the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, and the State Room.  It has very impressive furnishings, portraits, and busts.

Due to a delay at the White House, we missed our appointment with Peter Defazio at 9:00am.  He was in committee from 9:30-11:30.  We toured the Capital building and visited Congress and listened to a Senator give his speech to an empty room.  Then we toured the capital building with a fantastic tour guide.  We got to see the original corner stone George Washington laid, the original Supreme Court Room, beautiful paintings, unbelievable bronz and marble statues and busts.

Peter Defazio was a trooper and chased us down at the end of our tour of the House of Representatives.  We met with him on the steps of the Capitol for 30-45 minutes while he answered questions for the students and even took some questions from the parents and leaders.  It was a really good visit although he wouldn’t comment on if he was going to run for governor!

We then headed over to the Old Post Office which had a food court and a few shops.

Then we headed out to Mount Vernon for the afternoon.  What a beautiful setting overlooking the Potomac River!  The Museum and Education center were fantastic.  Then we headed over to dinner at the Country Buffet and Sean Pargeter celebrated his birthday!

The last stop was at the Pentagon Memorial.  It was very thought provoking and really touching.  The impact was profound.  Each of these things are a bench that is lit with a small pool beneath it.  On the edge of the seat is the name of someone that died in the 9/11 plane crash into the Pentagon.  If the bench is facing the Pentagon, then that person was in the pentagon, if it is facing away from the Pentagon, then that person was in the airplane.  The bench’s are arranged from youngest to oldest. The youngest person to die was 2 years old and the oldest was in their 70’s.  As our tour guide commented, it is good to reflect on how quickly our lives can change at the hand of another.