Glumly I left the cathedral grounds and found a pizza place for my (really) late lunch (early dinner?), from which I consulted my phone for backup activities and decided to check out Zoo Lights at the National Zoo. Another mile-plus walk and I arrived at the zoo just as it got dark. It was pretty crowded and I was actually a little disappointed in the lights, but it wasn't too cold out and gave me something (free) to do on a Sunday evening. Afterwards I took the Metro back toward my hotel, and had a small dinner (second dinner?) before calling it a night at 7:30 with very tired feet.
Monday morning I walked a few (big) blocks to the Library of Congress, and spent all day in the manuscripts room of the Madison building. When that closed at 5 I spent another hour and a half in the newspaper room. When I finally left the library, with dinner on my mind, I noticed lots of unusual activity happening outside the library and near the Capitol. There were large Red Cross tents set up, some streets closed to traffic, lines of people in corrals, and big stadium lights shining on the Capitol. Wondering what the heck was going on, I consulted my phone again. The first thing to pop up was a news story about how President Bush had arrived at the Capitol to lie in state and lots of important people were inside with him. At the end of the story it said the public would start being admitted at 7:30. Not having any other plans for the evening (other than eating) and knowing what my dad would do if he were in my position, I joined the line of public visitors waiting to enter the rotunda. After forty-five minutes of waiting for them to start letting us enter, the line started to move slowly but steadily. When we entered the building we had to go through security, and then there were more lines inside. We stopped moving completely for a while, which was when President Trump made his visit. Then we kept moving and finally got to the Rotunda. It was quiet and respectful inside, and I was probably in there a total of two minutes as I moved slowly in a half circle around the President's flag-draped casket. It was neat to get to visit the Capitol's rotunda for such a special occasion. And I was okay with the fact that I didn't get out until 9pm and thus had a late dinner.
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| In line to enter the Capitol |
Tuesday I was back at the Library of Congress, only this time I started in the Rare Books and Special Collections room of the Jefferson building. Then in was back to the Madison building and manuscripts for most of the day, except for a quick jog back to the Jefferson building to see a book in the main reading room. I had been nervous I might not get everything on my list done, but I finished at 4:30, with 30 minutes to spare! Since my train didn't leave until 6:30 I had a little extra time to kill. I thought I'd just walk down the National Mall a little, but the first place I came upon was the U.S. Botanic Garden and they very serendipitously were open late on Tuesdays, so I got to take a stroll around and check out plants and their train station displays. I also got to continue carrying the coffee I'd just purchased before heading to the mall, and it was much warmer in the greenhouses than outside, so it was all around a winning experience. After seeing all there was to see I walked back to my hotel to grab my bag, then headed to the train station.
Overall I really enjoyed my three days in D.C. Lots of walking and productive work and seasonal displays and attendance at a very historic moment!
