The parents were able to drag themselves out of bed a little earlier on day 2, so we headed downtown. I don’t drive downtown (unless I get stuck on a bridge), so we headed to the metro, and rode the train in to the metro center.
We bought tickets on a hop-on-hop-off bus, then rode it around to the Capitol. We walked around to the back side to get to the Library of Congress, as the dad wanted to see it on the recommendation from a friend. Visiting the nation’s library doesn’t sound terribly exciting, especially if you don’t plan to check out any books, but the building is quite impressive.
Besides all the architecture, mosaic work, and artwork, there are several exhibits. We got a chance to see the most influential American books, maps (they used to think California was an island!), and Jefferson’s original collection. I’ve been to Monticello, it’s hard to imagine how Jefferson fit all those books in his library. Perhaps Mrs. Jefferson really made the book donation …
For lunch, we made a stop at the American Indian Museum cafe and ate food from the great plains: indian tacos and a buffalo burger. Overpriced, yes, but at least the food there has a fun theme to it!
We tried to hop back on the bus, but waited for 30 minutes for a bus that was too full for us. And our 30 new friends. 10 minutes later they sent us an empty bus for us all, but it was frustrating, as time was ticking! We had things to see!
We rode the bus around for the rest of the tour, and got all the city highlights. We jumped on the green loop to tour georgetown and other non-mall areas, but that was a mistake. We did get the see the National Cathedral covered with scaffolding to fix the earthquake damage, but the traffic was bad and the driver drove as fast as he could in clear stretches to stay on schedule. It was quite a bumpy ride, I had difficulty staying in my seat. I would have reported the driver to the company, but he mentioned that he was leaving the job in 3 days, so perhaps he had already been reported.
Before heading home, we hit the gift shops at the Spy Museum and the Crime Museum. They are both excellent museums, but there are only so many hours in the day. But, you know, there’s always time for shopping! The dad picked up an NCIS hat for himself, and a few other trinkets.
We walked to the metro, rode the metro to the car, and took the car home, where we filled the husband in on our day. (It was so much fun! There was no working! We just spent bunches of your money!)
Dinner was Cheeburger, a local burger joint that we won’t have in Texas. The dad had a salmon burger, which he was a little disappointed in because he lives in the Pacific Northwest. Where if you order a salmon burger for dinner, that salmon was swimming in the river that morning. I had my standard BLT, the husband his standard semi-serious burger, and the mom had a tiny classic burger. The waitress forgot to put the husband’s order in, however, so he got to sit and watch us eat our yummy food. The manager comped his burger, though, so that sort of made up for the fact that he had to scarf his burger down when it finally arrived.
All in all, an exhausting day, but that’s what being a tourist is all about!