Alright, as many of you already know I spend April 10th thru April 12th in Washington, DC. So I'm going to post some of my better pictures from the trip, though by all means not all.


We started out at the US Capitol. We tried like 3 ways of getting in. Here are some pictures from the outside.

The front:



From an office kind of towards the back of the building... this is from the office where all the Representatives work. This is where we began our tour. All bags, liquids, etc. had to be left here.



We ended up going around the building... I got my teacher, Mr. Campbell, to take a picture of me in front of the building



We finally got through security after nearly 2 hours. Then we were on the front steps of the Capitol and ready to head up into the dome of the Capitol.



Inside the Capitol's dome, you can look up and see this... they are 13 ladies, one representing each of the colonies. One of the ladies, depending on how you look at her, is actually George Washington (scary thought eh?), and then some scenes around it.



There are several paintings in this room that I do have some pictures of. They include the landing of the Mayflower, the Baptising of Pocohontas, the surrender of Lord Cornwalis, the signing of hte Declaration of Independence, and even George Washington's resignation is here. I have a picture of some, but for the write up's sake I'm not posting them. If you absolutly positivly must see them, just let me know. They aren't that good though, just so you know.

This is the old House of Representatives Chamber. There are many statues here now. This is where the infamous whisper chamber is. In this picture, if you look at the roof you cna see it is dome shaped. Sound waves travel up, through the roof, and down to the other side so that if someone on the other side of the room is even whispering, you can hear them almost as if they were next to you. The Speaker of the House (btw, the current speaker almost walked over one of my classmates when we were in front of the office building across the street... but I was already through security and never saw her at this point), but anyways, the speaker would standin the opening of the pillars.. which is where the building originally ended.



We also went throughold Supreme Court, and the original Senate. The senate metin the same roomuntil the 1830's, then Supreme Cout metin the roomuntil the new building was finished in 1935.

A suprising thing about this building: you can take all the pictures you want and you can use your flash. There is some sort of special coating on the walls that protects them from the flash. (I knew this from 8th grade, which our tour guide that year was MUCH better... two guides combined there tours this year and Mr. Campbell and myself actually knew more about the building than they did.)

So anyways... it was now time to go to the Supreme Court. However, some of the weaklings in my class were hungry so we walked about a mile from the capitol and found some food. I took this picture as I waited on those certain weakling classmates who would be eating in 3 hours at Hard Rock got s

 

 

I woudln't care much to live in DC... $1750 a month rent on just the basement in those row houses. It's the most dangerous city in America.... plus hand guns are illegal there (but that matter is about ot be decided by the Supreme Court), and the cost of living index is outrageous. I felt safe in DC though, the tourists districts are safe, it's the rest of the city that's dangerous. The sermon went well... it was entittled "Change", and hte scripture for it was John 3: 1-8. I saw a descent looking but dirty 6th geneartion Monte SS that was the same color as mine back home but it had the DE Jr. wheels on it. I was too tired to party after all of our events of the day though. I'm sure I'll remember the trip for a long long time atleast.

 

Thanks for spendind the time to right about your trip. The cherry blosoms on the trees are some sight this time of year. Some go on vacation there just to see them. Last time I went I had on a pedometer (calculates how far you walked) in one day 15 miles. You just scratced the surface for what they have in DC to see. Keep going back and you will find out what I mean. Nice trip glad you had fun.

 

Cowboy I took the time to Filter your Photos... Just makes them clearer for the average computer or for printing.

 

That flag is the US Navy Jack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Navy_Jack

The other one you mention is actually one of the American Revolution flags, its called the Gadsden flag:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag

 

Great pics Duane!

Thanks for posting them.

Looks like you had a good time.

 

I knew it was the naval jack... they actually changed it a couple years back to be the Naval Jack again. I wasn't sure many people would get it if I told htem thats what it was. The original design comes from the revolution... it was a political cartoon and it had all of the stateslisted aroudn the snake.

 

Thats really cool! Those are some great pics, brings back memories of my band field-trip up there haha.