WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU DARREN! WISH YOU WERE HERE. XOXOXOXO T&M
Couldn't get too close to the Capitol Building - they're getting ready for the Obama Inaguration!
I went to the capitol today and got a tour. I went into Representative Rick Larsen's office where everyone meeted up to go on tour. I started out in the House offices and walked through tunnels full of wires and tubes. The representatives use the tunnels so they don't have to go outside... for safety.
I saw the rotunda. There were tons of statues; most of them were bronze and some were marble. There were lots of historical paintings too.
We went into the old senate chamber but they don't use it anymore because there's one spot where if you whisper, everyone can hear it. So now it's called the Whispering Room. Guess what... what was originally in that spot was John Quincy Adam's desk. It was amazing.
The first place we went into was the crypt where they were going to bury George Washington in the 1800s but didn't becasue his wife was buried in Mt. Vernon and he wanted to be with her. They didn't want to disrespect Washington's will, so they changed plans and he's in Mt. Vernon.
In the tour I got to stand in the very center of the whole district. There was a white star on the floor that's in the very center of the district. (This was where Washington was going to be entombed.)
In a stair well, there was a chandelier with 4,500 hand cut crystals... I just can't believe it.
I also went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and I saw the Hope Diamond (below). It's the biggest diamond that has ever found. I thought it was going to be dclear, but it was dark blue. You could mistake it for a sapphire - so don't be tricked!
There were dinosaur bones and tons of dinosaurs - a T-Rex and a triceratops and so many others. So many that I couldn't even tell you all of them. The T-Rex was about as long as 5 or more grown men. It had big teeth and they were probably once very sharp. The triceratops I saw was a baby and was probably as big as a pillow. (Below is a Land Sloth).
