Gallery of Art

Today we all got together again and had lunch. We went to the cafeteria in the Russell building so it was convenient for everyone. After lunch we had a little bit of time so we did a few exhibits in the Holocaust Museum. We didn't have tickets for the main exhibit so we had to go back another day to see that. The guys had appointments and since I had a couple of hours before we met up I went to the Gallery of Art. I have always wanted to go there and it didn't disappoint.

 This is a famous DaVinci painting. This man was giving instruction on it is a tour so I hung out for awhile so I could hear all about it and learn too.

 It's not as famous as the Mona Lisa but famous in its own right. It was amazing. You couldn't even see a brush stroke.

 It is two sided and this is the back of the painting seen through a window in the wall for viewing.

 The gallery itself was beautiful. I loved being there.

 

 There is something amazing about seeing all thee famous works of art. I even recognized some from our Masterpiece game.

 After the museum. I spent a little time waiting for dinner. I was beat so I took a little nap at the botanical gardens. Yup I found a private peaceful spot in DC, amazing. We met up at the Taco Coast for dinner and had a great meal together before walking over to the WW 2 memorial.

It was a great memorial. We loved it. It got crowded with middle school kids yelling everywhere so that spoiled things of course. Ijust think they are too young to appreciate the reverence needed a place like DC. But another busy and action packed day.

Day of Many Tours

Today I finally got to sleep in just a bit thank goodness because the three hour time change was kicking my butt. I went down to Rachel's office and met up with her for my tour of the Capital building.

 The fun little subway they have between the Russell Building and the Capital.

 Rachel gave me my own private little tour! I felt pretty special. This was the old Supreme Court Chamber which was on the bottom floor and as you can see it was rather dark.In fact Washington's crypt which was never used was right down the hall.

 The dome in the Senate side of the Capital. We went into the Senate chambers for a few minutes to watch since they were in session. The house was not.

 This is the crypt which is beneath the main rotunda. It has lots of people. 

Some are statues and some are real. lol

 In the center of the floor there is this marker. This marker was used to lay out the streets of Washington DC. Tradition has it that if you put your foot in the center of the marker you have good luck. Who's going to resist that? Does my foot look tired yet. Well it will by the end of the day for sure.

 This is the balcony. I think it was called the Speaker's balcony and it's big enough for just a couple of people. An incredible view of the mall right behind me!

 On the way out from the Speakers balcony I wanted to stop and take a picture of the door to the Speaker of the Houses door but the secretary told me no pictures. So I went through this door and turned around and took a picture. I am a rebel at heart apparently.

 This is the huge dome and it is being restored right now so they have a huge cloth to catch any pieces that may fall.It looked kinda cool actually. Besides what's a Cooper trip without scaffolding and construction.

Pocahontas' baptism was one of the huge paintings under the rotunda.

This was the old Senate chambers. Very ornate and grand.

 

Each state was allowed to put two statues somewhere in the Capital building and this is Brigham Young from Utah.

 

 The dome under the House side of the Capital building.

 After my Capital tour Rachel and I went back to the Russell building for lunch. When we were getting ready to get on the elevator in the basement Mitch McConnell and his secret service team were getting off. It was way cool to see him so close! He looked more powerful and had a better presence I thought than on tv. Cool. So we ate in the cafeteria because Mendis had raved about it and I wanted to check it out just us girls.

 After lunch I scurried over to the Library of Congress for my tour. It was pretty amazing but unfortunately you can't get into the really cool rooms like the reading rooms. I enjoyed hearing more about it though and they had a great gift shop lol.

 Jefferson's library

 The reading room that I recognized from National Treasure. I wanted to get in there pretty bad!

 Then I had just enough time to run to my tour of the Supreme Court. You aren't allowed to take pictures in there so this was it ..the cool spiral staircase. It really was cool. From there I ran back to the Library of Congress so I could check out some more exhibits and look around since I ran out of time before. I decided to go get my own Library of Congress card so next time I am there I can go into the reading room and do "research". After that I met up with everyone and we went to get dinner. We wanted to go Mexican for Cinquo de mayo but there was no hope of getting a table. So we went out to Foggy Bottom and went to Founding Farmers. An excellent choice. The only problem was the hour + wait. So since George Washington University was right down the street we went to check it out.

Jeff's home away from home

 

 I wanted Jeff to pose for me pretending to study but he would have none of that so Rachel stepped up. This is the hilarious result. Go Rachel.

Jeff @ his locker

 

 So it was finally time for dinner after we walked all around the whole campus. It was worth the wait. Excellent food. And as you can plainly see, excellent dessert!

My now famous picture of leaving Jeff & Rachel at the Metro station. While it was sad to say good night the real goodbye a few days later was defiantly worse.

Washington DC Bound

Our day started bright and early since we left the house at 5am. I never enjoy that part but it must be done.

 I just first take a minute to pause and have you notice my seat number. I have never ever been first on a plane ever!! And I probably never will again. How cool is that. We flew into Reagan airport which was actually the same price as the other airports. So Jeff & Rachel picked us up right at the curb and took us to their apartment. It is so cute. They have it setup perfectly. Rachel had cooked us dinner and we hung out for a bit then they drove us downtown to our hotel that night. I can't really mention Mendis in the blog for Mesquite reasons haha so know he was in meetings Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday he had appointments set up with the Senators and Reps from the state. Jeff and I went with him Monday to his conference. Then Jeff went with him to the rest of his meetings and all of his appointments. Jeff may not have loved it but Mendis loved having him there.

 I love those big windows at the end of the halls in Rachel's office building. So stately.

 We took Jeff & Rachel and had lunch down at the bottom of Union Station at the food court on Monday. We all just went and got what we wanted and ate together! Mendis and I went to Bo Jangles and got some excellent fried chicken.

It's a pretty central location so that worked out great.

 John F Kennedy's office from when he was a senator.

 There is a rotunda there in the Harmon building. Apparently that's where the Senator's do most of their interviews for the media. Who knew? I always thought they were at the capital. So after lunch we headed back to the conference for the afternoon. t about 3:30 I told dad if we were going to make the 4:00 tour at the bureau of engraving we either had to leave him or get going. We ran out of there hoping to use uber so we could get there on time. I was excited to try it but there was no cell service. So we grabbed a cab and got there just in the neck of time.
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving was really cool. That's where they print all the paper money. It was amazing to see it being so fast and the process they go through. Quite fascinating.

 That night we went back out to Crystal City and had dinner at Nando. Very yummy. One of Jeff's faves.

You live and die by the Metro map

The downtown area. Our home away from home.

May Fun

The last week of April/first week of May was crazy busy and super fun. It's funny how things happen in bunches. The end of April we went to see Brian Regan at Tuacahn. We love his show. We met up with Dr & Carolyn Jensen, Shelie & Jeff and Mike and Cheryl. We laughed until we cried.

 We even got off work an hour early so we could all go but no one 

else in the office was able to make it this year.

May 1 was May Day

We got to see Rees dance to "Move it, Move it".  He had those moves down.

The next day we had Tball and coach pitch and on into Vegas for Cinderella. Before we went to the play we met my Mom & Dad and Uncle Andy & Aunt Kathy at the Red Rock buffet. We wanted to stay well away from the strip because that was the night of the big fight. We gave them their choice of where to eat so we went to the buffet. We had a fun time eating and visiting and then we were off to the play at the Smith Center. As you can tell by the picture we were clear up at the top in the upper balcony. Be surprisingly you can see from everywhere. The play was awesome. We enjoyed every minute of it. We got home not too late which was good because there was a plane to catch the next morning!