Heart of the Free World

Our Second day was a very eventful one. First we started with our Capitol Hill tour! Our sister Amrietha had booked us a tour of Capitol Hill, which where the legislative branch of the US Government operates, AKA the two houses of congress. We started the tour by visiting a Texas congressmen’s office, Mr Lamar S. Smith. There we were given a tour of his office and then introduced to one of his interns, who was going to give us our tour. The congressmen had many impressive achievements framed on his wall, like the bills he authored and the gavels of the 4 committees he chaired. We got to know our guide/intern pretty well as the security check was long and extensive. She was a student from Texas by the name of Morgaine who was planning to do law school after working for the congressmen. She was really nice and took an interest in getting to know us rather than just focus on the tour itself. It made our tour much more fun and comfortable. She took us through the many halls and showed us the old rooms like the old supreme court and old congress halls. The capitol building was huge and was so beautifully designed. There were plenty of artwork depicting America’s journey as a nation as well as monuments/statues honouring the great men and women of the United States. It was really spectacular to be able to witness it. After bidding farewell to Morgaine, we headed to the viewing platforms of both houses of congress, which was cool. I kept wondering what it was like to earn and own such powerful seat. After Capitol Hill, we headed for a quick lunch and then over to the famous, Library of Congress! The largest library in the world did live up to it’s name and expectation. The outside was so big it was hard to get it all in one photo and the inside was designed like a grand cathedral.There is no way i can properly describe it so the pictures below would do the job. Only people with proper certification could enter the library,  so we were only allowed in the viewing gallery which was good enough to see the magnitude of the library. After leaving the library, we headed over to see the Supreme Court. There were a few media outlets stationed there as the latest Supreme Court nominee (Neil Gorsuch) had been confirmed by the Senate that day. Nevertheless we had an unobstructed view to the monstrously gigantic building that was the Supreme Court. Unfortunately we were not allowed in so the outside sufficed. I was standing outside one of the key fundamentals of a functioning democracy. Just wow! This pretty much concluded day 2 as we headed for dinner (at this super dope fried chicken place our sisters brought us to) and then back to the apartment to relax and hang out.

Day 3 was a bit more relaxed as we did less sightseeing. The only sightseeing of the day was at the National Archives. This building housed some of the important documents relating to US history. We spent a lot of the learning in-depth information about various topics. The highlight was when we got to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. Three documents over 200 years old and central to the US history. Was tough to leave the witnessing hall as these documents were such momentous occasions in history. By time we left and had lunch, it was about time to get to our play. It was not a musical but an interactive play so i was pretty excited to see it. We headed to the JFK Theatre (JFK is one of my favourite US Presidents btw) to see the pay. It turned out to be really good and engaging. I was pretty tired so i was afraid i was going to fall asleep but the play was so intriguing and engaging, i was hooked all the way through it.  After the play we went for a late-night walk through Georgetown and then called it a day.