With limited time and a desire to do it ALL, we started our day early at The White House.

Margaret arranged our tour and we delighted in meandering the halls that the First Family meanders too.



The Library contains volumes of history, biography, fiction, and the sciences, all by American Authors. The furniture is American of the Federal period.
This is a great "Where are Denise & Steve?"
This is the oldest work of art that has been in the White House since its beginning (1800).

We loved how the carpets were rolled up to allow us to visit.

April showers might bring May flowers, but White House florists keep the executive mansion in bloom year round. Today the White House Chief Floral Designer and her staff have a flower shop in the basement of the mansion, beneath the North Portico. They create and maintain arrangements for display in the public and private rooms of the White House and design fabulous centerpieces for events of all kinds. There is hardly a table or mantel that goes unadorned—flowers have become central to the building’s décor.

After touring the White House, we headed to the National Mall.
From a distance, we were drawn to this monument. The Second Division Memorial is located in President's Park and commemorates those who died, while serving in the 2nd Infantry Division of the U. S. Army. The artist was James Earle Fraser. It was dedicated on July 18, 1936, by president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen. This amazing monument, built to honor George Washington, the United States' first president, is a 555-foot marble obelisk that towers over Washington, D.C.



I love the image of the Lincoln Memorial in the Reflection Pool.
Service, Sacrifice, Unity, and Victory Through stone architecture and bronze sculptures, the World War II Memorial recognizes the ways Americans served, honors those who fell, and recognizes the victory they achieved to restore freedom and end tyranny around the globe. I found it interesting that Iowa and California were right next to each other as my father, a WWII veteran, was from Iowa and concluded his Navy career in California.
The Capitol Building was one of the views from the Mall- spectacular.
Lee and Margaret are in front of the brand new National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become charter members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution and tickets to go inside are impossible to get. This is the only way we could see it today.
Election Time was a great time to be here in D.C. The campaign propaganda is alive and well.





We ended our visit at the Smithsonian's American History Museum. With our limited time, we focused on the Food Exhibition and Julia Child, who I loved. Legendary cook and teacher Julia Child (1912–2004) had a tremendous impact on food and culinary history in America. Through her books and television series, which spanned forty years, she encouraged people to care about food and cooking. She inspired many Americans to conquer their fears of the unfamiliar and to expand their ideas about ingredients and flavors, tools and techniques, and meals in general.
This was Julia in her Paris apartment in 1948. She was 6'3" and this apartment shows her 'magnitude'.
In 1976 Julia Child wrote an essay for Architectural Digest about her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In it she called her kitchen "the beating heart and social center of the household ... both practical and beautiful, a working laboratory as well as a living and dining room." This this her actual American kitchen. It contains tools and equipment from the late 1940s, when Julia Child began her life in food, through to 2001, when she donated this kitchen to the Smithsonian Institution.
In the 1950s, public television programming consisted mainly of lectures, book discussions, science demonstrations, and classical music performances. Julia Child marched into this rarefied atmosphere in 1962, with a show based on her new book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This is a great photo. In this playful moment, the TV show staff are spoofing the fiction that Julia did everything herself.

This section called "Resetting the Table" was a flashback for us. Between 1950 and 2000, Americans experienced immense changes in what and how they ate, and in how they thought and felt about food. Direct challenges to conventional diets and cooking styles came from immigrants, activists, and global travelers, and spread from local communities and restaurants to supermarkets and suburban backyards.

This photo, in an exhibit about chips, was a super cool flashback for me because I always enjoyed eating at Casa de Fritos when we went to Disneyland. 
After a full day in our Nation's Capital, we could have totally used a Power Nap. It was a great explore of D.C.

The day at our Nation's Capital was organized by Margaret months ago. Lee and Margaret live in Tahoe and the Bay Area town of Benicia. Did you know you can arrange tours through your local government Representative? Theirs in Benicia is Mike Thompson and his aide took great care of us.

Our first stop was the extremely opulent, Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. An interesting sight was to see authors photographing their newly written books, before submitting them to this esteemed institution.
The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800 when President John Adams signed a bill providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington. The legislation described a reference library for Congress only, containing "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress - and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein…"
The minute we walked into this building we were awed. Once we entered the Great Hall, we stepped into the sumptuously decorated main vestibule, with its gleaming white marble arches, stucco decoration, and heavily-paneled and gold-ornamented ceiling. Its elaborate ornamentation has been called "the richest interior in America".
If one wanted to research anything, you would go here- The Main Reading Room. It is the principal point for gaining access to the Library's general collections of books and bound periodicals. Every day, hundreds of books and bound periodical volumes are delivered from the stacks for use in the Main Reading Room. The only way we got to see it was from a viewing area on the 3rd floor. We all wanted to return just to be in this room.
This is the Librarian's Room that has just recently been opened for the public's viewing. Now used primarily for ceremonial purposes, this room was the office of the Librarian of Congress from 1897 until 1980, when the office was moved to the Madison Building. The central disc of the domed ceiling contains a painting by Edward J. Holslag, representing Letters. The following sentence is inscribed on a streamer:
The coolest souvenir was our Library of Congress library cards. What an extraordinary experience.

The United States Capitol (1793), is a symbol of the American people and their government, the meeting place of the nation's legislature. The Capitol also houses an important collection of American art, and it is an architectural achievement in its own right. It is a working office building as well as a tourist attraction visited by millions every year.

After meeting Ari, Rep. Thompson's aide, we headed to the Visitor Center. This is a relatively new space which provides a welcoming and educational environment for visitors to learn about the unique characteristics of the House and the Senate and the legislative process as well as the history and development of the architecture and art of the U.S. Capitol.
Our tour led us through history. The Old Supreme Court Chamber, a masterpiece of architecture and engineering, is the first room constructed for the use of the nation's highest judiciary body and was used by the Court from 1810 until 1860. Built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, it was a significant architectural achievement, for the size and structure of its vaulted, semicircular ceiling were virtually unprecedented in the United States.
This marble statue of Abraham Lincoln is by Vinnie Ream, for whom Lincoln sat. She was the first woman artist to receive a government commission.

The U.S. Capitol Rotunda is a large, domed, circular room 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet in height located in the center of the United States Capitol on the second floor. The Rotunda is used for important ceremonial events as authorized by concurrent resolution, such as the lying in state of eminent citizens and the dedication of works of art. The Rotunda canopy features the painting entitled The Apotheosis of Washington, and the walls of the Rotunda hold historic paintings and a frescoed band, or "frieze," depicting significant events in American history.

Because we have animals back 'home' to care for, we couldn't not stay nearly as long as we would have liked, but we felt we had gotten an exceptional introduction to D.C. and plan to return again Thursday. E pluribus unum.