Windwalker's Mountain Post: Washington, D.C.. -- Day 2

Another early rise and off to breakfast. Everyone is cheerful and full of anticipation as we get into our taxi. Our driver, talkative and full of information about the shooting at the Capitol the day before. Like us, he was lucky. Right before the shooting, he dropped a fare at the Capitol and headed home. "My friends?" They were not so lucky. When an emergency happens, baricades come up from the road around the Capitol and everyone is stuck there." Now we are at the Capitol and we bid him farewell.

Daric and Olivia want to go across the street to get some pictures of the Supreme Court building. I tell them a few stories about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the RBG I admire so much. Now we cross over to the Capitol and get in line for our 8:45 tour. There is time. I go upstairs to the level of the Capitol and take some pictures. It's amazing and beautiful...even under renovation and wrapped in scaffolding.

Pam texts me to come back. "We'll lose our place in line!" So I do.

All of a sudden, a guard yells out from the top of the stairs, "Does this black messenger bag belong to anyone in line?" No takers. He asks again. A minute goes by and then guards with nasty looking rifles appear. A D.C. policeman roars down the ramp to the Visitor's Center on his motorcycle. People are on radios. Then, "OK. No matter what time your tour, line up two-by-two and follow me." We all move to the other side of the entranceway. From there we are moved under the protection of the divider dome that separates the two sets of entrance doors. Soon after that we are moved inside the Capitol and through security.

The upshot of this seems to be nothing--good news. We are now locked down inside the Capitol and at 8:50 our tour group starts out with only six members. The husband, daughter, and mother of two of our group were locked out across the street (they do get to join us about 30 minutes into the tour). We have the Capitol virtually to ourselves. There are the six of us in the theatre for the opening video. I think it is not necessary to text our family that we are safe, 'cause who knows what's happening? Then, I get a text from Dad: "I just heard the Capitol is locked down. Is that true? Are you in there?" Yes, we are. I text our family we are safe and sound.

We have a wonderful tour and our guide is knowledgeable and full of great information. Our Capitol has been built under pressure. If not occupied by 1801, the Capitol will remain in Pennsylvania. It was burned by the British. It has undergone crumble and decay over the years. The hall where Congress met originally became Statuary Hall. The statues weighed thousands of tons and the floor began to cave in. At present, the Capitol dome is under renovation both inside and out. The dome is made of cast iron. To paint it, it must be sanded a small section at a time and painted immediately. If left exposed for a few hours, it will begin to rust. Also, the last time the dome was repainted was during the sixties and?? Yes! The paint used was leaded. So, there is a giant vacuum up on the dome. The inside is wrapped and sealed and as our guide said, "Up there? One of the biggest hasmat messes in the country." Just after the scaffolding went up and everything was sealed, President Jimmy Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer. There was great concern about the need to take down the inside scaffolding down (it took one month to put it up), because dead Presidents lie in state under the dome in the rotunda. Fortunately, President Carter is alive and well.

From the Capitol we go through the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress across the street. And yes, by this time the lock down is called off and people are flooding in to the Capitol for their tours. The Library of Congress is stunning. Beautiful. Totally amazing. Then we are off to see the Museum of Native Americans. We are all starving and begin with a lunch of fry bread and fixin's. The exhibits are beautiful and informative and we move from the 4th floor in a spiral down to the first floor.

From there we flag a taxi and land at Arlington National Cemetery. We pay our respects and tell the stories of the Kennedys: John F., Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, Bobby Kennedy, and Teddy, who gave the Obamas their first Portuguese Water Dog. We continue on uphill amid the graves that number into the thousands and thousands. We arrive just in time to watch the soldier at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in the last ten minutes of his watch--then we are enthralled to see the changing of the guard.

We descend the hill and at the Visitor's Gate flag a taxi and make our pilgrimage to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, and the Korean memorial. As we stand looking from Lincoln out across the reflecting pool, we are reminded of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Lincoln fills my heart as I look into his marble eyes, and read the generous and gentle words of his second inaugural and the Gettysburg address. I wonder if we will ever have statesmen like him again. We need a hero like him. We long for someone like him to believe in, to trust, to follow. I say to the kids, "Government wasn't always like you have seen it since you were born. There was a time when people in the government cared about We the People...government of the people, by the people, for the people...There were statesmen. There were people who came to our Capitol to do the people's business and not just to disrespect and shut down the opposing party." I long for those days.

We walk the Vietnam wall. We see a family touching the names of first an uncle and then a grandpa. We are quiet and thoughtful and when we come to the last name on the wall, we pause. We say his name. We are reflective, and then move on to see the platoon walking through green grass. They are forever captured, immovable, still as they might have been in the Korean War...They are the troops from M*A*S*H. We see ourselves reflected in the granite wall as we were at the Vietnam memorial. Pam and I pray that these kids will never hear their country's call to war. To serve? Yes. To be good citizens? Yes. To ask what they can do for their country? Yes, but not to make war.

Now at "home" again, we look at one another's pictures, talk about the day, go foraging for ice cream, and make plans for our trip to Gettysburg tomorrow. Some impressions from today's travels from these great kids:

Daric: This was educational, exciting, and powerful. Arlington Cemetery was inspiring. The Capitol was awesome and the Library of Congress was beautiful.

Olivia: Attention to detail was amazing. In Arlington and the Library of Congress everything was so orderly. I was also impressed by how many people there were to make all of this happen...the workers and helpers at Arlington. Everyone has been so helpful.