Tour of Duty

Wow. I have had one hell of a week. And not in a good way. I'm good now. For the moment at least. But that's why I threw some plans out the window. But it's okay, because I am in Philadelphia now and thought I would catch up a little.

I started this trip in Washington, D.C., with my Aunt. We had some weirdnesses, but we saw a lot of the Government part of the city.

We started with the National Archives, joking about doing a National Treasure tour. (Oh, that is so going to be a post one of these days. Part I and II forthcoming) They are pretty amazing and definitely work a look, though you won't spend all day, maybe an hour or two.

Then, we headed up toward the East end of the Mall and made a big loop around the Capitol. There is a great photo op on the front lawn. The grass is worn, so it's pretty easy to see where to go. One of these days they should really just put a sidewalk there to save the grass.

Heading around the north side of the Capitol, there is a small brick summerhouse that makes for a cool rest stop if you're doing DC in the summertime (like I did).

On the backside is a better picture and is really just beautiful. But behind the Capitol stands the Supreme Court building. Unfortunately, it was under renovations, so I couldn't take a picture of the front. Inside is worth a look, with a display about the building of the building which is very interesting. The Supreme Court building is much newer than the other large government buildings in D.C. and so there was quite a bit of work involved in making it fit in. There is also a detailed description of the various friezes around the building and who each figure is. That is worth a look if you are at all interested in history, especially government history. Also, don't miss the free standing elliptical staircase, which is unnerving to look at, but oh, so cool. You are allowed to go inside the main court chamber, but only on a lecture tour, which occur every hour or so.

After the Supreme Court, it's just a hop skip and a jump over to the Library of Congress, my main destination for the day. It's incredible. It's so bright! And colorful! I did not want to leave. One of the main attractions, the dome in the reading room is easiest to see if you take a tour. If you don't, you can still see it, but you have to manage to sneak in between tours. You're not allowed to take pictures, and you aren't allowed in the Reading Room unless you have legitimate research. (One of these days...) Also on display while I was there was 100 books which changed America, starting with books such as Common Sense and the Federalist Papers, but also including books such as Cat in the Hat and To Kill a Mockingbird. Beyond that stood Thomas Jefferson's Library. When the original Library of Congress burned to the ground, Thomas Jefferson donated his library to begin it again. Even after another fire reducing the collection by two thirds, Jefferson's library became the backbone of the Library of Congress collections. They have assembled the books from Jefferson's original library, including the many original volumes as well as the same volumes from elsewhere in the collection and markers for books they simply cannot find. It is an incredible display. The books fill numerous shelves in Jefferson's own organizational system. The books are in at least five languages and cover subjects from history to science to philosophy and religion. A Truly Incredible Collection.

There is a tunnel Connecting the Library of Congress and the Capitol building. We took the Capitol tour, which is definitely worth the trip. It's free, but weekdays are better if you can, the weekends can be packed. The tour uses a mic on the guide and headsets with a wireless receiver to ensure everyone can hear. Our tour guide told us right off that we wouldn't need the headsets with him, and he was right. Pictures are allowed everywhere, but don't sit on the floor. It's a sign of protest.

Head out of the Capitol building from the Gift Shop and Visitor Center and head south again for a great photo op. On the corner of the paved area, there is a small offset square with a giant bush between it and the capitol building. On this square is a permanent podium used for press releases. If you are really lucky, it will be set up with microphones for an actual press release, but even not, it is a great place to take a picture with the capitol in the background.

After that we headed down the mall to the Smithsonian, but I'll save that for another post.

"Ask not what your country can do for you - Ask what you can do for your country." --JFK

A Recommendation

Okay, so that didn't quite go as planned. Ah, well, what do you do? Life intervenes.
My summer is... well, honestly, it never really happened. I'm two weeks out from classes starting up again and I've barely had time to breathe this summer. I've had to fight to get the fun in, and that's why this trip to DC is so important to me. I finally have details settled and I'm headed out in the next couple of days.
But crossing things off my packing list made me remember this blog and I'd like to put up one of the posts I'd meant to write on before life sidetracked me.

So, this isn't about travel, per se, well, at least not about physical travel. If you've read some of the previous posts, you might have noticed that I love books. I read more than a librarian, honest to goodness. And I'm omnivorous. Romance, fantasy, women's fiction, epics, paranormal, historical, nonfiction, action, adventure, teen/kids books, science fiction, if it's out there, I'll probably read it (though I'll admit it took me a while to warm up to science fiction). And one of my favorite parts of a book, a well written book, at least, is that it transports you. It takes you somewhere else, to another world, inside another person's head. You can tell when a book wasn't quite done as well as it could have been because you keep find yourself, sometimes rather rudely, back in your world, inside your own head. The best books make you forget that all you hold are some bits of paper with squiggles on them, because all you can see is the story, the action, the romance, the world of the book in front of you.

Because of this, I count books as travel. I read so much (though, admittedly, not so much lately) that I'd like to share the best ones with the nonexistent readers I have. :) (Hi, Mom!)




I love funny books. I think there tends to be enough sadness in our world that we don't need to read about it in our spare time. I'm not saying that we should ignore that there is sadness in the world, only that sometimes we need to be reminded that there is happiness, too.

That's probably why I was a bit reluctant to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I am generally wary of New York Times Bestsellers; too often they are heavy literature about how bad someone's life is. But I am so glad I picked this one up. It is written as a series of letters, telegrams, and journal entries, between a varied cast of characters in post-WWII Britain. The main character, Juliet, wrote a column during the war meant to keep morale up and is finishing up a book tour of the collected columns when the book starts. Her problem now? Her editor (also her best friend's brother) wants another book. So what's a girl to do? Well, through a strange series of events, she winds up in contact with an entire island in the Channel that was occupied during the war, namely, Guernsey.

I laughed at Juliet's (and the entire island's) antics and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It doesn't treat the war lightly, but it does remind you that life goes on. Being American, it is difficult for me to grasp the rebuilding that Britain, and the rest of Europe, went through after WWII. This will give you a picture of what it was like under the occupation and how lines are never as clear as you thought they were.

Alright, recommendation done. If you have some of your own (or, you know, you're actually reading this and just want me to feel less lonely) post in the comments.

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a book, it's too dark to read." --Groucho Marx