Thanks to my favorite brother* and his generous and knowledgeable colleague, I got to see the inner workings of the capitol, with a tour that included art, halls of power, and the coolest part for me, ascending to the top of the Capitol dome, which takes you inside between the inner and outer shells of the dome to a viewing area overlooking the mall. Yes. It was WAY cool.
*I only have one brother
Enough jawin’! Some photos from the experience:
Look! It’s the Capitol!
There is a cool little tram we got to take that runs under the Capitol from one place to another. It’s like a wee toy subway.
The halls are lined with portraits of politicians from yesteryear to now. I utterly failed to write down who this is, but how fierce a portrait is this? They should all be so cool.
pretty shiny dome thing!
Really famous pretty shiny dome thing!
The white stone my brother is standing on marks the center of DC. (Yes. We all took pictures there. As did the 5,000 other tourists. : )
This is a portrait of Pocahontas at her baptism, not wearing a wedding gown. (Would be a gorgeous one, though.)
This is the scene as we start to climb up between the inner and outer layers of the dome.
View of the frieze around the dome. The frieze depicts milestones in American history.
The frieze was painted by three different artists, one of whom painted his face into the base of the tree at the point where he finished.
Heading up, up, up…
Someone clever during the dome construction made a hinge for one of those pink rosettes you see peppering the dome. So you can lift it up and look out…
My friend Michelle up by the dome’s phenomenal ceiling.
Looking down to where we started. (Those people seem very very tiny.)
Gorgeous day for a view of the mall from atop the Capitol!
The whole gang atop the dome.
The spiral staircase heading down.