After a morning of nervous pacing, Adrianne drove me to the airport, and I was off on my dream vacation. I flew to Baltimore Washington International airport (BWI for short), with a one-hour layover in Dallas. I arrived on the east coast at around 9:00 in the evening. My friend Shane Thompson picked me up and took me back to his house, located about an hour south of BWI (and a half-hour south of D.C.). Although there were airports closer to his house, Shane was willing to pick me up at BWI, since the cheapest airfare brought me there. I appreciate Shane's willingness to drive so far out of his way in order to save me a good deal of money.
We took the beltway around the north side of DC. Shane told me that we were taking this route so we could see the LDS temple, which would dramatically appear above the beltway. I had heard that this view of the DC temple was startling, but I was not prepared for it.
As we topped a rise, the temple appeared suddenly before us. I was in mid-sentence, and immediately stopped what I was saying and breathed a low "wow." The temple loomed directly above the roadway. It was lit up for the night, and with the dark vegetation between the temple and the beltway, the temple appeared to be floating above the road. It was breathtaking.
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| Imagine this scene, only at night! (photo from Wikipedia) |
We got into the Thompson household at around 10:30. After chit-chatting for a few minutes, Shane showed me my room, and I got ready for bed. A combination of nervous excitement and a body still on Arizona time made it difficult to fall asleep that night.
Slugging
I had been prepared to spend close to $100 for a weekly pass on the Virginia Rail Express, to move me between DC and Woodbridge, VA, where I was staying with the Thompsons. However, shortly after moving to Virginia, Shane tried out an innovative commuting option called slugging. He enjoyed the experience so much that it was now his mode of choice. He convinced me to try it with him and I agreed, despite my reservations.
"Slugging" is essentially an informal car pool. Riders, called "slugs," line up in designated but unmarked locations, usually near a bus stop or at a park-and-ride facility. In order to use the HOV lanes near DC, single riders will come to the slug lot and pick up enough riders to qualify. No money changes hands. The driver gets to use the much faster carpool lanes, and the slugs get a free ride into town.
(Historical note: the term "slug" is in reference to fake coins that dishonest people would try to use to get a free bus ride. In the early days of slugging, bus drivers thought the slug lines were people waiting for a bus. When they found out they were fake riders, they were given the same name as the fake coin).
Slugging has a few unspoken rules. Riders and drivers don't talk to each other, except to thank each other at the end of the trip. Riders don't complain about the music choices of the drivers nor fiddle with the radio.
My first morning as a slug, we arrived at the lot and there was a single car waiting to go to L'Enfant Plaza. The driver already had one rider, but I didn't want to slug alone on my first experience. Shane asked the driver if he could take a fourth rider so that we could go together. The driver acquiesced, moved some papers from the back seat into the trunk, and away we went.
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| The carpool lane moves tons faster than the regular lane (photo from vdot.org) |
As the week went by, I got more confident in slugging. I'm not sure that I could use it for a daily commute, but it certainly saved me some money. By the end of the week, I was slugging on my own and didn't need Shane to hold my hand.
Early Peregrinations
From L'Enfant Plaza, Shane and I walked north to the Mall. A jolt of excitement went through my body as I first set foot on the Mall. With the Capitol building to my right and the Washington Monument to my left, I spread my arms and did a full-on Maria Von Trapp twirl (minus the singing).
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| My first selfie of the week |
I didn't have anything planned until later that morning, so I moseyed eastward. Like a flighty tourist in Hollywood, I was imagining celebrities at every turn. At one point, a pair of walkers passed me by, discussing the Reagan Doctrine. One of the walkers was slim of build with short curly hair. I was half-convinced that it was Rand Paul, but had no way to confirm my suspicion.
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| The south side of the Capitol Building |
Capitol Building
I had a reservation for a tour of the Capitol building at 9:30. The tour began with a short film about the structure of the legislature and the history of the building itself. After the film, the 100 or so people in the theater were divided into three tour groups.
The tour included four rooms in the Capitol: the Crypt, the Old Supreme Court Chambers, the Rotunda, and the Statuary Hall.
The Crypt is a room beneath the rotunda, with some forty columns holding the building up. It was originally going to serve as a tomb for George Washington, but that plan didn't work out and the tomb in the center of the room remains empty. On the outer walls of the room, are 13 statues, each one representing a founding father from each of the thirteen original colonies.
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| The Crypt |
Next was the Old Supreme Court Chamber. For most of its history, the Supreme Court had no home to call its own. From 1810 to 1860, they met in a committee room in the basement of the Capitol. In 1860, the Senate moved into a larger chamber for themselves, and the Supreme Court moved into the Senate's old chamber. It wasn't until the 1930s that the court got a building of their own.
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| The Old Supreme Court Chamber |
From there, we moved to the Capitol Rotunda, truly a sight to behold. On the inside of the dome is a painting called "The Apotheosis of Washington." In the center of the painting, Washington sits enthroned in heaven, flanked by the goddesses Liberty and Victory. It's a bit overdone in its hero-worship of our first president, but impressive nonetheless. Under the dome, paintings from scenes of America's founding circle the room, along with statues of various former presidents.
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| The Capitol Rotunda |
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| The Apotheosis of Washington |
Our final stop was the Statuary Hall. On the way there, we passed the office of the Speaker of the House. I snapped a photo of the door and moved on. Later, as our tour guide talked us through the significance of the hall (it used to be the chamber for the House of Representatives), a group of people walked through the center of the hall. I mused to myself that one of the men looked like John Boehner, but thought nothing more of it after my fake-sighting of Rand Paul earlier that morning. However, as soon as the group had passed through the hall, our tour guide confirmed that it was indeed the Speaker of the House that had passed within ten feet of me.
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| John Boehner's Office |
Statuary Hall is, as you can guess, filled with statues. Every state in the union can send two statues to the Capitol building. These statues are spread throughout various parts of the building, but a large portion of them are in Statuary Hall. There is one additional statue--that of Rosa Parks--that belongs to no state. She is honored by all the states equally.
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| Statue of Rosa Parks |
Supreme Court
After my tour of the Capitol, I wandered back to the Supreme Court Building. This time I went inside and wandered the halls. The first floor of the building is dedicated to portraits of former justices, as well as informational displays about the history of the building and the symbols used in the carvings and reliefs found throughout the building's interior and exterior.
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| The Supreme Court building...and myself! |
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| John Marshall, perhaps the greatest Chief Justice in U.S. History |
The Supreme Court is a fascinating institution to me. I agree with their opinions about as often as I disagree with them, sometimes frustratingly so. But I think my fascination with the court is due to the fact that, more than any other branch of the government, the court is collegial, meritocratic, and principled. Let me explain.
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| The Supreme Court of the United States (photo from Wikipedia) |
Before each hearing, the justices meet in private to don their robes. Part of this ritual includes every member of the court shaking hands with every other member. They remind themselves that they are in this together. Two justices might have disagreed the previous week, but they now put those differences aside and enter the court room with equally open minds. Having a lifetime appointment means that these men and women are to work together for decades, and this knowledge often lends itself to a more collegial air than is found in Congress.
Unlike Congress or the presidency, justices are chosen from a field of professionals who have actually accomplished something with their lives. They are not selected based on how good they look on TV, or how well they speak in sound bites, but rather on the quality of their legal scholarship. You can agree or disagree with the views of Kagan or Scalia, but you cannot deny that each and every justice was an accomplished lawyer and jurist before being appointed to the court.
Finally, each justice on the Supreme Court approaches the law from a different perspective. It may be conservative, or liberal, or a mix of both depending on the issue. But they apply that perspective in a principled way. Justice Thomas does not try to get Sotomayor to sign on to his opinion by agreeing to sign on to one of hers. There are no kick-backs, or deals, or negotiations. Supreme Court opinions are (usually) based on principles, conviction, and sincere legal reasoning.
Afternoon
Lunch that day was at the West Wing Cafe, a small deli-style restaurant a few blocks north of the Capitol. I had a turkey focaccia sandwich, with lettuce, tomatoes, veggie cream cheese, and sprouts. It was delicious, but not meriting a photo. Still, if you're in the area, and find yourself in need of a sandwich, it's a solid choice for lunch.
After lunch I walked to the south side of the Capitol, where I found the U.S. Botanic Garden. The garden includes a series of connected greenhouses, wrapped around a central greenhouse structure. The central building is the jungle room, and it's quite impressive. Each of the greenhouses surrounding the jungle room also has its own theme: ferns, desert plants, orchids, medicinal plants, and so forth. I sat and took a long break in the medicinal plants section because it just smelled so good.
Following my brief exploration of the Botanical Garden, I headed over to the Museum of the American Indian. Unfortunately, here I was disappointed. The museum seemed to emphasize how modern Native Americans synthesize the pressures of modern and traditional cultures. In doing so, many of the displays neglected to inform visitors exactly what that traditional culture is all about. The flow of the museum was rather counter-intuitive. Half the time, I had no idea where the tribe on display was located.
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| A random naked statue in an exhibit in the American Indian Musuem |
By contrast, there is a museum at the University of Arizona that has a permanent display on Indian Tribes of the Southwest and their traditional cultures. I thought this museum far surpassed the Smithsonian's effort at a similar museum. I only spent two hours in the Museum of the American Indian, so it's entirely possible that my first impressions would not be borne out by a more focused visit.
Supreme Court Again
My morning visit to the Supreme Court was ill-timed. Court docents host lectures inside the court room, but these lectures start every hour on the half-hour. During my visit earlier in the day, I didn't learn about the lecture until my perusal of the first floor was complete, and by then the lecture had already started. I would have had to wait for another 45 minutes for the next one, so I determined to come back later, if my schedule allowed for it. As I finished up at the Museum of the American Indian, I looked at my watch. It was 3:00. I figured I could make it to the Supreme Court building in half an hour and attend the final lecture of the day.
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| The Great Hall in the Supreme Court Building |
The lecture itself was pretty good. The docent covered court procedures as well as some history of the building. She explained the carved relief sculptures that could be seen along each of the upper walls of that chamber. These friezes depict historical lawgivers (on the north and south walls) and allegorical symbols representing different aspects of the law (on the east and west walls). After the lecture concluded, I lingered in the court room, meditating on the great reverence I have for this veritable "temple of justice." This was one of those sacred moments I had come to DC to find; a quiet moment of contemplation in a near-sacred place.
I returned to the first floor, and perused the displays once again. I read a more in-depth description of the court room friezes and then headed over to the gift shop. With a tight budget for this trip, I knew that I could buy only one souvenir. My reverence for the court pretty much dictated where this souvenir would come from. I walked out of the court a few minutes later with a small leather notebook, embossed with the seal of the Supreme Court, that I can use at work to take notes during meetings.
Evening Walk
My brother-in-law was coming down from Connecticut to experience DC with me for the weekend. I figured I had no right to invite him to stay at the Thompson home, so we got a hotel room, the cost of which we split between us. We decided to stay at the Washington Hilton, which was both affordable and historic (it's the hotel where Reagan was shot in 1981).
Ray was not due in until after 11:00 that night, so I checked in without him. After doing so, I walked down to Dupont Circle to find dinner. I had previously researched a fast-foody joint called Panas, which specializes in empanadas. It's a small operation, with only two locations in the DC area. The restaurant offers over a dozen different empanada flavors, so it was difficult to choose just four for my evening meal. The ones I chose were delicious, but I remained curious about the other flavors so I decided that I would have to return here later with Ray.
After dinner, I took a stroll down Massachusetts Avenue, a section of DC sometimes called Embassy Row. Every other house on Embassy Row flies the flag of some foreign nation. Some of the homes have a large sign out front proclaiming the nation to which it belongs. Others have a small plaque next to the door. These were a little difficult to read at night. Still others were not clearly marked at all, leaving me to guess whose embassy it was, based solely on my knowledge of world flags (scant though it is).
Countries from around the world, large and small, can be found on Embassy Row. From Ireland to India, and from Belize to Croatia. Giants of world politics like Great Britain, and tiny countries struggling to make it, like Haiti.
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| The Embassy of Brazil sports this sign on their front driveway |
By the time I reached Rock Creek, I had already walked a mile of Embassy Row, and I was tired. I faced the prospect of re-walking every step I had already taken to return to the hotel. But I knew that another half mile would take me to the British, Bolivian, and Brazilian embassies, as well as the Naval Observatory, which is the Vice President's official residence.
It was on this extra push to the end of Embassy Row that I came across a moment of surprising emotion. In front of the British Embassy is a statue of Winston Churchill. The British Bulldog is posed with one foot stepping forward, such that the statue has one foot on American soil, and one foot on British soil. I sat for a few moments at the foot of that statue, finding again a moment of quiet contemplation.
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| The British Bulldog |
I'm glad that I pressed on that night, saw the embassies, viewed the gates to Biden's home, and found the statue of Churchill. It was a long day, and I stumbled back to the hotel, but I was satisfied that I had made the most out of every moment that day. And I still had a very full week ahead of me, many more moments to fill and many more dreams to realize.
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