Destination: D.C.: Day 3 - Books, Docs, and Rain

Day 3 started out a little dreary and damp, even though we slept in a tiny bit. Charla took us in and dropped us off at one of the 3 buildings of the Library of Congress. Kathy led us to believe we could go in at the Adams building and get a library card. Since we were at the Madison Building we walked, in the rain, across the street and down the block to the Adams Building. Well guess what! One of the docents told us that library cards were issued at the Madison Building! Of course!!!

So we go in, through security, to the magic room. To our dismay it says "Reader Cards are not souvenirs!" They were only for researchers. So all of a sudden we were researching our family's history. We walked around this building a little bit looking like we were doing some serious research and then we made our way to the main building, the Jefferson Building. This building was SO pretty and ornate. With our lucky cards we were able to go into the main reading room. Diane and Kathy might have been a little bored with this but Carol thoroughly enjoyed it.

Knowing we had reservations at 2:00 for the National Archives, we headed out to find something to eat. Charla had recommended a place named West Wing Cafe. We located it and went in for a bite. Unfortunately they gave Carol the wrong sandwich and forgot to make Diane's and Kathy's sandwich, which forced us to inhale our food so we could hightail it to the Archives, in the pouring rain.

With our pre-purchased tickets we were able to skip through the lines and enter the National Archives without a wait. It was interesting to see some of the important documents that were produced in our nation's history. It is hard to do these excursions without thinking about how much Mama would enjoy this, especially the genealogy pieces.

Our next stop was the Old Post Office Pavilion which offers a tour of the bell tower and the most panoramic views of Washington. The stairs to the observation deck were VERY narrow and steep. We were about sick by the time we got to the top, even though we took elevators and only had to go up 2 stories!!

We went back down to look around at the stores inside the pavilion. We found a couple of cute shirts and other little items. After a refreshing diet coke, and rain pouring down once again, we talked to Charla and made plans to take the Metro to Bethesda, meet up with John and catch a ride home with him. By doing so though, we were foregoing our walk around the National Mall. Hopefully we can pick it up at another time.

Our first adventure with the Metro was hurried, harried, and wet. We finally figured out the ticket machine, got oriented as to which line we needed to take and jumped on, squished up with all the other folks needing a ride home. We reached Bethesda, found John, and made it back to a wonderful meal cooked by Charla.

We had a relaxing evening visiting with Charla, John and Charles and also doing a bit of blogging.

Tomorrow we will head out for more DC adventures!