Day 14

We awoke and called a cab totake us to the capitol building. He picked us up at ten, and took us right up in front of the capitol. We walked towards the capitol to go on our tour, but the security guard said there were no tours that day because of a ceremony. He said to come back the next day. So, we walked across the street to the Library of Congress. After going through security, we stopped by the bathrooms. They were beautiful! It was all marble, and there were carvings on the walls. Then we took the elevator to the top floor. The building was beautiful! There were paintings, carvingfs, statues, and electronic information touch-screens. A lady standing by the Civil War exhibit gave us "passports" with bar codes on them. She told us to put them in the slot on the touch-screens. We did, and we could add the images to our "collection". That way, we could examine them later online. Then we rode the metro to the stop nearest to Ford's Theater. Since it wasn't yet time for our tour, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe down the street. They had good food. We walked to Ford's Theater and waited in the tour line. Grandma went inside to get our audio tours, and we went inside the museum. I think it was better with the audio tours, they gave a lot more information than the signs. The museum was really neat, though, and they had the slashed coat the conductor wore, weapons of the conspiritors, and the gun that killed Lincoln! We listened to a ranger talk about Lincoln's death, and saw where he was shot. Then we went across the street to the house where he died. It was pretty grim in there. After the exhibits, there was a spiral staircase going back down. In the middle was a stack of books four feet wide, four feet thick, and two stories high! All the books were about Lincoln. After Ford's Theater, we went back to our hotel and slept.

Grandma and I at the Ford Theater.

Here we are at the Library of Congress.