Washington DC: Day 6.
Day 6 was an exciting one! We started off our morning with a trip to the National Archives. The coolest part was obviously getting to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. They wouldn't let us take any pictures of the original documents, but it was so neat to see how old, sun bleached, and faded they are. And it's also cool to think about the fact that everything we have in our country today comes from those three documents. The majority of the archives was learning about the process of writing amendments and all the changes that our constitution has seen since it was first drafted. I actually found it pretty interesting!
After lunch (I'm assuming, since I can't really remember), we walked to the capitol for our tour! I thought that getting a tour of the capitol would be a big deal (which it was, don't get me wrong) since we had to contact our state senator, give them our social security numbers and essentially promise them our firstborn, but there were so many people there that afternoon. Like basically, if you are willing to take the time to contact your senator, you're in. Unless you don't have a clean background, then maybe not. But anyway, it was still really neat! We got to see the inside of the rotunda, the old senate chamber room (which, turns out, echoes a ton, which is why they ended up moving), and that's about it. We didn't get to see much, for obvious reasons, but it is still cool to say we have been inside and it was great to learn a little more about its history. It's a beautiful building, inside and out.
After our tour, we split up, and James, Candis, Shawn, Brandon and I went back to Library of Congress so we could get library cards! They will serve us literally no purpose unless we were to go back within the next two years, but it's probably my favorite souvenir that I have now haha. After that we went to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to see the collection of presidential portraits. That was a pretty cool experience, not going to lie. So many portraits of important people, all in one room! I just have a lot of respect for any person that would want to be president. It sounds like a hard job; I wouldn't want it. Afterward we found a Thai restaurant for dinner, where we had a lengthy discussion about the upcoming election and we realized that DC will make you want to be politically involved haha. Then we got crepes for dessert, and went back to the house to watch National Treasure! That was super fun, because not only were they all over DC, but they stole the Declaration, and we had just seen it in real life that day!! It was a good way to cap off the day.
