Visiting Former President Bush laid in state

Tuesday was our final day in the capital. We packed up our things and checked out of our hotel at about 9:30 so we could get some additional exploring in before heading up to Baltimore to catch our flight home. We were in the Logan Circle neighborhood and we LOVED it. There were great stores, restaurants and grocery stores available to the folks in the area. It felt more like a little NYC than D.C. to us. We saw that the place we had breakfast the other day, Ted Bulletin's, had another location in this neighborhood so we stopped in.

Homemade Pop-Tarts again!

Round 2: breakfast burrito and a breakfast sandwich this time

Ted's did not disappoint. Again. Now with full bellies we opted to walk around town despite the temperatures and the wind.

We walked by the IRS building
I spent an inordinate amount of time speaking to
folks who sit in here...

We went to the National Archives to see an exhibit they had on Vietnam and because we'd never seen the Charters of Freedom (The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights) in person. Not surprisingly, they are fading. You can still see John Hancock's signature on the Declaration, though! It was really cool to see these documents. The Vietnam exhibit was also very interesting. No one was around on a random, cold Tuesday so we were able to cover a lot of ground quickly.

Everyone kept asking if we would go see former President Bush while he was laid in state so we decided to go see how long the line was. It didn't look too bad so we jumped in at about 13:00.

Approaching the Capitol

Waiting in line to see President Bush

The looks are deceiving. They were just getting us from the street line to the visitor center's entrance (line 2), from the visitor center's entrance (outside) to the lobby of the visitor's center (line 3), then from the lobby to the next waiting area (line 4) before finally leading us up the escalators and to the rotunda. It took us right about 1.75 hours to reach the rotunda.

What a guy

The memorial cards

We were amazed once we got there, though. The room was spectacular. It was massive and ornate. The armed service members guarding the casket were motionless. I don't know how they stay so still. We stayed for a couple of minutes paying our respects and then exited the building. They passed out the little memorial cards I post a photo of above for everyone who visited. It was a really special thing and I'm glad we had time to see him.

We still had a little bit of time before we needed to gather our things and head for the airport so we walked over to the United State Botanic Garden to see their Christmas exhibit. The best part of D.C. is that everything is "free" (we pay with our tax dollars) so you can pop in and out of locations without pressure. The garden was really pretty. All of their pieces on display had to be made of plants of plant materials so they got very creative. We wandered around for a bit before heading back to our hotel to head for the airport.

The Capitol made of plants

White House made of plants!

Pike's Peak cog railway

They had a cinnamon tree. Gross. 

Jackson by the poinsettias 

Welcome to the jungle

We left early for the airport as the traffic had gotten terrible with folks getting into the city to attend services for former President Bush. Our Uber driver took a different route than we'd ever taken before so we got to see some new parts of the D.C. outskirts and also Maryland before getting to BWI. We grabbed dinner, checked and responded to emails and then caught our flight home. It was on time and uneventful which are my favorite kinds of flights.

We landed in an icy Indy so the drive home was annoying, but we made it without issue. We had a great trip to D.C. despite the cold and the rain. President Bush's passing causes some of our tours to be canceled, but it opened other opportunities up for us. I'm glad we got to pay our respects to such a fearless leader and that we got to see the Supreme Court, too.