After eating lunch in the cafeteria of the Library of Congress (rubbing shoulders with the literati!) we had the opportunity to walk to the Capitol Building with former Congressman Larry LaRocco, from Idaho. He answered the childrens' questions, and although he planned to give a short talk about the workings of our government, our time ran short and we had to begin the Capitol Building tour.
We saw the original room where Congress met in the early days, amidst statues of historical figures from states (Washington state's statue was of a guy we strongly believe to be original host of the reality TV show "Man Versus Wild" -- coonskin hat and a gun -- while many of the other states got guys wearing 3 piece suits, carrying books). We also got a demonstration of the 'whisper spot' which your kids can tell you about.
From there, we went to the gallery of the Senate floor, where we got to watch a scintillating 15 minutes of pretty much not much of anything going on. There were no senators on the floor, and a few aides and record keepers were shuffling papers and idly chatting with each other. This was all presided over by Senator Al Franken, of Minnesota, the former comedy writer and Saturday Night Live actor. He had us in stitches doing an impression of a bored senator reading the newspaper. Many of the kids wanted to know what the point of the Senate was, after that. We had some 'splaining to do.
We took a group picture in front of the Capitol Building, and came back to the 4H Center for some outside recreation time, dinner, and more recreation time. The kids, who had been dead tired up til that point, came alive and it was a pleasure to watch them play so joyously in the fresh air.
The kids have made their final selections for the free choice museum time on Thursday afternoon, which we will not be able to tell you about (flying out right afterwards), so be sure to ask about that when you see them.
No comments:
Post a Comment