More from the Capitol

Phew, we've had a busy (and successful) day today!

We woke up incredibly (well, 7am) early, and took the Metro downtown. We had planned to get in the queue for a White House tour - but, guess what? No tours since 9/11 (our Rough Guide is a bit out of date ;-). Ditto for the FBI building - I was most disappointed, because apparently you used to be able to watch FBI agents on their firing range. And ditto for the Pentagon. Ah well.

Undismayed, we took the elevator up the clock tower of the old Post Office building, which gives a fantastic view over the city. Back on terra firma, we walked to the Capitol Building, home of the US Senate and House of Representatives (via the Botanic Gardens, accidentally...). We picked up tour tickets for later in the day.

Behind the Capitol is the Library of Congress (for me), and the Supreme Court (for Katherine), so we went on tours of both, and then returned to the Capitol for another! After fighting our way through waves of security and metal detectors, we eventually reached the large room under the famous rotunda. On the way round, we learnt that as foreign nationals we were allowed to pick up tickets to visit the House and the Senate, both of which were in session. After yet more security checks we sat in both for a while - in the former we saw a vote (which passed 402 - 23); in the latter we heard some proposed amendents to some bill or other.

We finished the day off with a quick whizz around the National Air and Space Museum, but it closed (at 5.30pm) before we got to see much.

We went home via Safeways (I'm now the proud owner of a US Safeway Club Card) to stock up on food for the next few days - prices were a lot cheaper than they had been in the Food Emporium in NYC.

And so here we are - just finished tea (pasta with a tomato and green bean sauce) and watching the baseball (a rather dull game between the Yankees and the Baltimore O's). We've got another busy day planned tomorrow, including visits to Arlington Cemetery and the (outside of the) White House.