When we first got to the Russell Senate Office Building, Adrienne gave us a quick tour of Sen. Hagel's office. It was quite interesting. The walls were covered with pictures of the Senator and his colleagues and from his many travels around the world. We learned several tidbits about the Senator. For instance, his favorite holiday is Halloween, which was made clear by the numerous pictures of Sen. Hagel dressed up as his fellow Congressmen. The funniest was Sen. Hagel in a Joe Biden mask and "Joe Biden for President" T-shirt interrupting Sen. Biden during a foreign relations committee meeting for a picture. Classic Capitol Hill humor.
We only got to meet with Sen. Hagel for a couple minutes. He was really friendly and very chatty. He kept breaking into random stories, like how he used to sell encyclopedias to stewardesses in Bloomington, MN. Our photos with him were taken by the Senate photographer and we'll be getting those in the mail later.
The entrance to Sen. Hagel's office, which was made up of eight different rooms.
And it was right across the hall from Sen. John McCain's office, the presumptive Republican nominee for President.
In the bowels of the Senate office building, waiting to get through security to take the subway to the Capitol. Those two guys are probably off to do something political and important.
This is the old subway car that was used to transport Senators from their offices to the Capitol.
And this is the new one. It wasn't a very long trip, about 30 seconds. Probably would've been a pretty easy walk. But I guess some of those Senators are pretty old. I'm sure Strom Thurmond sure appreciated this shuttle when he was still alive.
There are hundreds of statues in the Capitol. You couldn't turn around without tripping over another one. Each state is represented by several statues of important political figures from that state. Here is a statue for Nebraska of William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson and three-time presidential nominee.
This is a statue of a former Senator from Minnesota. I didn't recognize the name.
Kinsey and I next to Abe.
The rotunda of the Capitol is amazing. Kinsey gasped when she looked up and saw the dome. It was so large, I couldn't fit it properly into one picture. Our tour guide told us the entire Statue of Liberty off its base could fit inside.
As you can see, the Capitol was packed with tourists.
Waiting to go into the House chamber. For some reason, you couldn't take anything into this space, no camera, no cell phone, no bag, nothing. So if you want to see a picture of what it looks like, you'll have to turn on C-SPAN.
After Kinsey and I left the Capitol, we decided to catch the Metro at Union Station, the train hub of Washington, DC.
It seems to be mainly a shopping mall now, but the Great Hall is still very majestic.
Meeting Senator Hagel was easily one of the highlights of our trip. And the capital was very impressive. Overall, an afternoon well spent.
1 comment:
did you get his john hancock?
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