Memorial Day Recap

We spent Monday out on the islands with B and her family… for seven hours!  It was great!  I have been battling a head cold and was pretty much in bed all weekend moaning, complaining and reading The Help (which is a tremendous book, by the way).  By yesterday morning I was so fed up that I refused to sit in bed another day.  J found some Sudafed in our medicine cabinet that I combined with Advil.  The concoction fixed me up (for four hours anyway) and we set out to enjoy the day with my meds packed in the beach bag for later on.

When the last cookie had been eaten and we could no longer stand another minute in the sun, J drove us to up to Grills for dinner in the boat.

Cutie Pie fell asleep as he usually does at the end of an island adventure.  His power nap was enough to energize him for dinner.  By the time we’d driven through a brief rainstorm and docked at the restaurant, he was ready to go!

Dinner was excellent.  I had the Mahi mahi tacos that had some kind of wonderful spicy sauce on it that made my nose run.  It was about 9 PM by the time we left Grills and the kids were naturally beat from a day full of excitement.  I ended up putting Wildman to bed in his clothes because I could not wake him up when we got to our house.  Both boys had to take a good long bath first thing this morning!  LOL!

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Happy Memorial Day

They fell, but o’er their glorious grave
Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.
-Francis Marion Crawford

Capitol Tour

As it turns out, Memorial Day is an awesome day for a tour of the Capitol building.  Most tourists are outside waiting for the Memorial Day parade to start.

Our flight did not leave until 5:30 PM  so we needed a short, fun activity to fill our time before heading to the airport.  I was able to reserve 4 tickets for a Capitol tour at noon.  When we checked in for our tour we were able to change our time to 11 AM due to the low volume of visitors.  It was perfect!

We had just enough time to cruise the visitor center to see some of the statues before our group was called in to watch a short movie about the history of the Capitol.

Helen Keller is one of the newest additions to the visitor center’s collection.  She is the only person depicted as a child and the only one with disabilities.

May I just say that our Capitol is a breathtaking building?   Simply stunning.   Brumidi’s Apotheosis of Washington was reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel for me.  The fresco was so lovely, yet so far away!  It was hard to see all of the beautiful details of the masterpiece at the top of the dome.

All of the details in the Rotunda were almost too much to take in.  I was on artistry overload.  It was all so beautiful.  I love how the band of scenes from our country’s history is painted to look like a relief sculpture.  Amazing!

The above photo is just because I read The Lost Symbol…  Those who have read it will get it 🙂

We saw other cool things like the exact spot where John Quincy Adams sat during his time as a House Representative.

Ronald Reagan’s statue was particularly interesting because it had pieces of the Berlin Wall embedded into the pedestal in a thin band.

I liked this unfinished bust of Abraham Lincoln.  Half of his face has one expression and half has another.

When we finished our tour we had enough time to take the tunnel over to the Library of Congress.  I have seen photos of it’s famous Reading Room and wanted to see it for myself.  Unfortunately, it was closed to the public.  I was able to snap a quick photo through a window in a door.  It’s not the best picture but you get the idea.

We had a quick lunch back at the visitor center before heading for the airport.  Let me just say that the restaurant over there is outstanding!  So many healthy and organic food choices.  I was very impressed especially after consuming so many unhealthy things while on vacation.  It was a welcomed treat for us.

This concludes my five part vacay re-cap.  Hope you enjoyed reliving the trip with me!