Hark how the Capitol, sweet silver Capitol.....

Greetings all -- for your daily dose of Ruth in DC, allow me to introduce you to the newly opened U.S. Capitol visitors center.

First of all, if you hadn't heard, there has been a lot of squawking over the costs ($600 million) of development for the center and of the final product doing nothing so much as making "the people's government" more remote from its people. Wanna read about the Visitors Center? How about an article about the costs issue. I concede the cost issue, and I can see the remoteness issue since instead of just walking up the stairs now your are entering an underground cavern and looking up at the Capitol from below the lawn. But I gotta say it's a marvelous view regardless --

Here's the main hall --

The hall hosts the ticket counter and lines, an introductory movie theater, the take-off point for tours of the Capitol, and some of the state statues (each state is entitled to have 2 sculptures displayed somewhere in the Capitol) Among the states in the visitors center are:



Look! He's got a fetish!!! It's a bear, but I like to think of it as a friend of my badgers!




There's also a giant model of Freedom (the figure on the top of the Capitol dome)


Frankly, I think she looks a little shocked.

We went on the official tour of the Capitol-- which for the record is brief but nice. If you want to see more than the Rotunda, the old Supreme Court Chamber, the Crypt, and a couple other rooms (like, say you want to see the House and the Senate chambers, more of the halls, etc), you need to contact your representatives in advance to arrange a tour. But, if you are looking for a decent, not-so-very-long look at where your laws come from, the regular tour is more than acceptable. It's probably 20 minutes long and handled well (you get headsets that connect you to your live guide who can chat to you without yelling or without you having to be within a foot of her). It was enough to fascinate my 7-year old grand nephew who then wanted all the books in the gift shop about the Capitol (and has been reading them and telling everyone about the building!). Anyway, some views from the tour:




my funniest Capitol moment:

I mean honestly, up to the crypt? I had to laugh..... and take a picture.





And here's my crew enjoying the center --

my sister, my grand nephew, and my geek (aka my nephew)

And now before we run out to play in Alexandria, I have a couple more stitching things that need to get posted....
Tracey of Pals sent me this totally cool ornie in this year's exchange:


Thanks Tracey!

And my buddy Judy gave me this for Christmas:


See ya'll later! Have a peaceful day.