Behind the Scenes - Capitol Visitor Center

I just love my hometown - Washington, DC. What a privilege it is to live in the nation's capital. Your local news is the national news. You're right in the midst of all the action. And ... it's such a lovely, beautiful city. Every time I go to DC, I have to take my camera for pictures. I was lucky again last Thursday when I went to the special tour of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC)with the Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington, DC. The sky was so blue - a great morning for pictures. I love being a tour guide - to share my city with other Americans and with the French-speaking people who come to pay us a visit.

On my way from the Capitol South Metro Station to the CVC, I pulled out the trusty Nikon and started taking pictures. You'd think I would have enough, but that's never the case. There's always a unique way to look at the buildings. For example, here are the sides of the Madison Building (part of the Library of Congress) (second picture and the Cannon House Office Building (first picture). It's interesting to see the older architecture across from the street from the new. On the old, you can see the columns and on the new, the modern straight lines. I lean towards the "old."

Just before crossing Pennsylvania Avenue, I had to take some new shots of the Jefferson Building - the original part of the Library of Congress. It has such a unique dome. The front is also beautiful with its columns and steps. If you haven't been there, you should go. Inside is a great example of Italian renaissance architecture.

Finally, I approached the CVC. As I was walking down to its entrance, I had to take some photos of the Capitol - again! It seems like I've been visiting the Capitol all my life. The CVC, which is underground, does not take anything away from the beauty of its architecture and Frederick Olmsted's landscaping. Our guide, who works for the Architect of the Capitol, told us about the trees that had to be moved and all the work that took place to ensure the landscaping stayed mostly the same. Many of the trees are original or were planted by Congressmen who have since passed away so this was an important task. He also told us that the roof of the CVC had to be built first. So, instead of building the center from the ground up, it was built from the ground (roof) down!

Once you enter the CVC, you can still see the Capitol from inside - through a roof of glass. It was fun to try to take "cool" pictures through the roof. Since this was a tour "behind the scenes," we were able to go to a part of the CVC used only by Congressmen and Capitol employees. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in some places because of security, but where I could, I did. Since the original Capitol was built with imperfect sandstone that Bulfinch (one of the architects) painted white, the official Architect wanted to make sure that the "new part" had the same imperfect stones. Although there is no longer any stones left in the Aquia Creek, the builders were able to find matching stones from Boyer, Pennsylvania. I've included some pictures of the walls, the statuary, and the columns.

Each state is allowed to have two statues at the Capitol. Before the CVC, most were displayed in Statuary Hall (the original House of Representatives), the rotunda, and throughout the halls of the Capitol. Now many of them are in the CVC. One statue that needed to be moved to a better space was the one from Hawaii - King Kamehameha - who weighs 12,500 lbs.

There's a replacement statue for Alabama - Helen Keller. It is the first statue of a child and the ninth female statue.

Felix de Weldon, who was the sculptor for the Iwo Jima Memorial, was the sculptor for the Mother Joseph statue. De Weldon is the only sculptor to have a statue on every continent including Antarctica.

One of the newest statues is that of Jack Sweigert representing Colorado. It is one of the first statues in color. If you look at the helmet in his hands, you can see a reflection of the Capitol.

To me, the most impressive statue is the plaster model of Freedom Triumphant - the statue that is on top of the Capitol dome. On the Capitol website you read : "The statue is a classical female figure of Freedom wearing flowing draperies. Her right hand rests upon the hilt of a sheathed sword; her left holds a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the United States with thirteen stripes. Her helmet is encircled by stars and features a crest composed of an eagle's head, feathers, and talons, a reference to the costume of Native Americans. A brooch inscribed 'U.S.' secures her fringed robes. She stands on a cast-iron globe encircled with the words E Pluribus Unum, the national motto at the time of her placement atop the dome." Here are several views. The sculptor was Thomas Crawford. He was commissioned to do this and made the plaster model in his studio in Rome. The statue was cast by Clark Mills in five parts in 1860 at his Bladensburg, Maryland, foundry under the watchful eye of his slave Philip Reid. Work was stopped in 1861 because of the Civil War, but it was finally completed in 1862. The statue was raised and put in place on December 2, 1863. Philip Reid was a free man at this time. Some of the pictures of Freedom looked better as black and white!
I had to rush home to go to French class so I couldn't take anymore pictures. Maybe next time!

400,000 Lights!!

It was a Photo Safari again, but this time it was at night and at the Washington, DC, LDS Temple. As I walked toward the Visitors' Center, I thought I wouldn't need gloves or a hat, but after about one hour my right hand and both feet were frozen! I was glad to finally go inside the Center to see the beautifully decorated trees and the Christus surrounded by all the white poinsettias. The line for the nativities was way too long!

This is such a special time of the year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. The Washington Temple is always a beautiful spot to see in Washington, especially when you're driving around the beltway from Georgia Avenue to Connecticut Avenue. The temple just appears out of nowhere. But ... at Christmas time, it's even more beautiful. There are 400,000 lights around the center and on the trees leading up to the temple. There's also a manger scene which used to have live participants, but not any more.

I took a lot of pictures, but it was really hard to focus at night. I had the same problem when I went on the night-time photo safari to the DC monuments. Here are a few of the scenes I saw. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I do.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and an even happier New Year! As the French say - Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!!

Learning to Use My Flash!!

Finally! I'm getting to add something to my blog!! Last Saturday, I went on a photo safari to the Franciscan Monastery in northeast Washington. It's a familiar place to me because I've been there many times - mostly when I was younger. My grandmother used to live near Catholic University in northwest Washington so there were times on Sundays when we would visit the monastery - even though we weren't Catholic.

It's a very interesting place. It's run, of course, by the Franciscan monks. I didn't realize, though, until I went there with my DC tour guide class, that this order is responsible for the Catholic churches in the Holy Land. The monk that was our guide had just returned from several years in Jerusalem.

Inside this monastery is a replica of the Roman catacombs and the tomb in the Church of the Holy Scepulchre (in Jerusalem) that "they" think is Christ's tomb. Having been to Jerusalem (in 1963 when I was 15!!), I prefer to think of the spot that was discovered in 1948 as Christ real tomb. If you're in Jerusalem, I assume you can still go inside that tomb and see the hill nearby - called Golgatha meaning skull - where Jesus was crucified. The rock hill actually looks like a skull. The replica is behind the curved entry in the middle of the picture on the right.

Anyway, I took this class to finally learn how to use my Nikon flash attachment. Reading the instruction manual is like reading Greek!! I think the course was successful. It was the first time I'd used my new tripod so some of the pictures weren't straight, but I experimented and could see the difference when I used the flash, the flash with the diffuser, and both ways with the flash tilted up to a 45 degress angle. The ceilings inside the church were much too high to reflect the light, so those pictures turned out rather dark. We also played with having the flash off the camera and shooting it multiple times while the camera lens was open for up to 4 seconds. You can see one without the flash and one with the light under the arch from the flash pointed and set off there.

I'd really rather take pictures outside so some of these are outdoors before the class began. There was a rose garden around the church, but most of the roses had had it! I did get a few closeups that were nice.

We also tried using a colored gel strip in front of the flash to change the color of the picture. There are some pictures here of the ceiling under the dome of the monastery - one with the flash and one with the flash plus an orange gel strip.

Here are some more inside pictures - one of the altar in one of the chapels and the other is the underneath of the cover over the main altar.

I had fun, the teacher was great and funny - hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Vacation - Finally!!

Aimee and I finally got a chance to take a vacation together this summer. It's my first since I retired in 2007 so I was really excited to get out of the Washington, DC, area and take some pictures somewhere else.

My cousin Wayne Lidman, Sandra Cox, and Billie McBride (friends of Mary Ruth) gave a surprise 70th birthday party for my cousin Mary Ruth who lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She was so surprised, and it was lots of fun to see everyone in SC again. I realized that I hadn't been there for about 12 years. It was the first time that Judy (my sister) and I could go to something out of town at the same time. It was the first time in forever that all the cousins were together so we made sure we took pictures to prove it!! Below is a picture of the cousins - me, Wayne Lidman, Jack Dunker, Mary Ruth Dunker, Judy Henderson, and Aimee Calissie.

After spending a couple days in Spartanburg, Aimee and I headed for Myrtle Beach, SC. It's our favorite beach and we stayed in our regular place - Blue Water Resort. We got there on Monday and finally got into the room about 2:30 pm. Right after we brought everything in the sky opened up and there was a terrible thunder and lightning storm. We hoped that this wouldn't happen for the two other days we were going to be there. We wanted to improve our tan!! Below is a picture of the beach with the rows of umbrellas at about 10 am in the morning.

Fortunately, Tuesday was mixed with sun and clouds. One thing that was interesting was that all the lifeguards were foreign instead of American college hunks as it was when I was younger. Our lifeguard was Max from Kiev, Ukraine. We had some good conversations about language, living in the US, etc. Aimee and I enjoyed laying on the beach, reading books, and getting HOT because it was so hot and humid. I had to get into the ocean, but Aimee didn't want to get stung by sea nettles. We also went to Broadway on the Beach and Barefoot Landing. We wish we could have stayed longer, but ... Below is a picture of our lifeguard Max!

Below is a picture of the statue in front of the SC State House - check the Confederate flag!!

On Thursday, we traveled west again and went to Columbia, SC. I had traveled through the city before but had never stayed there or done any sightseeing. Aimee's former bosses from Golds Gym in Utah - Ron and Mary Littlebrandt - now live in Columbia and run five Golds Gyms there. We stayed in their beautiful house and had so much fun just talking about old times. On the way to finding the cemetery in which my maternal grandfather was buried, we stopped and took pictures of the State House. Check out the Confederate flag in front!! After that, Aimee and I went to the cemetery also and put flowers on his grave. That evening I finally found the Columbia LDS Temple and went to a session there. We here in DC are so spoiled by our beautiful, large temple. I almost missed the temple because it was among houses on a road - so small! But ... as one of the sister said - the Spirit is still there and the same as in any other temple.

Above is a picture of Mary and Ron Littlebrandt with Aimee in their beautiful living room! Below is a picture of the Columbia, SC, LDS Temple.

Saturday, we headed back to Spartanburg to see Mary Ruth again. She has the cutest dog - Bentley - and we had so much fun with him. We had a great southern dinner with fresh tomatoes and fried okra! Unfortunately, since I had my operation, I can't eat all the "good stuff," but Aimee did which was great! We also put flowers on my mom's mother's, aunt's, and grandparents graves in the Oakwood Cemetery there in Spartanburg. Mary Ruth is a Twilight buff as Aimee and I are so we went to see "Eclipse" together. Aimee is "Team Jacob," but Mary Ruth and I are "Team Edward!" Below is a picture of Mary Ruth with Bentley, her precious Bichon frise!

Unfortunately, the next Monday we had to come home. It was a world wind trip of SC, but we had a great time. Thanks to all our hosts!!