Interesting Day

As I was already going in to D.C. to meet up with hubby for a tour, I decided to go a little bit early.

Had lunch at the Mitisam Cafe at the Museum of the American Indian. An eclectic lunch of wild mushroom soup, sassafrass tea and a blueberry tart. I didn't stop at any exhibits, but did stop outdoors to enjoy the water feature.

Next stop was the newly opened outdoor garden at the US Botanical Gardens. Give this place 5 five years for the plants to grown and evolve and it could be spectacular. Great view of the Indian museum from inside the garden. I did a quick tour of the inside gardens. There was this potted plant that looked like a lilac but wasn't. And now I've already forgotten its name. And the white ginger was blooming and smelling like paradise.

I stopped at outside to sit and write at one of the tables that are in their own little plant rooms. I was surrounded by legumes. Peanuts and soybeans, sensitve plants and yellow senna. It's lovely there with the Capitol building looming over you and the sparrows flitting among the plants.

Then it was on to meet up with hubby and the rest of tour participants. This was a behind-the-scenes tour of the under-construction Capitol Visitors Center, CVC, as they like to call it. It's being built underground on the east side of the Capitol building. I've never been inside a major construction project before and this was quite an experience. It will certainly be amazing to go back and walk through this when it is completed. We saw everything. Including places that the public will never see. This project originally began with private donations 10 or so years ago. It changed with the shooting of the Capitol policeman. Then changed again after 9/11. It is now funded by our tax dollars and will have very rigid security requirements. They are even debating whether to allow any type of bag inside (purses, backpacks, diaper bags.) They are being sensitive to the fact that this building should be accessible to all citizens yet they need to balance this with protecting members of Congress and the actual building itself. If anyone is interested, details on this project are here: http://www.aoc.gov/cvc/index.cfm