We are not done yet.

On the contrary, I think we have been invigorated by out close proximity to all the action.  I walked to the Eastern Market at dawn’s early light for some supplies at Trader Joe’s and a few coffee drinks.  Having consumed those in our just-right accommodations, we practically leapt out onto the sidewalk, ready to crawl all over DC for another day.

Stop 1 was a return to the Capitol Welcome Center, a 10-minute walk from our place, to cash in on the Congressional gallery passes that we scored on Monday.  Both houses were in session this morning, so we were confronted with a few options:  House,  Senate, or try to squeeze in both before our 10:30 meeting time with DC art expert and all-around great guy Ken.

With the intention of possibly visiting both, we headed for the Senate side first. It was about 15 minutes before their 10 am start time.  It was possible that we could see the Senators start their session and then hustle over to check out proceedings in the House.

This really wasn’t a good plan.  After surrendering most of our posessions in a check-in station we were directed down several hallways, up and elevator and through several more hallways (all with consistently shiny floors and very solid-looking walls), through a metal detector, and finally into the Gallery of the US Senate Chambers.

It was a quiet place at that time of day, with about 10 other people in the gallery (gallery viewers were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 by people standing in the hallway directing us where to go) and, maybe, about the same number of people on the floor of the chambers.

Many of these people were literally sitting on the floor of the chamber, not displaying much anticipation that anything was going to happen soon. They were wearing blue and looked to be late teenagers.  Reading the Senate information booklet while we waited, we discovered that these were interns in their junior year of high school.  Not too long after we took our seats, right around 10 am, the interns popped up off the floor and took positions by various doors in the chamber.  We took this as a sign that something was about to happen — possibly that the Senators were going to make a grand entrance.

A few more people did trickle in, including a woman wearing a contraption that held a stenographer’s recording device and allowed her to go around keying in what people said.  The Senate information book informed us that recorders like her work in 15-minute shifts and then go back to their offices to immediately to transcribe their notes.

Here is what this recorder transcribed in the minutes that we were there:  1. A grey haired man (our best bet at actually being a Senator for the day — it might have been the Senate President Pro Tempore, or it might have been someone on Vice President Harris’ staff performing her duties for her) banging a gavel, calling the session to order, and announcing a pastor who would be giving the morning’s prayer. 2. The solemn pastor invoking those in the chamber (at this point still dominated by high school junior interns) to use the quiet strength of the Lord to guide their decisions. 3.  A clerk reading two communications, the latter being about the Senate moving directly to executive session to talk about candidates for an upcoming appointment.

Jen asked the last official person we passed before entering the chambers, a lady standing at the top of the stairs if the the Senators would be coming in soon and the lady said yes.  They were just listening to someone talk, she said.  They would be entering the chamber soon.

We read our book.  We found the desks where Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, our Senators from New Hampshire, would be sitting.  We watched the clock as it got closer to our meeting point with Ken.

The interns sat back down on the ground.

We realized it would be impossible to gather our things at the check-in, hustle over to the House of Representatives side and repeat the check-in process, make our way to that gallery to see  if anything more was going on over there.  So, we waited a few more minutes, then gave up.  We retraced our steps through hallways and the elevator, back to the check-in to retrieve our things.  Here we noticed a tv screen showing proceedings in the House, and there was a Representative talking.  It appeared there was something going on over there.  We would later learn that there was a major discussion about the debt ceiling.  There were probably lots of people in the galleries over there checking all that out.

It was a near miss, but still a very interesting look into how things work on Capitol Hill.  As an added bonus, they never collected the gallery passes we received from Rep. Pappas.  They never even looked at them.  So we can go back and check the whole thing out again if we want.

In the meantime, the stage was set for a day of exploring galleries with Ken, who did not seem to mind that we were 17 minutes late meeting with him at the Hirshhorn Museam just one block up from the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.

And so began a day of getting a little off the main trail of museums in DC.   We had another near miss when we learned the special exhibit at the Hirshhorn was sold out (it didn’t look that crowded there), but then we moved on from main gallies of modern art here to a more intensiave tour of the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden.

After lunch on the patio of the cafe there, we moved on to the Renwick Gallery, which is Ken’s favorite and is located right next to the White House.  It featured one large, ballroom-sized installation that was a larg net suspended from the ceiling  lit by subtly changing lighting.  It also had on display an assortment of very cool woodwork and pottery.   It was only one floor of galleries, but the time we spent there was worth the walk.

On our way to the Renwick Gallery, we got to peek at the president’s residence, but it was not easy.  There were lots of extra barriers and many security personnel around.   We would later find out that this all had to do with a state dinner that evening to welcom the President and first lady of South Korea.  If we had only stayed around watching for a little while longer we might have gotten invited to the dinner.  Another near miss.

Anyway there was more art to see.  And gift shops.  By now we were walking through the streets of the city part of DC and not around the National Mall.  We made our way to Chinatown and there, in the shadow of the hockey and basketball arena, we found the National Portrait Gallery.  Aside from housing a lot of portraits, this build also had a major collection of American Art, and it also offers a fantastic covered central courtyard where we lounged over iced coffee and continued to get caught up with Ken.

In these galleries we were able to see portraits of all the Presidents (though no official portraits have been painted for Trump or Biden because they are either in office or looking to run again for President).   We saw the famous portrait of Michelle Obama.  We saw lots of work by American artists, and we generally had our artistic appreciation vessels filled up right to the brim.

After that, all that was left was a nice dinner at the Founding Farmers and Distillers restaurant a brief walk from the museum, and then we were saying goodbye to Ken.  We owe him many thanks for taking a day off from work to show us a lot of places (and artwork) we would not have gotten to on our own.  It was a very big hit of a day for us.