Second day in D.C. historical, emotional experience

After a long and fast-paced first day in Washington D.C., my roommates senior Cassidy Schultz, junior Jillian Howell and sophomore McKinlea Kear all awoke around 5 a.m. to get ready for the following day. They eventually decided to wake up the sleeping bear of the room, me, about an hour later to make sure I wasn’t in a rush to get some breakfast. I soon found myself wearing clothes fitting the 30 degree weather instead of my polar bear pajamas, and I quickly made my way to the dining room just a few floors down with my roommates.

After a delicious breakfast and a speech about our game plan from my ASL II teacher, Ms. Prather, we were on our way with our metro passes at hand. Our first stop was to head toward the White House and meet with our official tour guide, Cathy (everyone fell in love with her just in that one day due to her sass and wit). She met us just a few blocks away from the White House visiting center, and we were soon on our way again toward the destination I looked forward to visiting more than any other.

We arrived early for our tour of the White House, so we had some time to tour the White House visiting center that was just down the street. This building was full of interesting artifacts and pictures from past presidents as well as a small gift shop where I got my parents each a Christmas ornament used to honor a specific U.S. President (Woodrow Wilson for my mom and Theodore Roosevelt for my dad). Soon enough, it was time to leave the visiting center, so we entrusted all of our items except our identification and phones to our tour guide and sophomore Tanner Wilson, who wasn’t cleared but had toured inside of the White House prior to our trip.

We embarked upon our path and a short time later, the White House was within our view. The security check was meticulous and extensive as we passed through two ID checks, had our bags scanned and entered a room where a fan blew our scent to a concealed dog to make ensure we weren’t carrying anything that would cause issues. After resolving a small identification issue, we were allowed into the center of our nation’s government.

The White House was all I could have hoped for and more. The rooms were beautiful, and I learned a textbook worth of history from helpful security guards. While we only got to see the West Wing of the White House, it was still an interesting experience to see where so many Presidents of the past lived and carried out day to day tasks as they led our country. The self paced tour still left me feeling like I was rushing in order to leave ample time to visit our next destination, the Capitol.

The long walk to the Capitol was well worth the effort as we saw a variety of interesting statues and had the chance to be close to the area where the inauguration usually occurs. That being said, the best part of visiting the Capitol was undoubtedly the Capitol Rotunda which held incredible artwork and historical artifacts such as the “Declaration of Independence,” “Baptism of Pocahontas” and “Apotheosis of Washington.” Beautiful statues such as the 3 Suffragists and the George Washington portrait bust as well as the top portion of the Rotunda showed the technological revolution of man. I actually got yelled at by a worker at one point because I stopped at the entrance of the Rotunda to take in the magnetism of the room. The Rotunda was also great in other ways as sophomore Hallie Lackey got to see her sister who happened to be one of the tour guides, and we also met Mrs. Prather’s cousin, Scott Tipton, who is the U.S. Representative for Colorado. After taking a picture with Representative Tipton, we were on our way to a long overdue lunch.

After a rushed meal at the National Place, where I attempted to stuff as many Five Guys fries in my mouth as physically possible, our group decided in order to make it to the Washington National Cathedral in a timely manner, we would have to skip the Library of Congress. Having made our decision, we walked to the National Archives where the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence were located. Although I had to trudge through much taller people than my 5’1” self, it was fascinating to see the papers that not only formed our government and how we function, but to also see the paper that led us to war against Great Britain for our independence and liberty.

After completing our patriotic tour of the National Archives, we patiently waited for the metro bus. Eventually, our tour guide realized the protests against the pipeline that President Trump placed an executive order to continue building were today and this resulted in the metro bus being delayed. In order to continue our trip, we would have to travel the old fashioned way–on foot.

Our group walked uphill for 20 minutes with only sweat, tears and pure determination to make it to the National Cathedral. I walked with senior Callie Boren and sophomore Taryn Glenn, and we passionately listened to “Climbing Uphill” from the musical “The Last Five Years” out of someone’s phone. We eventually made it to top and after a good minute of celebrating the miracle that no one in our group passed out, we made our way to the tour.

The National Cathedral was fascinating and exquisite to see as it was adorned with stained glass art and engraved statues and altars. The best piece of art by far was a stained glass window which actually had moon rock inside it. I was as close as the moon as I will probably ever be in my entire life (unless space travel becomes a thing before I die). Another fascinating part of my trip was when we reached the tombs of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. While we weren’t able to actually see inside the tombs, the outside of the burial was exquisitely decorated with a bronze plaque that read, “Helen Keller and her lifelong companion Anne Sullivan Macy are Interred in the Columbarium Behind This Chapel” in both English and braille. After a quick visit to the Cathedral gift shop, we were on our way to get dinner.

After eating dinner and taking a few aesthetic shots of the Washington Memorial rising above the reflection of water, we headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Not only was is surreal to see the popular statue of Abraham Lincoln, but it was also interesting and inspirational to read the excerpts of Lincoln’s famous speeches that surrounded the statue as well as the excerpts that were located on a lower floor. Following our visit to the Lincoln Memorial, we went to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, which left the most impact on me because these memorials were breathtaking due to the list of names to honor soldiers who either died or went missing in action during these wars.

Finally having reached the conclusion of a day that was both intellectually stimulating and emotionally intriguing, we returned to our hotel. I headed up to my room and peeled off my clothing so that I could take a long overdue shower. After that incredibly serene moment, I slipped back on my polar bear pajamas, took out my contacts, put on my retainer and fell asleep the very moment head hit the pillow.