The Capitol tour that was, then wasn't, then was, then wasn't...

So about six weeks sago, when Strider and I were first planning our DC trip, I dutifully wrote to my representative to ask for tour tickets. Someone from her office quickly responded, and told us we were scheduled for a personal tour of the Capitol! I quickly scanned the email and told Strider we would be going at 2:00 pm Saturday. This became the attraction Strider was most excited about -- it would be the culmination and pinnacle of our trip.

Saturday finally arrived and we planned our day around this tour, giving ourselves plenty of time to be in the area ahead of time, scoping out the location of the building our representative's office was in (which is where we were to meet our tour guide). As 2:00 neared, John, Keiko, Sammy, Strider and I headed over to that building only to find the front door locked.

I had read in the email that sometimes various doors are locked, so to just try another one. John and Strider headed one way around the block, and I went the other, trying all the doors, all the way around the very large building. None of them worked. We did see a sign, however, that said we should try a door at a neighboring building, on the next block over. Thinking we would probably go in an underground tunnel to get back to the apppropriate building, we headed over there. (By this point we were very hot and sticky, after walking many blocks in the heat).

We finally found a guard and a semi-open door, but were told no employees were in the building, so we could not go on our tour. Just as we were about to make some serious phone calls with some serious outrage, I re-checked my confirmation email.... and discovered it said, "2:00 pm on September 24." As it turns out September 24 was not Saturday!

We had missed our big tour! We were all experiencing something on the spectrum of despair, anger, frustration, or, at least, mild disappointment. Plus it was so dang hot. Strider turned to me, and started the question, "Moooooom.... Does this mean we can't see the Capitol, the one thing I really wanted --" Thankfully, he stopped himself from finishing that thought, because I don't think I could have handled it at that moment.

Trying to be optimistic and pleasant, instead of sitting down on the curb weeping as some of us probably wanted to, we decided to head over to the Capitol Visitor's Center to see if there was any chance we could jump in on a public tour. We weren't sure what the chances were of this, since the area was very crowded that day. But we trudged over anyway.

When we got to the door, we discovered we weren't able to bring any type of container in the building, so rather than throw away our $15 water bottle and the rest of our snacks, we decided our group would take turns staying outside with the stroller. John and Keiko graciously let Strider and I go in first. We made it through security, and entered a large room which was very crowded with people standing in a long, winding line. Strider told me he would rather not go on the tour at all than stand in that line! (And he also very sweetly told me that he wouldn't be mad if we couldn't go at all -- that he didn't hold it against me. I was thankful for his forgiveness!)

I decided to try my chances at the near-empty desk where ticket-holders could go without standing in line. I explained to the man there that I had mistakenly read my tour reservation, and asked if there was any chance we could still get in. He immediately said that if we could go right now, we could be tacked on to another group's tour, which was leaving in 4 seconds. Strider and I decided to go for it. The man pointed out across the large room and said, "See that group heading that way? Follow them into the theater. Go, go, go!" He handed us stickers to put on, and we rushed across the room.

We followed the group of people up an escalator, and out the door of the visitor's center. As we headed outside, I spotted John and Keiko and urged them to jump in with us. We all scrambled to keep up with the mostly white-haired group that was following a lady (our tour-guide, presumably) with an umbrella.

We commented to one another a few times about how it was strange we weren't actually headed for the Capitol building. Well, we must be touring one of the neighboring office buildings first, we thought. Then we thought it was strange that everyone else in the group had stickers that said 1:00 tour time, while ours said 2:10. Oh well, we thought. But after we had walked several blocks, past all of the congressional buildings and far, far away from the Capitol, we finally had the intelligence to ask one of the white-hairs about the tour. And, wouldn't you know, they had already toured the Capitol, and apparently were headed now back to their bus for their next destination! We had somehow followed the wrong group of people.

Since we did not feel like we should just board the seniors' tourbus, we turned around. Once again we found ourselves dejectedly and overheadedly walking back the several blocks to the Capitol Visitor's Center.

By the time we finally arrived back, and had gone back again to the nice men behind the "tickets only" counter, we were, with great relief, able to join one of very last tours of the day.

The tour begins with a short movie in a theater at the visitor's center, and as the 4 of us sat down, I think we all collectively said we hoped the movie would be very, very long. It felt so good to just sit down. In air conditioning, And, of course, to finally be beginning an actual tour.

Anyway, the long and not-so-short of it is: we did finally get a tour. And it was very good. And informative.
(We all got to wear those fancy headphones so we could hear our tourguide)

And even though it wasn't the tour we were expecting, we did have the special bonus of getting to see the original room used for the Supreme Court in the 1800's (which is not always open for tours).

And, overall, Strider was happy. So, Mom didn't completely blow it. :)