The Supreme Court

We didn't head into our time in DC with specific plans to visit all of the buildings that house our branches of government, but after a White House tour fell into our laps, we decided we should do our best to make it happen. AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, Brad had an acquaintance from Duke whose brother was an intern at the Supreme Court and was happy to give us a private tour. So, despite all the trepidation that accompanies taking three young children into an important place with high security, we decided to go for it.

This is what the Supreme Court building looks like on a beautiful, sunshiny day:

And here is what it looked like the day we visited:

It rained absolute buckets. We didn't get too wet between our house and the Dupont metro stop, but we definitely looked like drowned rats after the walk from Union Station to the Supreme Court. We had our umbrellas and rain coats (one of our umbrellas decided not to work, OF COURSE), but we couldn't take our stroller, which meant that we couldn't cover the children with their stroller visors. We were definitely a soggy bunch when we arrived.

I'll say up front that I don't have many pictures from our tour because there are so many areas of the building that you aren't allowed to photograph (including the actual room where it happens), so we only have a few shots of a few rooms.

One of those pictures is this one of Claire and John Jay...who you can't see because my phone camera was on portrait mode and I didn't realize it! Can you see how wet she is?

I thought the building was so beautiful inside; there is so much beautiful marble (which meant keeping the children quiet was extra challenging) and classical architecture. We were able to visit Justice Breyer's chambers, the library, the shelves with all the transcripts of all the cases brought to the Court, patent requests, the basketball court...Yeah. That one caught me off-guard, for sure! There's a full basketball court for the staff to use! Apparently, they have dodgeball tournaments in there, too. Physical fitness really is important, guys.

The girls really enjoyed these huge ball room/event rooms.

President Taft --> 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

(Mommy! He's on our place mat!)

(Yes, children. He's also on your place mat)

And here's John Jay's portrait, in an attempt to make up for the failed picture earlier.

The girls frolicked and romped through this room, unaware of all of the history surrounding them. I'm just glad they didn't continue dripping on all the things... Brynn did have an *almost* blowout while we were in the Supreme Courtroom, which is a memory I could do without. We bought the girls pencils to remember our visit, and only later did we realize that the pencils change color when heated by your hand. We didn't even know what a GEM those pencils would turn out to be! Perhaps even more exciting than a private tour of the Supreme Court!

Although our trek to and fro and around was a great expenditure of energy and effort, it really is a great family memory and such a neat experience. I'm very glad we were able to work it out. 

White House: check

Supreme Court: check

Capitol building: we shall see...