Continuing from the previous post...

On the second day of my vacation I took the train down to DC for a tour of the US Capitol building. Sen. Reid's office arranged to have a tour guide meet me in the new visitor's center, which is built under the Capitol. There was supposed to be a group of five people, but I was the only one who showed up, so I had the tour guide to myself. I can't remember her name! I thought I wrote it down, but apparently not. This was the first time I'd toured the Capitol since the construction of the visitor's center. The last time was in 1997, I think.

Before my tour began I walked a couple of blocks down Pennsylvania Ave from the Capitol and had lunch at Good Eats Eatery, a burger joint which has been featured on Food Network. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't spectacular either.

Emancipation Hall, the main lobby of the Capitol Visitor Center.

If statues weren't lifeless lumps of stone and metal, the Capitol building would be crawling with them. Since they're immobile, however, they just stand around filling every nook and cranny. You're never without a pair of inanimate eyes staring at you. Each state has contributed two statues, some of which decorate the Visitor Center. Here is one of Wyoming's contributions, Chief Washakie.

Atop the Capitol dome is the bronze Statue of Freedom, an Athena-like lady with sword and toga. The original clay model has been reassembled and now dominates Emancipation Hall in the Visitors Center.

My favorite statue in the entire capitol is of King Kamehameha, from Hawaii. It looks awesome! Polished black and glittering gold; it really stands out. The statue wasn't moved to it's prominent position in Emancipation Hall until Pres. Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was nominated by the Dems last year.

Sen. Reid's tour coordinator advised me to meet my guide at this statue of Sarah Winnemucca. She was introduced to the Capitol building in 2005, joining Nevada's other statue, Sen. Pat McCarran.

In 1865, as the nation began the long healing process after the Civil War, Italian artist Constantino Brumidi painted The Apotheosis of Washington on the ceiling of the Capitol rotunda. The massive fresco shows George Washington ascending into heaven, where he becomes a god. Since it's 180 feet above your head, you can't really get a grasp for just how big the painting is, but it covers over 4,600 square feet! The figures are more than twice life-size, as much as 15 feet tall. Wow.

There are 8 huge paintings hanging on the rotunda wall. Each is 12 feet x 18 feet. That's bigger than the average bedroom! This is Declaration of Independence & Surrender of General Burgoyne, by John Turnbull.

One of the few photos I have of me was taken in the Old Senate Chamber. This room housed the Senate until the mid-1800's when the new wing was completed. It's not the greatest photo... The flash was a bit close.

This was one of my favorite rooms of the Capitol, the old Supreme Court chamber. These rooms do not photograph well with hand-held cameras, unfortunately.

That concludes the tour of the Capitol and Day 2 of my vacation. I'll post the rest tomorrow.

It's late and I'm sleepy, so my comments here will be brief.

I went on vacation to Baltimore and Washington, DC, April 1-6. There was some inclement weather which prevented a lot of photo taking, but here are the few I took in Baltimore on the first and third days, April 1 and 3, of the vacation. (On the second day, I took the MARC train down to DC for a Capitol tour that I had previously scheduled with Sen. Harry Reid's office. I'll get those photos up tomorrow, probably.)

Since I was just going to be in Baltimore for two nights, and I was being frugal, I opted to stay at the Baltimore Hostel. Several years ago I stayed in the Hosteling International hostel in DC. The stay there was OK, but construction noise and traffic proved to be a major headache. The Baltimore Hostel proved to be much quieter, and I was pleased with my stay there.

Here is the exterior of the building, at 17 West Mulberry St in downtown Baltimore. It is the dark-brown 3-story building, second from the right.

The dormitory style rooms of the hostel remind me of summer camp, when I was a kid. See the bunk with the red blanket? That's mine. I'm pretty OCD about bed-making. Unlike the DC hostel, this one had a one-person bathroom for each dorm. I kind of liked the communal showers in DC...

One of the coolest things about this hostel was the big common room. It had a nice fireplace, a window looking out on the Baltimore Basilica across the street, and a baby grand piano. I attempted to play the piano. The action was weak, the keys yellowed, and the sound a bit twangy. But it cost like $25 a night to stay there, so I wasn't expecting a concert quality instrument.

Across Mulberry Street, at the corner of Cathedral St, sits the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as the Baltimore Basilica. It is referred to as the nation's first cathedral, since it was the first built after the adoption of the Constitution. It was completed in 1821. One of the architects, Henry Latrobe, was also the first architect of the U.S. Capitol building. A quick story about my visit there: as I was entering the cathedral grounds, I saw a couple enter the building. They appeared to be tourist, also, since they were snapping photos. I thought nothing of it. As I was exiting the adjacent gift shop-- which had shot glasses with a picture of the basilica, quite an oddity considering the church I grew up in, not Catholic, was dry-- I saw the lady practically running down the steps and out the gate, her boyfriend/husband in tow. She was sobbing loudly. Another gentlemen followed them and caught up with them on the sidewalk. He appeared associated with the basilica. The whole thing was weird. I wonder what she was crying about...

Like DC, Baltimore also has a Washington Monument. It is less than half the height of the DC monument, but more than half a century older. There is a museum at the base, and you can take a long flight of stairs up to the top of it. During my visit, it looked closed up and I was unable to get any closer than the iron fence around it allowed.

In the park across the street from the Washington Monument was a statue of George Peabody, sitting in front of the eponymous Peabody Institute..

One of the main reasons I decided to visit Baltimore was to see the grave site of Edgar Allen Poe. On the way to the cemetery, I stopped by the University of Baltimore Law School to see his statue. As I began to compose the shot, three girls, who appeared to be students, sat down right next to the statue for a smoke break. I kindly asked them step away. They did.

In the yard of Westminster church lay the remains of Edgar Allen Poe. The cemetery was already existent before the church itself-- so they just built on top of it. Poe's remains were moved to their present, more prominent location, at the corner of the lot, in 1875.

At his death in 1849, Poe was buried in a plot marked only with a numbered stone. This marker was erected later, after his remains were moved.

A photoshopped version of the gravesite photo...

You can't visit Baltimore without having crab cake! Just before I took the train down to my DC hotel, I stopped by the famous Lexington Market and had a yummy bite to eat from Crabpot Adell's. The famous market itself was jam-packed with shops and eateries, but was not in the best of neighborhoods. The sidewalks around it were crowded with not-so-well-to-do peoples.

That concludes the Baltimore portion of the vacation. On the afternoon of the third day, I took the train back down to Union Station in DC, and then the metro to the largest hotel in the city. I'll continue from there tomorrow...

Though I've lived in Las Vegas for most of the last eight years, I've only seen two scorpions, both in the last six months. I think they like the backyard of my current residence. The first was in the garage, and I quickly dispatched him with a wedge of wood. Today, I found a small one in the shower, on my wash cloth. I shudder at the thought of a scorpion stinging my peenar. As much as I like showering with friends, this one wasn't going to see me naked for too long. After snapping a few photos of him, he met his end in a wad of tissue soaked in peroxide. I have no clue why I put peroxide on it...