Day 6 – Supreme Court, Library of Congress, US Capitol and Peter Grimes

A big day for us today with an early start to arrive at the Supreme Court as it opened for the day. We listened to a short and informative presentation while seated in the Supreme Court Gallery with 9 empty seats in front of us which are home to our Nation’s highest judges. We then hopped next door to see the Library of Congress. To us casual visitors it wasn’t much of a library, but as an architectural wonder it was an 11 out of 10. We saw the sun for the first time this trip and enjoyed lunch with a view of the US Capitol building – our next stop.

We had a short tour of the Capitol and then hurried over to the Dickson Building to meet Sen. Ron Wyden. He was a gracious host but obviously pressed for time, especially since he was due in 10 minutes to vote on the floor. We decided to check out his story and raced back to the Senate Gallery to make sure he wasn’t pulling a fast one on us. In a very un-politician-like manner, he was actually telling the truth, and we got to see the action on the Senate floor. The kids recognized Sen. Wyden along with Sen. Jeff Merkley (who was presiding over the Senate floor). Most recognized John McCain and John Kerry. A few knew Joe Leiberman, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. I had to sneak a peek at the closed circuit television to know that Harry Reid was speaking. Aside from those though, it was pretty much just a procession of wrinkly old men.

We hustled back to the hotel for a quick pizza dinner and then got gussied up in our Sunday best to go see Peter Grimes at the Kennedy Center. I’ll have to admit that my expectations were low for a 3+ hour opera after a long day in D.C. First of all, Mrs. Andresen wrecked the ending by telling us that Peter dies at the end (and I guess I just wrecked it for you too.) Secondly, I don’t speak a lick of Italian. And lastly … well, it was a 3+ hour opera! But I was pleasantly surprised and actually didn’t have a problem staying awake. Someone informed me at intermission that there were English subtitles (or more accurately “supertitles”) above the stage, which really helped out understanding the Italian. During the second intermission someone informed me that not only were there English supertitles, but they were actually singing in English and not Italian. So by the last third of the opera, I was actually getting into it – that was until Peter had to up and die on us. (Oh, and Mrs. Andresen, Peter came back for the curtain call so he didn’t really die after all!)

A final note as it’s nearing midnight. Your kids behaved very impressively at the opera tonight - far better than what I saw from many other older kids there. I obviously can’t speak for every chaperon, but from what I witnessed you all have much to be proud of.

Here is a link to pictures from today. They're taking forever to upload tonight for some reason, so I'm going to kick off the upload and go to bed. The final ones are of your kids dressed up for the opera! Enjoy!