Washington DC Day II Jefferson Monument/US Botanical Gardens 6/5/11

As we walked from the Metro Subway to the Sightseeing Tour for our second day, Joe stopped to look at this building within a building. Was the large building built around the small building, or was the small building built inside the large building?

On the trolley, we go past this building with all the flags of around the world. I think this was another hotel and restaurant.

Not sure what was going on at this hotel, as we whiz by.

A cafe outside of the Washington Hotel.

We were told by our tour guide, this statue symbolizes man trying to Controlling Trade (depicted as a horse) at the Federal Trade Commission, Washington DC.

Our first jump off, was at Union Station. The Union Station is considered to be one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture.

We were told that the ceiling was inlaid with 24 carat gold inside. I did some research, and I found out that there is seventy pounds of 22-karat leaf adorned on the 96-foot barrel-vaulted ceilings.

Here is a better view.

From the Union Station, we walked toward the US Capitol.

As we walked toward the Capitol, we got a better view of the first fountains that are in front of the north side of the Capitol.

Fountains above the other fountains.

People must be feeding the squirrels as they were very forward and ran right up to you. The squirrels are starting to look like Iowa squirrels. The squirrels in the south are very small and completely grey. This one is much fatter than what we have seen lately, and have patches of brown. Iowa squirrels are all brown.

This is the north side of the US Capitol. We walk around toward the  front.

We finally make our way to the west side of the Capitol. We were told by my daughter Tiffany, and Joe's brother, Dave that if you wanted to see the inside of certain places in DC, you had to make previous arrangements ahead of time. The US Capitol is one of them. Our schedule is usually only one to two weeks planned ahead of time, so we didn't get arrangements done. I wish I had checked into DC better, because when we got to DC, the Capitol tours were book out just two weeks in advance. As I always say. I guess we will have to do that another year.

If you look west from the Capitol you see the Washington Monument.

We walked out to the west entrance of the Capitol to catch our orange line trolley.

While waiting we walked over to the "Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. It is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring American Civil War general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. It is located at the base of Capitol Hill."

We headed back to the trolley pick up, but I saw the US Botanic Gardens. I took a picture of the outside, and wandered inside to see how much it cost to get in. I was told it was free. I talked Joe into walking through it.

An orchid

A pineapple plant

This was a room that had a lot of information on spices, and plants that had different aromas.

All these flowers had centers with spices in a labeled container center and information on it.

More orchids

Inside

Side view

Begonia

 A long center fountain pool.

Another room with  tropical jungle plants.

This was the entrance to a kids room.

A playhouse roofed in plant life, and fountain to play in.

Watering cans so the children can water the plants. ( Note his one blue, one red shoes)

This plant was a real treat for me.

This is a chocolate ( cacao ) tree. I have never seen a cacao tree before.

White Bleeding Heart I have never seen a White Bleeding Heart plant either. I have seen the pink ones, but not the white ones.

In the Tropical Jungle Garden, you can climb stairs to walk above it, to get a different view.

This is a begonia plant growing in a hollow tree stump. Great idea!

After visiting the gardens, we waited for our trolley, out front of the US Capitol. It went right by us, when it arrived. Joe jumped up and went running after it, waving his hands. The trolley stop about a half block away, where it finally stopped. I was way behind Joe. Joe almost made it to the trolley, when it took off again. We sat at the right trolley stop, on a bench, and had our lunch. Thirty minutes later, another trolley came and we finally got on. The picture above is the oldest Smithsonian Building in DC. I took this picture while on our trolley ride.

Our next trolley stop was at Jefferson Memorial.

As we walked by the Tidal Basin toward the monument we saw these geese and their babies.

Spring  is a great time of year, with all the new things God blesses us with.

Jefferson Monument

We climbed the stairs. At the top there was a ranger giving a talk about how this memorial almost wasn't built because, some opposed the chopping down of 600 cherry tree.

But after many years of debates, the cornerstone was laid by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939.

There are four engraved banners around the statue of Jefferson, with  Jefferson's quotes. On the panel of the southwest interior wall are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776. 

Note that the inscription uses the word "inalienable", as in Jefferson's draft, rather than "unalienable", as in the published Declaration.^[7

The inscription on the panel of the southeast interior wall is redacted and excerpted from a letter July 12, 1816, to Samuel Kercheval.  I wanted to put all four of the quotes on my blog to memorialize this monument's, reference to the importance of "God" from one of our Founding Father of America.

The quotes from the panel of the northeast interior wall are from multiple sources. The first sentence, beginning "God who gave...", is from "A Summary View of the Rights of British America".^{[citation needed]} The second, third and fourth sentences are from Notes on the State of Virginia.^{[citation needed]} The fifth sentence, beginning "Nothing is more...", is from Jefferson's autobiography.^{[citation needed]} The sixth sentence, beginning "Establish the law...", is from an August 13, 1790, letter to George Wythe.^{[citation needed]} The final sentence is from a letter of January 4, 1786, to George Washington:^{[citation needed].}   I have hear in the news, how some people want to take out the word, " God " in many of Washington DC monuments and buildings. The oppositions, I think , believe religion should not be mixed with government. But what they fail to realize is that, America was based on people who wanted freedom of religion. That is why they came to the new world of America. Our government was based on GODS LOVE for us! The power and strength of America comes from GOD! You take GODS LOVE out of America, and what do you have left? No POWER or STRENGTH. No more America! No more FREEDOM!

On the panel of the northwest interior wall is an excerpt from "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1777", except for the last sentence, which is taken from a letter of August 28, 1789, to James Madison:^{[citation needed].}  I want my grandchildren and great grandchildren to know our country, "America", was based on honoring God's will for freedom.

Above Jefferson, under the dome, is another quote by him,  it reads, " I HAVE SWORN

UPON THE ALTER OF

GOD ETERNAL

HOSTILITY AGAINST

EVERY FORM OF

TYRANNY OVER

THE MIND OF

MAN

Thomas Jefferson 1743-1823, our 3rd President, stands 19 feet tall, and made of 10,000 lbs of bronze.

Jefferson faces toward the White House.

The monument sits on the shores of the Tidal basin of the Potomac River.

We went down to the trolley stop, but found we had just missed it, according to some people waiting for the next one. We decided to walk over to the Theodore Delano Roosevelt Monument instead of waiting for the next trolley. To be continued.