Ken Nelson

Location: Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Day 18 Pictures
All trip pictures

The Army Marksman Ship unit will be holding a pistol shooting camp for juniors (juniorshootercamp.com) in November.  I’d arranged that Brian could go even though he was not the recommended 16 years of age.   The application forms came via e-mail, and surprise, surprise, an essay is required with the application. It is to cover his experience as a shooter, what he hopes to accomplish in the class, and his views on how the sport and this camp might affect 2nd Amendment Rights.   We worked a bit and then decided that wihle in Rome do as the Romans do…. and in D.C. if you want to write something, you go to Starbucks. So off we went!

If he were totally hip, it would be on a laptop, not paper, but he just can’t type that well. So he wrote it, then Grandpa Carl typed it in for him on his computer (which has a printer). Then we put the application together and Fed Exed to where it needed to be.  We hope to be the first 50 accepted so that Remington will supply our ammo for the camp. That would save a lot of money!

Today’s goal was the U.S. Capitol and the Smithsonian American History museum.  We decided to try the Capitol first:

P.S. It’s still raining )-:

Here young Brian poses as an NRA lobbyist on the Capitol steps:

The Congress spent a Billion dollars on a new visitor center, and we wanted to see it. It was elegant:

Usually it is tough to get a Capitol tour but I went up and asked if anybody had not shown up and sure enough… 4 spots were open RIGHT NOW.  So off we went on the tour of the Capitol. Here is the rotunda:

I’ve seen it a dozen times or more, but it is always impressive.

After a short indoctrination film where we learned that Congress did GREAT things, we then went to the usual places, the Hall of Statues, and other spots, most not worth photographing. but then a chill descended, almost like a  Dementor (from Harry Potter) was near by.  I looked around and the source was clear

 
Sign in front of Nancy’s office

Then it was over and we walked towards the Smithsonian. Here is the view of the Capitol from the Mall side:

The American History museum was closed for two years and has been redone. I had high hopes for it, but was disappointed. It seems pretty similar to before.  We did Abraham Lincoln (took about 1.5 hours) and then called it a day.

That evening Paula and I then walked over to 14th and Q to join her cousin Jamie, and her new fiancée Alex for dinner. We ate at Postos, an excellent Italian place. We both liked Alex a lot and had a fun time.