January 8th, 2011

Saturday Jan 8th, 2011 well, today was my first true exploration day and sleep-in day as well. After getting around I headed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on 6th and Independence streets. Passing by I realized I live directly behind the Supreme Court but I cannot see it from my windows. We did have a dusting of snow on the cars but not cold enough where I had to wear a coat. About 30 Deg when I headed out around noon. After the 20 min walk, that’s definitely one thing I will have to get used to-all the walking, I passed several buildings on Independence as is goes along the south side of the Capitol. I snapped some pics of the backside of the Capitol and of the Supreme Court as well as some of the Library of Congress.  I also saw from the outside the 3 House office buildings-Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn. I passed the botanical garden and also the National Museum of the American Indian that I plan on visiting before I leave as I have Indian in my blood. Health and Human services was a huge building that I’m sure is hard at work developing your healthcare mandates! LOL had to say it. The US Dept of Education building as well as the William J Cohen Federal building is right across the street from the Air and Space museum. Upon arrival I knew I had the entire afternoon to peruse one of the best in the country. I was not disappointed! I have read countless books on space and air travels as a youngster; know I would be observing the aircraft that were a part of history! I quickly found the Apollo 11 Command Module which successfully brought back the 3-man crew that took two men to the surface of the moon! It is actually really small and not very conducive to movement. I also found the Spirit of St. Louis aircraft that fellow 35th ID soldier Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean. Among other planes: an Amelia Earhart plane, the Wright brothers 1903 Flyer that started it all and numerous jets/planes that were firsts. I was in heaven! I spent almost 5 hours in the museum only stopping for my overpriced Quarter pounder meal that checked in at $8.13 with tax! Man, I will never complain about prices in the Midwest again! Everything is pricier here. I left and cut back through the Capitol and snapped some decent sunset pics that I will post somewhere. All in all I would say this is a great museum to go to. I place it directly under the Kennedy Space museum as my list of favorites. 
Gas when I left St Joseph the 4th was at 2.77/gal. Here it is 3.39/gal and you use most idling in traffic! A staffer from my office says that she can make it from her home 10 miles away in about an hour driving. If she takes the Metro she can make it in about an hour and a half, but she rides for free being a staffer! Luckily, I live about a half-block from my place of work the Hart Senate office building. It is located just off the Capitol and there is a special subway car that you can take underground to cut the time to just a few minutes. It’s pretty cool and I did ride with Senator Al Franken of Minnesota my second day. My place is pretty cool, an older building that has been converted to stuff as many interns as possible in here to make the money off us. Each room is different but ours isn’t the best or the worst. I have stayed in worse Army barracks so who am I to complain!
Ah first day, didn’t go so bad, arrived early as I thought I would need to be strip searched or have trouble gaining access to the building since I didn’t have an ID yet. Of course I was wrong and as such arrived at 830 not needing to be there until 930. So I met the staff assistants Toby and Anna who are also Missouri products. They were nice and I then met the other full-time intern Stokely. He is from Desoto just south of St Louis but attended Washburn University for school so we went to school about an hour fifteen away. So we made quick friends and have had some fun already touring the Capitol and just joking around the office. I met the intern coordinator Kevin who is a cool guy that tells it straight. You would figure a Missouri guy but actually has only visited the Lake of the Ozarks. We went through the normal paperwork when first starting a new job and got our ID’s! These things get us access to anywhere we want to go! So we roam around and find some things and it’s time for lunch. Hart only has a little café but Dirksen the connecting building has a full-service buffet that is second to none! Lunch was good and after that we went exploring. We tried to get into the new Senator swearing in but that was a special-ticket only event and no one in our office even had tickets. Oh well, our first Capitol foray was fun and we got to see a cool few things. The TINY elevators that say 10 people max but I would say more like 6 squeezing. Going back we were introduced to more people from around the office that were nice and inviting. Since the Senate was in session we worked until 6pm.