Dome Sweet Dome

This morning, Bryan and I got to go on a tour of the Capitol Dome. The Dome has been closed to the public for years -- to see it, you have to go with a Senator or Congressman. Senator Craig graciously offered to take a group up to the Dome this morning, so Bryan and I took advantage and tagged along.

The tour requires you to climb over 300 steep steps through areas that are often very narrow with low clearance (another reason I'm thankful to be short). On the tour, we got to see the inside of the Rotunda, and at the end of the tour, we got to go outside on top of the Capitol.

This view is looking down from about halfway up to the top of the Rotunda.


This view is from the same spot, looking up. If you look closely, you can see some railing around the mural. We worked our way up and stood behind that railing....

....which is where this picture was taken. At this point, we were about 180 feet from the floor of the Rotunda.

After that picture, we stepped outside onto the top of the Capitol. There is a small walkway around the top. It was a clear day, so you could see for miles in every direction. The Mall and the Washington Monument are in the background.

This is the very top of the Capitol building -- the Statue of Freedom is right on top of this structure.

The tour was great, but exhausting. Not only did we have to hike up 300 steep steps, we also had to hike back down...