A hot day in Washington D.C.

Our concert at the WWII Memorial on the National Mall was at 10:00 in the morning. Despite it being early, it was HOT! Sally had already given permission for the men to ditch their suit coats and allowed for the women to wear sandals, rather than our nice shoes and nylons. But we were all still wearing ankle length, long sleeved, black dresses. (Men in pants, shirts and ties.) June temperatures + humidity is nothing to scoff at. The risers and sound equipment was set up in a way that had us facing the Washington Monument with our backs to the Lincoln Memorial. Can you imagine a concert setting any cooler than that? But facing the Washington Monument also meant facing directly into the sun. Sally eventually agreed that despite it not looking overly professional, we could sing this concert wearing sunglasses and/or hats. Quite a different look for us as a choir, for sure! Another concert etiquette no-no...I was so hot and sweaty that my sunglasses kept sliding down my nose and I had to continually push them back up, sometimes even in the middle of a song! {gasp} Our songs sounded good, our audience was appreciative...but as awesome as the venue was we were all somewhat relieved when we could step off the risers and seek out some shade.

The last time I visited D.C. the WWII Memorial was just a few weeks away from officially opening but was still fenced off. So I quite enjoyed being able to wander around and take it all in. It's a beautiful memorial.

 We Utah Daltons sure miss our Mary in Idaho!

And of course I had to seek out and take a picture of New Jersey since Julianne would be leaving shortly to serve her mission there!

Rachel and her two cuties drove up from Richmond, Virginia to join us this particular morning! Rachel lived in D.C. and worked as an intern for Senator Bob Bennett many years ago so she already knew her way around the city quite well. Which meant that when we took the official tour bus, she was easily able to meet us at various locations by taking the metro. 

See Mom's bright red face? We all inherited that particular trait from her. Just call us the cherry red Dalton girls.

Our tour guide that stayed with us the entire trip was amazing...and had quite a sense of humor. Lots of fun facts and stories mixed in with the official history of the places we were visiting. He kept us engaged and entertained.


















On our way out of the WWII Memorial towards the bus, who do you suppose we ran into? None other than Senator Bob Dole, the Republican nominee for president who lost to Bill Clinton in 1996. Having served in WWII himself, apparently he likes to come to the Memorial on Saturday mornings to greet other veterans groups who are visiting. We sang the National Anthem for him and then took some pictures. He was quite the ladies man and joked about wanting to pose for photos with the women, even convincing a few to give him kisses on the cheek.

 The next stop was a tour of the United States Capitol Building. When Rachel interned for Sen Bennett, Melissa and I took a trip out to visit her and see the sites. Because she had many intern friends in and around the Capitol and various executive buildings, she was able to score us a personal tour that including some extras at the Capitol, including the underground tram that took us from the OEOB (Old Executive Office Building, which has since been renamed the EEOB...Eisenhower Executive Office Building) to the Capitol Building, Lincoln's catafalque and a few other areas that are normally not on the regular tour. This tour was more of the traditional variety...but as always, the US Capitol always packs the wow factor. It's an amazing building.

I'm not sure who took this picture of us all taking selfies...Linda and I on the one side, with Mom, Dad, Mary and Mel on the other (Katie maybe)? But I love that I also ended up with the actual selfie that Linda and I are taking. :)

The Rotunda is pretty darn incredible...and filled with statues of historical figures. All the Founding Fathers and other greats, of course. But also two statues per state...for example, Utah has Brigham Young and Philo T. Farnsworth (inventor of the TV). Obviously they can't fit them all in the Rotunda, so they are scattered around in the various connecting rooms and hallways. It's all very grand.

We had lunch in the basement cafeteria, and then also roamed around a gift shop while we made some new plans that strayed from the official itinerary. While the rest of the choir, including Mom and Dad who were tired, went back to the hotel to change clothes and rest for a bit, we sisters decided to do our own thing with Rachel as our guide, and eventually meet up with everyone later at dinner. (We had brought casual clothes with us and had already changed after the WWII Memorial concert.)

We met up with Rachel outside the doors of the Capitol where she had been entertaining her 4-year old and 5-month sons. While we were packing up the kids and their paraphernalia, a guard came over, pointed to another stroller sitting in the corner and asked if it belonged to us. We said no, and then continued on our way. We hadn't got too far onto the grounds of the Capitol when the craziness started. We saw guards running in all directions, a few of them headed our way, where we were told that the Capitol was now closed and being evacuated...and that we needed to leave immediately. As we made our way to the street at the edge of Capitol property, we heard sirens. Lots of them. We ended up part of a small crowd of people looking back, speculating about the scene when even more guards showed up and shooed us across the street. We asked them what was going on and were told that there was an "incident" regarding a "suspicious package." We watched countless emergency vehicles go by, and were again pushed back even further...to the point that we eventually just asked if we could at least go inside the Library of Congress which was across the street from the Capitol but a slightly down from where we were standing. They agreed.

When we came out about 45 minutes later, all was quiet on the Capitol front. We wondered what had happened, and were curious as to if the abandoned stroller had been the "suspicious package" considering the guards had looked quite concerned when we told them it didn't belong to us, and all the craziness had started just moments later. We mentioned it to our tour guide later that night. He said, interestingly enough, that this happens on the regular and that the Capitol is shut down and evacuated about once a week!

The Library of Congress is one of my very favorite buildings. I can't get enough of the ceilings and stairs. Just gorgeous!

The restaurant where we were to meet everyone for dinner was just a few blocks off the Mall on the opposite end from the Capitol and Library of Congress. We figured that a meandering walk through the Mall, past all the Smithsonian buildings would be lovely. Except did I mention it was broiling hot? A cool treat from the ice cream truck helped a little, but we were all turning that lovely shade of cherry red the further we walked. When you are from a dry, desert state like Utah, humidity feels pretty intense. But hey...we were five sisters hanging out together and that doesn't happen very often. So hot or no, we continued on.

All the streets around thereabouts are named after states. Mary lives in Idaho, but we still thought the MARYland was appropriate.

Hot as we were, and running late to boot, we still detoured over to the White House for a quick photo op.

We made it to dinner....late. Rachel left to take her kiddos back to the hotel via the metro. And after guzzling down 3+ glasses of ice water, we finally started to cool off. Our final group adventure of the day was taking in the sunset from the Jefferson Memorial, but it was decided that we had time to take a walk....yep, back to the White House! But from the opposite side this time which was a much better close-up view. I am not at all a fan of the present occupant of the White House. But this house, the People's House, I am fascinated with...the history behind the building itself and past first families who have lived there. I've never been inside. I hope to have that opportunity one day.

These guys were in town for the Pride Parade the next day. They took a picture for us, so we returned the favor. They were super fun...we enjoyed chatting with them.

On to the Jefferson Memorial...my favorite.

Next installment: the Smithsonian, walking in the Pride Parade, and singing at the Washington D.C. Temple...