Thursday

Today we got to sleep in more than usual.  We were given tickets on Wednesday by a student from Montana to the U.S. Senate.  So today we went to the Senate through the new Capital Tourists Center in order to sit in the gallery while Senators Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton gave their farewell speeches to the Senate.

Joe Biden started by recounting many stories through his time in the Senate.  After being elected at a young age, he lost his wife and daughter in an accident.  He prevailed and kept serving in the Senate until being elected Vice President of the United States in 2008.  He spoke of meeting with a senior senator and telling that senator he decided to serve in the Senate because of Civil Rights.  When the senator decided to leave the Senate, Biden took his office and the desk he sat at, which happened to be a desk from the Civil War era.

Hillary Clinton then gave her speech.  She recounted Septemnber 11th and how the nation was united afterwards.  She claimed that she wanted the nation to be united again as a new administration takes office this Tuesday.  Senator Chuck Schumer then gave a gracious speech and fond farewell to Mrs. Clinton after her speech.  Even Senator John McCain came over to say good-bye to her.  It was so cool and amazing to see all of these senior members of the government in one place.

After lunch, we went back to the Senate chamber to see Roland Burris be sworn in as the junior Senator from Illinois.  It was a truley unique experience to see a swearing in of this office.  Vice President Dick Cheney was there to preside over the swearing in, and was only there for about 4 minutes.  It was interesting.

We then took a tour of the Capital and saw the amazing rotunda, crypt and other rooms of the building.  It was truley amazing to see all of the architecture and the detail in all of these rooms.  It is mind-blowing to see all of these places where American history has been made.

We then went back to the hotel since we were all tired.  After a quick twenty minute nap we went to dinner across the river in Georgetown at a place called.  McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon.  There we met a person from Rochester New York and currently living in Las Vegas.  His friend who worked at the place was very nice to us.  But the service for food was extremely slow and we were late to our show with Mark Russell.  2 out of 5 stars.  Nice place to drink though.

Mark Russell, the political comedian, was absolutely hilarious.  He mention Buffalo, NY and we all cheered and he personally made three shout-outs to us during his routine.  We were extremely excited about this and his jokes were extremely funny.  If you can get the chance to see him, you should without a doubt.

It was a great day.  Tomorrow shall be great too.