Cattle Call

June 21, 2011

"Cattle herding", that is what the tour of the Capitol Building felt like.  Don't get me wrong the building is impressive and the tour interesting but we were just part of the herd.  I was expecting something different, obviously, because the earliest reservation that we could get was 2 weeks out.  Let me explain:

The reservation slip was professional and had a lot of restrictions, understandably so, but no directions beyond the entrance.  Just to the right or east of the above picture is the entrance to the Visitors Centre down below the parade ground.  Corral #1: we had to line up in two's along the stairs leading down to the entrance.  After a relatively short delay, 30 people at a time were allowed to enter the building in order to line up for the security inspection.  Once through we did not know where to go so followed a number of tour groups and eventually got to the main visitors area.  OMG, there must have been a thousand people both milling about and winding their way through those line dividers like one finds in a bank.  There was a north side and a south side....???  We finally found an employee and were instructed to enter the "With Reservations" line on the south side.  Not bad only a dozen people in that line.  In short order we had our tickets and were told to wander around until 9:50 and then get into this other line. 

No problem, there was a special exhibition in the area and so we started looking through that.  It was interesting for us as it explained all about Congress in more detail than we already knew and also explained the history of the building itself.  At 9:50 we went to the designated line and joined the 100 or so people that were already lined up.  OMG, at 10 AM we were ushered into the Orientation Theatre like grade school kids and started filling every seat from the top down.  I am not certain but the theatre held at least 200 people.  The 13 minute film was OK and then we were instructed to leave the theatre row by row and to join one of 4 lines outside of the theatre.  OMG, it was a mad house with everyone criss-crossing and trying to get into lines with their friends and family.  We were given a headset which was tuned to the tour guide which was at the head of our line.  That was OK but each tour guide was trying desperately to get the attention of their group so there was mass confusion for awhile.

Once things got settled down groups of about 25 started heading off.  Now there were still groups on tour from the 9;00, 9:10 and 9:30 orientation presentations from the south side.  I have no idea how many groups went through the north orientation theatre but it was just as busy as our end.  Since we were only visiting 3 areas you can imagine the number of groups that were all vying for some space to view the room.  For example, I figure that there were at least 20 groups in the Rotunda which means that there were over 400 people trying to listen to the comments from 20 tour guides.

Oh well, it all worked out and we were suitably impressed with the building, the statues and the artwork.  It is definitely worth being in grade school again.  Here are a few photos to remove the bad taste of my rant: 

Pillars which support the Dome

Apex of the Dome