Navy Band & Library Of Congress & Kevin’s Interruption

What does Kevin hear in Washington, D.C? As we came out of the tunnel from the Metro train at the Archives Station, Kevin turned to me and in American Sign Language signed that he heard music. When our heads popped up out of the ground we saw a full orchestra and band set up at the Navy Memorial. We stopped and listened/watched. They had fancy sound system and equipment.

They played, and most of the time had singers with a back up choir, all sorts of genres. From patriotic songs to Disney. Kevin said they were about the best he has ever heard! We sat there for an hour until they were done.

I saw some city workers in fishing bibs pouring cleaning stuff in buckets into the water feature. Then they would scrub with long mops. After the band was done and packing up Kevin asked a roadie what was going on and was told it is the Navy Band and this was their dress rehearsal. They play at this memorial every week throughout the summer. Kevin told me they are very professional and he was so impressed. I looked it up and found out they are world-renown. 

We walked to Capitol Hill after that. A long walk but the weather was very nice and we enjoyed the walk. We saw Ulysses S Grant Memorial. He is on a horse, near the water and the Capitol building is behind him. We sat under the tree on a bench near the Capitol for a little bit. 

Then it was time to use our free timed tickets to Library of Congress. When I was getting the tickets online, I saw there is a Live at the Library event every Thursday. The Library is open later, drinks and food, and music. Sounded fun. Our ticket time was 5:00 p.m. The big “foyer” (I don’t know what they call it) has ceilings so high that I got dizzy looking up.

We saw a Gutenberg Bible there that was printed in 1455. We were able to go upstairs and overlook the Reading Room. Lots of empty space with the tall ceilings, several stories high, and paintings and decorations. Next we went to the room that has amazing photography pictures. There was a film running about them and it was neat to hear stories behind the photos.

The next room was Thomas Jefferson’s Library. It is glass and goes around bookcases. There are white words on the glass and we learned some things. On June 10, 1815, Jefferson said, “I cannot live without books.” He acquired thousands of books. In 1814, the British burned the Capitol and with it the Congressional Library. At this time, Jefferson had the largest collection of person books in the US. The sign says: “Short of funds and wanting to see the library re-established, Jefferson offered to sell his personal library to Congress as a replacement for the destroyed collection. After some controversy, Congress purchased his library for $23,950 in 1815. Although a second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851 destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6, 487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson, the Jefferson books remained the core from which the present collection of the Library of Congress – the world’s largest library – developed.” I looked up the amount and the equivalent today is about $487.628.22. They displayed the original books in the cases so well. 

Next we stood in a short line for a tour on the floor of the Reading Room. A guard told Kevin his back pack couldn’t go through and he held up a book-size template and said my purse couldn’t go in either. He showed us open cubbies where to put them. It was a bit apprehensive as there was no security around the cubbies but we figured everyone was in the same boat. And, you were paraded around the Reading Room in a group, in the inner circle and then out you go. By this time we were done, we had seen all that was open for people to see. So we left by 6:30 p.m. 

As we left Library of Congress, we carefully studied…  (KEVIN JUST TOLD ME TO TELL THIS JOURNAL HOW AWESOME HE IS. KEVIN IS AWESOME. DONE. 🤪 )

Back to what I was doing…LOL… As we left Library of Congress, we carefully studied the Metro map in relation to getting to the Capitol for our tour Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

NOTE: As you might have read, these blog posts are a tiny part of my travel journal that I write in every day. So you can see where Kevin told me to write about him while I was writing in the journal for that day. He is a very humble and funny guy!  ♥️ (This is Kevin…..you forgot handsome, witty, amazing, wonderful – I will let it slide this time….8-) )