Mr. Treat Goes to Washington

Twenty years ago my grandparents offered me the opportunity to visit Paris, France, as a gift for graduating high school.  I respectfully declined because I felt (and still feel) there are plenty of places within the United States that I would be more interested in visiting—our Nation's Capital being at the top of my list.  Needless to say my proposed alternate destination was dismissed and I wound up spending that very difficult summer working in Tacoma instead :(

This week I finally made it to Washington, DC.  The primary motivation for my trip was to attend an oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court.  The High Court has fascinated me ever since learning about it in high school and recent documentaries by PBS and C-SPAN only piqued my interest in the institution that gets the last word.  Then there are the nine justices who are equally as fascinating—brilliant people with colorful characters and the ultimate in job security.  Of course, any time I visit a city that has a major league baseball team I also have to be able to see a game in their home stadium.  It turns out there is only one week each year when the Supreme Court has oral arguments and the Washington Nationals are playing at home, so that made the decision of when to go very easy.

I left Seattle on a red-eye flight to Chicago last Saturday night.  United Airlines altered my original itinerary, changing what was to be a one hour layover into a three-and-a-half hour layover.  The change was fortuitous for me though because it meant I got to see the Zimmerman family who woke up super early Sunday morning just to bring me breakfast and chat outside the ticket counter at O'Hare.

I decided my first stop when I got to DC would be the Supreme Court because I wanted to attend Monday's oral arguments and needed to gauge when I needed to get in line.  A group of ten law students from Pennsylvania were already in line and they warned me that a "large" group was expected to show up around 6:30 PM.  That immediately concerned me, knowing from the research that I had done that only the first 50 or so are guaranteed to get into the arguments.  I still had hours before that group was supposed to arrive so I stuck to my plan and spent the next several hours walking around to see all of the monuments and memorials on the National Mall... Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, FDR Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and WWII Memorial.  From there I walked to the hostel where I was registered and checked in.  I decided that, because going to the Supreme Court oral arguments was my primary reason for being in DC, I had to do whatever was necessary to guarantee I would get in.  I took a quick shower and donned the business casual attire I had packed specifically for the court visit.  Then I picked up a sandwich at a nearby Subway and hopped in a taxi which dropped me off at One First Street NE.

Only two people had joined the line by the time I returned at around 6 PM.  John and Jordan, law students from American University, were particularly good to me considering I was really only equipped to spend a few hours on the sidewalk, not an entire night.  They loaned me several spare blankets and a Thermarest mattress which actually made it possible for me to get some sleep during that long, cool, and breezy night.  At around 1:30 AM, sprinklers came on and soaked the first part of the line but, fortunately, I was spared.  At around 6 AM a policeman informed everyone that the sidewalks needed to be clear of everything before they would march us up the steps.  So everyone packed up and jammed their belongings into cars that were given only one minute to park in front of the Court.  Unfortunately this is where Jordan erred and nearly lost his opportunity to get into the Court.  At around 7:30 AM we were marched up the steps of the Court and given numbered red placeholder cards.  At 9 AM the doors of the Court opened and I finally made it inside the building.

There were two very interesting cases on Monday, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (a First Amendment case involving a college that denied recognition of a student organization that excluded members based on sexual orientation) and City of Ontario v. Quon (a Fourth Amendment case involving a person whose employer disclosed sexually explicit personal text messages transmitted to/from their city issued pager). My worst fears were nearly realized before the CLS argument when I was given an obstructed view seat.  I could only see two thirds of the justices; the others were blocked by a large marble column.  Thankfully many of the attendees left after CLS and I was able to move closer for Quon.  It was truly an amazing experience to be there.  Justice Thomas remained silent but the other justices were every bit as entertaining as I expected and these were real life cases so I had no trouble following either argument.

After the Supreme Court, I visited the National Archives since it was on the way back to the hostel.  There I saw what remains of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  One thing I noticed about those historic documents is that they would be very hard to read even if the ink weren't faded because of the script they used.  After browsing through some very interesting exhibits, I returned to the hostel where I got myself cleaned up and took a brief nap before taking the Metro to Nationals Park.

Nationals Park is very new, very big, and very empty.  Fortunately it was a nice evening and I got to see a good game from my seat down the right field line.  The Nationals won 5-2 behind the solid pitching of Craig Stammen, a 3-run home run from Willie Harris, and an overall shoddy performance by the Colorado Rockies.  Nationals Park is my eighth ballpark on the way to 30 and the home team remains undefeated when I'm in attendance.

I woke up Tuesday relieved that I had already successfully completed my two primary objectives.  There was no time to rest, however.  Several months ago I requested tours of the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from my congressional representative, Adam Smith.  His aide was able to schedule all three for this day, starting with the White House.  The White House tour wasn't really a tour so much as a walk through (they referred to it as a "self guided tour" you enter through the East Wing).  The White House itself looked like any other well maintained 100+ year old house I'd ever seen.  It was cool to know that I was occupying the same space that dozens of presidents had.  It was also neat to see where the President addresses the nation from inside the White House... down the red carpet in the Cross Hall leading to the doorway of the East Room.

Unlike the White House, the U.S. Capitol building tour was guided.  It began with an introductory movie called "Out of Many, One" (E Pluribus Unum) after which we were lead to the Crypt, the floor directly below the Rotunda and what was at one time intended to be the entrance to George Washington's tomb.  From there we were taken up to the Rotunda where we could see the mural painted on the ceiling, and another mural painted around the perimeter.  And finally we were taken to National Statuary Hall, the historic home of the House of Representatives.  Apparently every state gets to have two statues in the Capitol building; Washington's are Mother Joseph and Marcus Whitman.  When the tour was over I went to the House Gallery.  This is where the First Lady and other dignitaries sit when the State of the Union speeches are delivered to the rest of country.  The House Chamber is no where near as large as it looks on TV.  After waiting there about 30 minutes, the House returned from a five day recess and I was able to recite the Pledge of Allegiance along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Then I moved over to the Senate Gallery where I heard impassioned speeches from Lamar Alexander (regarding our need to re-embrace nuclear power) and Christopher Dodd (cautioning Republicans against filibustering the Wall Street reforms he has been championing).

My day of tours concluded at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  This was also a guided tour but I didn't find it all that interesting, probably because I'd previously seen shows on PBS or the Discovery Channel on how money is made.  I did rather enjoy seeing the workers deal with a paper jam in one of the machines during my tour, though ;)

I dedicated my last day in DC to the museums which worked out perfectly because this turned out to be the rainy day.  I managed to visit the Smithsonian museums of Air and Space, American Indian, Natural History, and American History in the time span they were open (10 AM to 5:30 PM).  Really too much to absorb.  It was cool to see the actual Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis, the Hope Diamond, the American flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, dresses worn by most of the first ladies, and the top hat President Lincoln wore that infamous night he went to Ford's Theater.

I didn't see everything but I am satisfied nonetheless.  I skipped the art museums out of necessity but I did visit Union Station, the Library of Congress, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum between my tours on Tuesday.  I didn't make it to the Kennedy Center, Arlington National Cemetery, or the Pentagon because those were really all too far from the National Mall and I did my best to walk almost everywhere.

All-in-all I had a great solo adventure.  I accomplished both of my primary objectives, I didn't get mugged (like Kal Penn), and I didn't really spend much money.  The hostel was nothing to brag about but it gave me exactly what I had hoped, a safe and convenient place to sleep and take a shower.