Caesar outside The White House
Yesterday was an exhausting but brilliant day! Caesar and I were due to be picked up by Patty to catch up with Rochelle & Gary (who had brought Darcy into the vet hospital here in DC) about 11am. I was unable to sleep beyond 6am and realised that I had to solve my mobile phone problem. Seems I needed a Triband handset, which I don't have. So after taking Caesar for a walk, and finding one geocache (which happened to be the National Christmas Tree outside The White House, which is opposite our hotel) I set off in search of phone shops. I found a T-Mobile store and the simplest solution was to buy a new Pay as You Go phone. I thought this might be an expensive venture but decided I need a phone here for safety. Fifteen minutes later I left the store with a new Nokia 6010 phone, loaded with $15 worth of credit ... for the grand sum of .... wait for it ... $25 !!!! I was really staggered by how cheap it was. I got some extra minutes added and can now receive calls from anywhere, send texts anywhere, and make calls within USA. Result!

Patty collected us from the hotel and we then collected Rochelle & Gary. We drove through Georgetown down to Capitol Hill. Georgetown is much different architecture wise than the rest of the District, and now and then I would see properties that reminded me of those typical of the Georgian towns at home.

We had lunch at The Senate and went for a tour which lasted most of the afternoon. Our guide, Janice was excellent in explaining all the history of what we were seeing and there were plenty of photo opportunities. It was interesting to see how the various levels of security compare and contrast to those I experienced when visiting The House of Commons in London. We entered the gallery of The House of Representatives, The Old Supreme Court, the offices of Senator Ted Kennedy and Senator John Warner, the balcony at the front of the Capitol Building ... and much much more.

In the Senate gift shop Caesar may a bee line striaght to the tennis balls, and is now the proud owner of three Senate logo tennis balls! Later, he got the opportunity to meet Senator Kennedys two Portugues Water Dogs on the green outside.

The Senate is busy at the moment with the hearings for the new Supreme Court Judge, Samuel Alito, and we saw several senators passing to and fro. We also got the opportunity to travel on the underground railway which is used to transport people from one area of the building to another very quickly. The tour was amazing, I just wish I could remember every detail, and of
course many many photos were taken.

A British Dog at Capitol Hill! I am sure I can say with certainty, Caesar is the first dog from Dogs for the Disabled, and possibly the first assistance dog form the UK to make it to Capitol Hill and get a tour of The United States Senate! He took it all in his stride, and I was proud of him for that! Caesar is now the proud owner of a US Senate dog collar, thanks you Patty :o)

In the evening, I decided to try a couple of geocaches on the monuments near our hotel, which was finne until we found ouselves surrounded by rats! Hasty retreat to McDonalds ... well, I had to try it once while I'm here!


Both of us on The Speakers Balcony