A Three Hour Tour

Unfortunately not our tour guide.

And unfortunately not that type of tour.

First of all, it turned out to be a sushi restaurant yesterday. SO disappointing.

Today, in another time-wasting venture, the interns of EEI, Duke Energy, AEP, and some other place I don't remember the name of, took a guided tour of the House side of the Capitol.

And guess what? I got lost.

Twice.

The first time was getting to the right office. In the email I received, it said Myrick's office (D-NC), Cannon Room 205 at 9:20.


205 is some guy from California.


230 is Myrick, but when we go in there, the intern's like, "Well, she's not a Democrat, so I don't think this is it. Plus, our tour is at 9:30."

Me and some other EEI interns are now officially wandering around with no idea what to do, while trying to not look like terrorists looking for the best place to plant a bomb.

We're about to leave when we see this girl Hope from the intern lunch yesterday stroll through the security checkpoint, and it turns out we basically got all of the wrong information. We ARE supposed to be at the 9:30 tour, room 230, with the REPUBLICAN representative Myrick.

The intern looked at us like we were insane when we came back into the office five minutes later.

We go on the tour, which took FOREVER. The tour itself was probably about half an hour, tops, but we had to go through 2 different security checkpoints, and the lines were ridiculous. We saw the original center of DC, where Washington was meant to be buried (he didn't change his will in time so he's in Mt. Vernon), the Old Supreme Court room, the old House gallery and the plaques where John Adams and Abraham Lincoln sat, and finally we went into the House Gallery and looked at the surprisingly tiny room where they vote and hold the State of the Union.

We're on our way back to the office to disperse (since it's now NOON), when half of the group (my half, obviously) gets seperated. We're walking single file down a hallway meant for pre-McDonalds, fanny-packless statesmen and it is absurdly crowded. A massive group of tourists cuts into our line, and the tour guide is history. Four of us wander around trying to find her again, but it's hopeless.

And then I ran into Cara Sullivan from school, that was random. She's working as an intern on the Hill, and she was leading a tour. Small world, right?

We're still wandering when I stop and ask a security person, and they were looking at us like they were wondering where exactly we had hidden the bombs.

"No tour guide? Really?" Eyebrows went up. Great. The last thing I need is to be strip-searched in some back room at the Capitol. I'm really not trying to go to Guantanamo, I just want to eat my sandwich (Which was delicious, in case you were wondering. You can never go wrong with PB&J).

Finally we get sassed by enough guards and directed back to Cannon, and I don't get back to the office until 12:30. Excellent.

Raise your hand if you just got paid for that?

That's right. I did.