Capitol Hill and We, The Pizza - Washington, D.C.

After our visit to Mt. Vernon we drove back into Washington, D.C. to visit Capitol Hill. First, we visited the Library of Congress which is just east of the U.S. Capitol Building. The inside is stunning, with beautiful Corinthian capped columns holding up vaulted ceilings painted in bright orange, yellow, red and green. 

We viewed the reading room, from a glassed in viewing platform, with garishly colored columns and walls surrounding  a circular floor of lamp-lit desks. Judy, a library rat from a young age, was enthralled. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, the modern version of the Library at Alexandria which had such a profound impact on the intellectual development of our civilization. 

We walked north, just next door, to the U.S. Supreme Court Building. A news crew, which apparently waits there in perpetuity for breaking news, was munching on sandwiches and trying to stay out of the searing sun. 

U.S. Supreme Court

We crossed the street to the west and walked up to the U.S. Capitol Building, surrounded by security. Some sort of protest group, I believe against abortion, had a loudspeaker and spoke to virtually nobody, while they filmed themselves. 

The U.S. Capitol Building from Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Newseum.

The U.S. Capitol Building from the other, east, side.

We walked south to Independence Ave SE and then followed a diagonal turn onto Pennsylvania Ave SE toward our car. There we encountered We, The Pizza, an amazing looking pizza joint, which coming from me is unusual, because I do not really like pizza. They had 10 to 15 large pizzas on a glassed in counter, most of which I would like to have tried. These were not the typical pepperoni and cheese pizzas that dominate the market. They were awash in ingredients: big pieces of meat and vegetables and thick with cheese. Just go to the website and look at the menu and put your cursor over the individual pizzas, you'll see what I mean. Judy, still agog that I was interested in pizza, let me choose a large slice that we had cut into halves. I picked the Capitol Supreme, which was covered in mozzarella, pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, onions and sausage. We each also got a soda, which they made in front of us. She got pineapple and I got strawberry lemonade. It started with a spritz which I believe consisted of club soda and the base ingredients we each ordered, then fruit was added and it was combined in a blender. Very, very good. I would actually go back again if we lived in D.C. It was good.