Giving Tours

I have found that giving tours has become one of the best opportunities for me to learn all about the history of the capitol building. Typically, when I give a tour to constituents they come to the office first. This is interesting because it requires me to have to be able to talk about everything I see not only at the capitol but also the long walk through underground tunnels from the House of Representatives office buildings. So we start at the my office building and I walk the groups through the capitol office buildings and show the tourists the famous rotunda, the news crews that are always there, and the capitol amenities like our cafeteria, dry cleaners, gift shop, and gym. Then I take my group through security (which always takes at least 10-15 minutes). At this point, we are going through the underground tunnels between all the buildings. In these tunnels, each state selects two pieces of art from high school students and puts them on the wall.  Once I direct the group into the capitol visitor’s center I take the group into a movie, which gives the group a little bit of history behind the capitol.

After I take the groups up stairs and show them famous areas within the capitol including the old Supreme Court chambers, the old senate hearing rooms, and the old House of Representatives chambers, the capitol rotunda, and all the famous artwork throughout the building.  Once we are done with the tour I take them back to the office or I show them how to get to other areas around D.C.