Greetings from the D.C. Group,

Today shift one woke up at 5:30 and not long after shift two was up and ready for coffee! We of course took our day 5 picture before we got ready for service. We served breakfast, which was oatmeal, cereal, a hardboiled egg, pumpkin bread, coffee, and juice. The men were thankful and reserved today, although it was a full house! We were sweating bullets trying to get everyone served. I would say 50-55 men arrived all at the same time with limited time to eat so we were rushed!

After breakfast and cleaning up, we got ready for our exciting day! We laughed with the staff of the Father McKenna center when they did not recognize us in “normal” clothes and no masks! We headed down North Capitol Street as we have for the last few days to get close to the “Mall” which is home to the Capitol, all the museums, and special landmarks.

Our first stop was at the National Gallery of Art. It was amazing to see Ha’s love for art. We took pictures with Picasso’s and… well… I am not quite sure what else but the “Blue” stands out… because it was actually a red square with woven beads, oh and of course, the “Big Blue Rooster”.

Heidi and Ha hung back at the Art Gallery while Ashley, Harley and Elizabeth went to the American History Museum to check out some pop culture. After walking through the pop culture hall, we headed to see the First Ladies inauguration dresses. There was also one dining set of each of the presidents which was interesting because it showed their taste. We had to rush out of this museum to grab some scrumptious two for $3’s at McDonalds. It hit right.

We then walked over to the Cannon building to meet our personal tour guide, Ryan, but not before we stashed our perfume and sanitizer behind a bush so it would not get confiscated at the Capitol; stay tuned to find out if it was there when we got back. We met Ryan who was the roommate of Emily, our volunteer coordinator from the Father McKenna Center. He was a wealth of Capitol knowledge. We started our tour with photos on the balcony of the Cannon building with the Capitol building directly in the background. It was AWESOME! We then went through the history of the Capitol and its architect. We walked through the underground tunnel and over to the Capitol building. There was literally an entire city underground!

In the capital we visited the old Supreme Court chambers and then the House and Senate chambers. Ryan told us about the secret feral cat prints that are imprinted on the floor of the Capitol from hundreds of years ago, the tales from the statue positions and old House seats. Finally, he took us into House Representative Eric Swalwell of California. He gifted us with tickets to go to the gallery to see voting take place. It was truly an incredible tour.

We were exhausted after this long and awesome tour, so we went back to the Father McKenna Center for reflection and our nightly reading. For reflection we split up and read about different issues surrounding poverty. Once reflections finished, showers, blog writing, and dinner preparations began. Heidi and Ha were the chefs for the evening. On the menu was alfredo noodles, beef and a beautiful cucumber, pepper, and tomato salad. We literally laughed the entire dinner. I am not sure if we were laughing at actual funny stories or if we were just straight up delirious- but it felt good to laugh! To close the night, we burnt popcorn (gifted from the wonderful James of FMC) and finished our blogs! Night Night Gannon family!

All the best,

Team D.C.