On Wednesday last week, Karen and I had probably our most exciting day of the week. It started off meeting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his private chambers. His staff is so friendly and I think we adopted his secretary LaShawn to come visit us at the Jeffers’ Inn. After nearly two hours of sitting with the Justice and talking about so many life issues, he graciously called LaShawn in so we could have a picture with him.

Us and Clarence

As we were getting ready to leave, Justice Thomas gave us a pictorial book of the Supreme Court and inscribed it:

“To David and Karen Jeffers – Thank you for your sacrifice to our country. And thank you both for all you continue to do. Clarence Thomas 9/10/08”

To get a sense of the private tour we got, I would recommend you buy the book “The Supreme Court of the United States” by Fred J. Maroon (text by Suzy Maroon). Justice Thomas’ chambers is on page 120-121. Or you can just come by the house, have a cup of coffee and look at ours if you’re in the neighborhood!

After lunch Karen and I headed to the National Mall where we first saw the magnificent Washington Monument:

Washington Monument

Next, getting our exercise in we headed towards the Lincoln Memorial going past the beautiful World War II Memorial:

WWII Memorial

We then headed to something I’ve wanted to see since I was a little boy; the Lincoln Memorial. We made the climb up those majestic steps:

Lincoln Memorial

And then we entered into truly hallowed grounds. The statue of Lincoln is breathtaking:

Inside Lincoln

Looking back towards the Washington Monument is quite a sight:

Reflecting Pool

We left there and took another stroll past the solemn Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, known as The Wall:

Vietnam Memorial

On our way to our last destination for the day, my baby the banker just had to have a picture of her in front of the Federal Reserve Bank (sorry you got shaded out sweetie!):

Karen FRB photoshop (2)

And our last stop of the day was to what I consider the most amazing building in the world, the home of the most powerful person in the world. To stand before the White House and look towards it from across the grounds is a powerful moment. Regardless your politics, there is just something about taking in this scenery:

White House

As you can see Day Two was a most excellent vacation day. Tomorrow we’ll look at our visit to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial.

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