We are in a wooded campground in Greenbelt National Park just north of Washington DC. We’ve been here a few times before, it’s pretty old and rustic and hard to fit our 34′ rig into the spaces, but we managed. It’s cheap, only $8/night. That’s the half price with Bernie’s National Senior Pass. But for that we have no electricity or water connections. It’s been in the 60’s during the day and 40’s at night. We paid for two nights, last night and tonight. We frequently see deer.

Can You See Two Deer?

Although we have been to our nation’s capitol several times before we went there again today. This is one of the places we may never get tired of visiting. I think it’s our 6th time. The Metro Train station is not far from the campground, and we know from past experience that driving ourselves into DC is a really dumb thing for us to do, so we went to the Greenbelt Station and took the train to Union Station. We’re getting pretty familiar with this place.

Union Station at Washington DC

The Capitol building is just a few block’s walk from the station, and that was our main goal today. We have toured it before so this time we just walked around ourselves. Our main focus this time was to visit the Exhibition Hall, home to E Plurbus Unum – Out of Many One, an exhibition that tells the story of the United States Congress and the Capitol.  The Exhibition Hall is located behind the 19.5′ tall plaster model for the Statue of Freedom that tops the dome on the capitol building. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the Exhibition Hall 😦

Statue of Freedom

The capitol dome is still undergoing repairs and renovation.

United States Capitol Building East Front

United States Capitol Building West Front

Every visit we make here we see something being fixed up. Besides the Capitol dome, the big bronze statue of Ulysses S Grant on the west front yard of the Capitol is also getting a makeover.

View from the Capital overlooking the National Mall to the Washington Monument.

After the capitol visit we stopped by the Botanical Garden which is just across the street to the south. Free admission.

US Botanical Garden

Mmmm…the cacao tree, where chocolate comes from!

My only purchase other than parking and train fare and lunch was the annual US Capitol Christmas ornament. This is my 4th one. I have the ones from 2012, 2013, and 2014.

2015 US Capitol Historical Society Christmas Ornament

Will we be back to DC again?  Maybe.

• Parking:  $5.10
• Train:  $18
• Admission:  free
• Lodging: $16