Last Night I was informed by She Who Must be Obeyed that I would be attending her office Christmas part.  As “She” is very well aware, I don’t like parties!

Quite naturally, we were required to be there a couple of hours early, since she was part of the set-up detail, so I was drafted for that fun activity…

After the room was set up, the guests began to arrive.  Why would I be surprised to discover that She Who Must be Obeyed was working at the sign in table?  Of course, this left me to my own devices as some 150 people arrived over the next hour or so, very few of whom I’ve met before and none of whom I can recognize by sight.  Being the social butterfly that I am, I was looking for a way out of the situation, particularly since the room we were all confined to was rather miserable.  Imagine a room right off the street that has windows on two side, and marble on the other two with names engraved floor-to-ceiling, and a stone floor.  It was hot, stuffy and the rather tomb like ambiance was enhanced by the acoustics that not only magnifies sound but creates a rather nasty echo effect… Fun City!

So I made my escape.

The venue is across the street from the Supreme Court on one side and the Capitol on the other.  The evening was beautiful, unseasonably warm; perfect for an exploring expedition and off I went.  First, I walked past the Supreme Court…

Yes, yes the pictures aren’t very good since I only had a cell phone, but you can get the idea, right?  From this view, if you turn around there is a cross walk over to the Capitol side of the street, and that’s where I went next.

During the time I was walking around the Capitol grounds, there were very few people there, mostly they were people either jogging or walking their dogs, Capitol policemen and the odd person with a camera.  Since I’ve only been here in the evening before, I noticed that the building seems larger at night than in the daylight; the dome alight against the dark night sky seems utterly immense…

Walking around the Senate side, I arrived at the west front of the building.

I got this shot looking up at the dome and a slight breeze added some color to the stark white by showing us the flag, and looking the other way…

…is the Capitol Christmas tree with the Washington Monument in the distance; you can also see the lights of the National Mall leading to the Monument.

Checking the time, I realized that I needed to head back to the “gala” as my time to be absent and not notice was slipping away, and off I went, back to the party, where “cocktail hour” was almost over and we would be going in for dinner.  Wouldn’t want to miss dinner, now would we?

Oh, sorry the pictures are lousy quality.  It’s supposed to be nice again this evening, maybe I’ll go back with a real camera… and maybe even a tripod.