Wouldn't Thomas Jefferson be proud?

On the second to last day of Sara's convention, we were able to participate in what might be the high-brow zentih of our lives! We had a "coctail" party in the Library of Congress. Given our moral persuasion, perhaps a more correct term would be a "coke-tail" party, but no matter what was in the glasses, it was certianly a very posh affair. We were allowed to roam about the building (at least the less-secure portions anyhow) throughout the night, and we certainly took advantage of our free reign. The Library of Congress actually consists of three buildings, which is a good thing, since there needs to be ample room for the 530 miles of bookshelves held within. A book shelf of that length would stretch from Idaho Falls to St. George. The building in which we hob-knobbed with the socialites is the Thomas Jefferson building. The building is aptly named since the collection itself has grown to its imensity due to the seed planted by Thomas Jefferson's donation of his 6,487 books in 1815. There are now 130 million items recorded and housed in these beautiful buildings.

The pictures on this post are of our beloved Thomas Jefferson building. You'll notice the ornate decoration on both the exterior and the interior. It was so cool to walk up and down those beautiful flights of stairs. You know that giant room of bookshelves with the red carpet on National Treasure? That room is just to the left from the picture to the right. Also, you'll notice the glass casing just inside the right archway in the same picture. That case is an original Gutenberg Bible which I oogled over for a very long time. There were only 45 Gutenberg bible printed on vellum, which is the thinned out hide of a kosher animal. Of these 45 copies, only 4 still exist in perfect condition, this one being one of them. The other 3 are in the British Library, Paris' Bibliotheque Nationale, and the Gottingen University in Germany. Pretty cool, eh? We loved our time at the Library of Congress, even if the hors d'oeuvres were tiny and scarce. I wanted to hide in one of the dark corners and make this building my home, but Sara thought the security guards would frown on this.

And by the way, the Library of Congress does not use the Dewey Decimal System. That's right, stick it to the man Uncle Sam!