As we walked back to Union Station and got on the Metro, we marveled at our day. How much more exciting could it have been? Yes, we missed the Library of Congress and visiting the House Gallery, but we’d come back another day. We’d experienced history and seen our Congress at work. (See posts A Day in DC – Part 1 and A Day in DC – Part 2.)

I sat on the Metro reading the Senate pamphlet, waiting for our stop, when the conductor’s voice said, “Due to police activity, the doors will be locked at the Silver Spring stop. If this is your stop, please be patient for the doors to be opened.” While I continued reading (completely oblivious), the rest of my family watched as the train stopped, the police opened the door with keys and entered the train, pulled three young men off the train, then came back on to get one more.

Outside my window, I could see two policemen handcuffing four youths then watched as one of the cops reached down to pick a gun up off the ground and put it in his pocket (instead of his holster). After a few minutes, the police were gone, the doors opened to let people out and we continued to the next stop, our final destination. It wasn’t until we were off the train that I learned that the men who had been arrested, the ones with a gun, had been on our car, only a few feet from each one of us.

We never learned any details about the arrest, and the rest of our experience in DC was typically touristy with trips to Georgetown, Arlington Cemetery, Mount Vernon and Alexandria. But I don’t think any of us will ever forget our action packed day in DC.

Trip taken July 2010.