Mid-Novemeber I headed to Washington D.C. for a HUGE annual conference for a science society that I am a member of. Now by HUGE, I mean 31,000 members attending. When we broke for lunch, the police literally had to come in a stop traffic. We took up all floors of the Washington Convention Center. The area where we set up our posters was the equivalent of SIX FOOTBALL FIELDS. On top of this, the posters changed every 4 hours...if a person just wanted to WALK past every poster put up s/he would have to walk 27 miles during the 6 day event (3 miles of tight zigzags times 9 poster sessions). I didn't even try to walk it all, but still had huge blisters on my feet by Day 3.
I checked out the sites around the D.C. area, not expecting or wanting to see them all. One day I headed up to Arlington Cemetary. WOW! I couldn't help but sincere honor and respect for all the soldiers who died. America truly is an amazing country, despite all the negative things said by the citizens protected by these fallen soldiers. But I won't get into that now, for I will just get too angry.
It was amazing the beauty and life at Arlington which contrasted the white marble headstones. Watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was so soboring. The respect and honor displayed was soboring.
The Dali Lama was the guest speaker at this conference. "Huh?" most of my friends and family responded. Well, the Dali Lama loves science and is actually very well read. He gave a 2 hour talk, including questions and answers. I wasn't in a big rush to see him, especially since it would require a two hour wait in line to get through the metal detectors. The room where he gave his talk was 1 1/2 football fields in size. So I went and did something else. However, I came back an hour later, and the security gates were gone!! I walked in and walked up the side aisle to the very front. I stod with a half-dozen other people up there and was never told to move. When the Dali Lama was done, he walked right in front of where I was standing, not fifteen feet from me. If only I was a Dali Lama fan.
And of course, I gotta visit the White House. I was in D.C. 12 years ago, but somehow we neglected to visit "the house." So here I am.
While in D.C. I stayed with my mom's first cousin (so that would make me... mmm... first cousin once removed). He is the Chief of the Forest Service. Great guy and so humble. He says that many assume that he is Republican since Bush appointed him, but in fact he is Independent. We had some great conversations about his perspective of it all. Much different than what is reported in the news. Anyway, visited his office, which is the closest building to the Washington Monument. He has an incredible view of the monument, of course, and also of the Pentagon. He had some interesting stories about 9/11, since he was in his office when it happened.
View of Reagan National airport from my cousin's apartment. What a view. We would sit there and just watch the planes land. And it wasn't noisy AT ALL!
View of D.C. from the inside of his apartment. I took this from the inside to give a reference point. To the left is Washington Monument, with a sliver of the White House showing. To the very right is the Capitol. In between is the Jefferson Memorial, but the window pane is in the way. 
Long-exposure of the Washington Monument. Love this picture.
And the good-'ol Metro. D.C. had a very well planned subway system. It is very clean too. I had a great time just doing the trips.I had many more pictures and stories. But there always are. There was my impression of the Capitol (very desolate and locked down, all because of security), private tours of some of the sites, visiting the Holocaust museum (gut-wrenching), and the view of D.C. while landing and taking off in the plane (was on the best side of the plane both times). And then there were the early-morning runs with "the Chief," and all the fun chats we had.
