It's been almost two weeks already since I returned from DC, but as we all know, life doesn't slow down for me to write about it....so here's my update! My week of adventure began with a hurried drive over the pass. It turned out to be a beautiful drive over there, but that morning we were getting big, giant snowflakes so I wasn’t sure what to expect. A huge thank you goes to the Friend family for allowing me to crash at their house that night, then get a ride to the airport at 3:30 am (way, waaaaaayyyyyyy too early!). My travels that day really didn’t go too bad, other than being afraid I wouldn’t make my connecting flight out of Denver. An hour planned for a lay over is much too short in my opinion, but hey, I made it work. That afternoon in DC (it was a really long day) Uncle Keith came to pick me up from the airport. He and Aunt Bobbie watch Ben and Ellie, their grandkids aka my cousins, on Thursdays so I got to see those two as well. The kids don’t remember me from my last visit as they were pretty young, but we had lots of fun visiting this time. Ben was interested in learning about the farm and the animals, and Ellie loved showing me around.
The next day I spent with Uncle Keith and Aunt Bobbie for the most part, and then they drove me to the 4-H Center. Once at the Center I got checked in, unloaded and found Kassey! It was soooo good to see her again in the flesh rather than via pictures on Facebook. We realized it had been five years since we’d seen each other, and both agreed we can’t wait that long again.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent exploring the area again and visiting with all of the Program Assistants (PAs) as they arrived at the Center. We managed to get tickets to the new African American Smithsonian (thanks to another PA!), so went there on Saturday morning. It’s a very well done museum and tells a story through time -- so cool. There were so many people there we couldn’t read or truly enjoy everything, so I plan on going again sometime in a couple of years.
Then we ate at the food court in Reagan, something Kassey hadn’t done before, and we were proud of ourselves for navigating the metro well enough to get us back to Friendship Heights (FH) near the Center. Once there we took a look around because we’d been planning a potential trip to Target for a few things, but found instead that FH has grown and prospered so much that we got everything we needed! We were back at the Center in time for dinner and a long nap. Sunday we enjoyed a walk to Bethesda and we managed to locate the DC Cupcakes shop I knew was there, so we had cupcakes for breakfast :)
We explored Bethesda for a while, then made our way to FH via metro so that we could get to the Avalon Theater in time to see Hidden Figures. It turns out that the Avalon is the oldest original theater still in DC. The architecture was absolutely amazing and the painting on the ceiling beautiful! It was then time to start our whirlwind training.
Training lasted through Monday night, with Tuesday available for us to prep however we needed. The bus routes were of course different because of road closures, so that occupied most of our Monday with practice workshops following. Thank goodness for written directions because that just ensured we knew where we were going, haha. Tuesday afternoon is when the real fun began, and there was no going back! Overall we had a good week, and I think the kids did too :) We had workshop sessions where they learned about different pieces and players of the Executive Branch, amazing speakers about the media, and former secretaries represented their cabinet positions in a panel for the kids.
In one of our workshops the kids created front pages for a newspaper
Everyone before the community service...
We also had large group sessions for the mock election process. This was fun for me because it was so similar to KYG’s election theme. I even got to teach the PAs how to use run-off voting, and it can get tricky. The directions weren’t quite right, so we had to adjust those and make things flexible enough to work.
We spent time at the Newseum (always a favorite), on Nightview at the memorials, and at the Smithsonians via Union Station (it was a zoo that day though, of course!). Kelsie (my bus buddy) and I went to the Capitol after picking up our inauguration tickets to scout and explore rather than go to the museums we'd been to a few times ;)
Newsuem 9/11 front pages
Photography equipment from the only journalist killed in the 9/11 attacks
Nightview of memorials
Capitol the day before the Inauguration
And, last but not least, Friday brought us the inauguration itself….Kassey and I could be found hanging out on the North Capitol lawn. If you look at pictures, we were up close and personal with the Capitol versus further down the mall. It was great! Lots of standing, but once things got rolling it was quite the interesting time observing people and their reactions because we couldn’t actually see the podium, and much of the time couldn’t see the screens either. We moved and morphed with the crowd, ending up closer than we would have been otherwise. It only rained a little bit so that was a good thing for us.
After the inauguration we decided a non-cafeteria style lunch was in order so quickly made our way out of downtown. I’m glad we did too because it wasn’t too long afterwards that riots happened right about in the area we would have been traveling through. Our week ended with an “inaugural ball” during a dinner cruise. We were on the largest ship the company had, and there were only about five spare seats on the entire thing (in talking with a waiter I found out they’re getting a newer, bigger one in March….of course!). It was a good time to decompress a little and have some fun.
I didn’t know most of the PAs who were there, so it was great getting to know them and visit with the few that I did know. We were paired/grouped for tours on our buses, and I was with Kelsie and Dustin. Kelsie and I definitely got along better than Dustin did with either of us….maybe that’s because we ganged up on him a few times. It was all fun and games though, and we had a good time!
I am so incredibly thankful I had the opportunity to participate in CWF: Presidential Inauguration! As a PA it was a learning experience, and I think the kids had a great time too...how much they actually learned I can’t vouch for ;)
Until next time DC!
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