Keeping with the spirit of our trip, the drive to Washington D.C. was an adventure, filled with tumultuous rain storms, sliding cars, and just about 5 separate tolls for the 4.5 hour drive. James's brother, Mark was generous enough to let us stay with him in his apartment in
Logan Circle while we were in town. Unfortunately, for the first two days, the city was hit with a major rain storm, resulting in flooding throughout the area - and making walking difficult. Difficult, but not impossible - and, despite the rain, there was still some outdoor exploring.
Erin's conference was held in Alexandria, Virginia - which is close to a 20 minute train ride outside of Washington D.C. So, each day, Erin took D.C.'s version of the subway - the "Metro" - into the Alexandria area for the conference, returning to D.C. each night. The DC Metro system is very easy to navigate, so Erin had no problems. Alexandria is actually quite a beautiful town in its own right, and in retrospect, if we had paid for a hotel there, we likely would have enjoyed exploring the area in greater detail. One of the charms of Alexandria is the immediacy of history - in fact, right across from the Alexandria Metro station, the
George Washington Masonic Memorial looms majestically in the distance.
On her first trip into Alexandria, Erin noticed an interesting sign in the Metro station (see picture below). She was intrigued professionally and personally; in addition to teaching for CMU, Erin and James both attended CMU after graduating college. Later in the week and after a bit of detective work, Erin wandered around downtown Alexandria and was delighted to see an interesting building (see further below). We had no idea that CMU had such a presence in the DC area.
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| An advertisement for Central Michigan University in the Metro Station. |
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| The Central Michigan University Campus in Alexandria, Virginia. |
Erin presented her lecture on glycemic control in the inpatient setting on the second day of the conference. Her presentation was the very first one of the day, and began at 6:30am (surgical PAs are early risers!). Despite her anxiety, she survived, and actually became friends with another PA who presented opposing views on the topic.
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| Donald Adams, PA-C, and Erin after presenting at the AASPA conference. |
On Saturday, after Erin's conference wrapped up for the day, we walked around a bit outside to enjoy the weather. We stopped at the
White House and walked by the
Washington Monument. Once we returned to James's brother Mark's apartment, we turned on the television to watch some college football. Unfortunately, both of our teams were playing at the same time - which meant it would be very difficult to watch both of them. Mark recommended a restaurant in
Dupont Circle that plays many different football games, so Erin wandered down to check it out, while James and Mark stayed in the apartment and watched the Michigan game. To Erin's delight, she met some people from Saginaw, Michigan! While they were there to watch a different game than she was, she still enjoyed chatting with them. To Erin's and James's further delight, both of our teams won their games today! So now, both teams are 5-0, and they will play each other next weekend! Even though we'll be in Europe, we'll do our best to find a way to watch the game together.
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| Tabitha in front of the White House. |
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| James and Erin in front of the White House. |
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| Tabitha in front of the Washington Monument. |
We noticed there was a possible "
travel alert" for Americans traveling in Europe right now. Unfortunately, there is an al-Qaeda terror threat in Europe right now. We promise that we will do our best to be as careful as possible while we are there. For now, we just have to tie up some loose ends back at home, finish repacking our packs, and get ready for the next big step in our adventure...
