We are finally home from Washington DC!! It was so wonderful sleeping in my own bed! We had a wonderful time, and met lots of great people.
Our first day started at 4AM with last minute packing, and hope that we would beat the Snow-Palooza of 2011. I was so afraid it would hit before we got the plane off the ground, and our flight would be canceled; it didn't help that our plane was scheduled to take off 30 minutes earlier than the time that I thought it did. We were the very last people to board, but we came very close to missing it. Once we boarded the pilot shut the engines down, and made an announcement that we were having to de-ice the wings before we could take off; it had already started snowing so I was still praying that we would be able to take off. Before we knew it though we were landing at Midway airport in 3 degree Chicago. After leaving Chicago, we finally landed at Dulles airport in Virginia. Once we landed we took a 45 minute cab ride to our hotel, threw our luggage in the room, and we were off to tour our nation's capitol!
Photo of me that my hubby, Brian, took while we were walking around taking photos of all the sites.
There were a ton of overly fed squirrels in the park. This one was hoping I would feed him. He came up to me, sniffed my fingers, and then posed for this photo. Unfortunately, I didn't have a treat for him even though he certainly deserved it since he gave me such a great pose. I call it "Please, Ma'am. Can You Spare Just One Small Acorn"
Being that it was 20 degrees with a 10-15 mile an hour wind, we got super cold super fast! I'm the girl in the group so I was the first to say, "I want to be warm, and I want hot coffee, STAT!" So we made our way into one of the Smithsonian Institutions to do just that.
Once we had a cup of coffee, and warmed up, we decided to look around a bit. We were all so excited to see the original Star Spangled Banner. Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos inside the exhibit, but it was an amazing experience. The outside of the exhibit was pretty awesome as well though.
After leaving the Smithsonian, and taking more photos, the girl got cold again. When I made this very clear to Brian and Scott we just happened to be standing in front of the Russell Senate Building. So we decided that was a great place to go in and warm up!
Name placard on the outside of Senator Boozman's office.
Some of Senotor Boozman's office decor.
Wicker basket in the shape of the state of Arkansas with bags of Riceland rice in it.
We finally found Senator Boozman's office after walking almost the entire building. Finding his office was great, but the real treat was he was there, and we were able to sit down in his conference room, and chat with him for a few moments.
Jar of candy that Senator Boozman shared with us.
After leaving the Senate building, we decided to make our way back to the hotel since it was getting late. As soon as we entered the lobby I thought I heard a familiar voice. I looked over in the direction of where the voice was coming from, and there stood Herman Cain.
When we attended the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference this past April, Herman Cain, made the announcement there may be a "dark horse candidate" in the 2012 Presidential Elections.
Day 1 was a blast from beginning to end!
Stay Tuned For Washington DC CPAC 2011 Part II Coming Soon!
