Our Nation's Capitol

Well I am back home for a few days and then headed off again on my last business trip of the year! This past week I was in Washington DC for a few days attending a Retirement Symposium hosted by a company that I work with, Genworth Financial. We had beauitful accommodations (The Ritz!) and we were in a great location in downtown DC.

Usually, I must take these sort of trips on my own, but this time a coworker was invited as well - so that was a nice change of pace. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, had some leisure time and then attended a reception dinner. Thursday we heard many guest speakers throughout the morning and early afternoon (Charlie Cook and David Gergen were a few of them). Charlie is THE expert political analyst on presential elections (he's the one everyone looks to when forming their own opinions) and David Gergen is a former presential advisor (to Nixon, Clinton, and everyone inbetween).

In the afternoon on Thursday, we took a short (3 hour) city tour and then headed to dinner at a new "news"eum in downtown. The Newseum is the museum of journlism and just opened up in April of this year. The had a private opening for our group and then served us dinner. The museum had many interactive exhibits. For instance, I got to try my skills as a newscaster, reading from a teleprompter and all! It's harder than it looks! And for those of you wondering, the tape of me attempting to do this is out there on the internet. Yes, you do have to have a password to see my video. And No, I am not voluntarily posting it on this blog! Let's just say that being a reporter is not my calling.

I have a Dr's appt this week, so I am sure I will have more to post after that. I am still feeling really well. There is still some ankle swelling from time to time and some lower back pain when I wake up in the morning, but it usually goes away shortly after walking a bit. I have noticed that it is getting increasingly difficult to bend over to pick up something I dropped or tie my shoes. But other than that everything is really good.





















The John F. Kennedy Center & The Capitol














The Lincoln Memorial & the Jefferson Memorial (view from on top of the Kennedy Center)