I'm on a flight as long as one crossing the Atlantic, so have had the time to write this before transcribing my thoughts through the keys.My most recent trip was amazing for several reasons - one being able to see family and friends, another having the experience of a business trip and successfully fulfilling its purpose, and a final reason being the food, fun, frigid cold, and fancy beers.
It all started after I ran (and walked some after the 7.5 mile mark) my fastest 1/2 marathon ever, enjoyed the Cardinals' win at the Ringler's house, and then relaxed until taking a red-eye to BWI via Charlotte. Stepping off the plane and out of the bus to enter the metro, I faced a flurry of flakes that didn't bode well for my already stiff and aching knees. But I made it to the Eastern Market metro and the smiling faces of Haynes and Erin just in time. After relaxing and eating at Erin's new place - an awesome "English basement" - we met up with my Clinton School colleagues at RFK Stadium to participate in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service event to package care boxes for our troops.
After two hours of enjoying the company of friends, seeing the excitement in the pre-inaugural air, and writing some thoughtful letters, we returned to Erin's where I took a much needed nap. When I woke up we made our way to Carly's place to party the night away in preparation for a long day on Tuesday. This was good fun with good people.In the morning I woke up early, dressed in my best, and headed out with mistaken confidence of finding Marie. Already late for coffee (as planned ahead of time), I couldn't get anywhere fast within five blocks of the Capitol building. It was crazy and when I tried to find the Silver Gate where our tickets were for I just ran into lines for other gates and ended up packed like a sardine for an hour and a half. The only benefit to this concert-like atmosphere was that it was keeping me warm. After making it out and making a wide U-turn to get to where the gate was on the invitation, I found that the Silver Gate was not accessible from the north and that I was on the wrong side of the mall from Marie. I did see comedian George Wallace however. Finally, I made my way through the 3rd street tunnel and to the line for entrance into the Silver area where Marie was waiting on the steps with a solemn look. Immediately we assessed the situation and realized that we wouldn't have much luck in getting in and so we just walked down the mall and ended up watching the inauguration from the WWII Memorial on a big screen.
It was still amazing - to just be there and experience the moment made the trip worth it. During the ceremony I felt like a newscaster, accurately stating that after the botched swearing-in that President Obama would probably have to do it over and then pointing out the two mistakes in his speech (one being that there have only been 43 presidents with Grover Cleveland serving twice and the other being that there have only been 43 transitions because George Washington didn't transition from anyone - the President said 44 for both of these). After this speech, Marie and I started walking to meet Erin and Haynes and on the way Tom Hanks walked right in front of me. I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hi, Tom", to which he gave me a salute and a thumbs-up. We also passed by the gate through which we were supposed to enter.
Back at Erin's we relaxed before preparing food for the party. After cleaning the grill, cooking the steaks and burgers, and preparing other things, only Chance and Molly showed up to join Erin, Haynes, Marie and me. Eventually Carly showed up after marching in the inaugural parade, but that left a ton of food. As the evening came to a close, Haynes and I spent over 10 minutes backing the truck up out of the alley behind Erin's place to get it ready to bring Marie out to meet a friend across town. Haynes showed off his taxi-like city driving skills as we zig-zagged around balls and ball-goers and avoided cops who probably didn't have time to pull us over for running red lights. After dropping Marie off and making it back home, Carly arrived. We all talked while watching the President and First Lady dance to "At Last" at countless balls and listening to the commentary on the First Lady's dress and the couple's sexuality and love and finally headed to bed.I woke up early again, walked Erin to the metro, and met Marie for coffee to discuss the start of our exciting two days of meetings. Our first meeting was with Amanda Meredith of the minority office of the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and we got some good information. Then we went to the office of Senator John McCain, next to lunch with Erin in Gallery Place near her work and then to the Capitol building where we watched a video, joined an eccentric tour and walked passed Larry King and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. After visiting Senator Pryor's office for the tour and making our way to Congressman Snyder's office for a meeting, Marie saw how truly small Arkansas is - I ran into three people I knew (two randomly, and the other who I knew would be there). Later that afternoon we met with Congressman Filner's office and then got coffee while waiting to meet up with Haynes and Erin. When we finally met them I received a call from the Department of Veteran Affairs explaining that they had just received our letter of request with the Secretary and that they were sorry that they were just now contacting us but that they had just started work (which was true - it was just one day after the new administration got to start). We set up a meeting for the next day and then stopped at Erin's before meeting two Tillman Scholars in the D.C. area for dinner. Per Chance's suggestion, we met Katie Munsch and Matt Cicinelli at Granville Moore's - this was an amazing restaurant both for the atmosphere and the awesome mussels, dips and beers. After a long dinner and some good talk, Katie dropped the Riley's back off to head to sleep.
Again, waking up early to meet Marie for coffee, we started the day off in Representative Harry Mitchell's office - he is the congressman for the Tempe district - and then on to a meeting with Congressman Boozman of Northwest Arkansas. This was a good meeting with Boozman having a lot of good information and then getting a photo taken with us.
After the photo, one of his staff members walked us to the street and Marie and I got lunch at Good Stuff Eatery (run by Top Chef competitor, Spike) where we ate some good food and had a good shake. Then on to meet with Patrick Campbell of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the minority office for the House Committee on Veteran Affairs, and finally our last meeting of the trip with the Department of Veteran Affairs where we were escorted up to the office of the chief of staff for the Secretary. After all of this I walked Marie back to where she was staying, said goodbye, and walked to meet Haynes before Erin's event at the National Portrait Gallery - and along the way took photos of some great Shepard Fairey wheatpastes.
Haynes and I met Carly at the National Portrait Gallery and attended the Face-to-Face program before eating dinner with Erin's friends Clark and Leonardo and our childhood friend, Joanna Swirszcz (who now works for Vic Snyder) down the street from the gallery. After dinner, when the non-North Little Rockians left, we met up with Quinten at a bar across the street and had good times with a hometown crowd. Then we all caught the subway together and scattered off on our ways home.
I slept in on Friday as best I could but had to wake up eventually because Erin's friends from Michigan drove overnight to get to D.C. and Haynes and Erin were bustling around to move their car. We spent the day walking the national mall and made our way around the Tidal Basin which presented a great view of the D.C. skyline in its frozen state. I got to see my two favorite monuments/memorials - the Jefferson and Albert Einstein - before ending the day with a late late lunch in Georgetown before Haynes and I had to head out to New York City. Before we made our way entirely out of the beltway though, we met up with Katie (my friend from Tempe) and her college friend in Silver Spring, Maryland, for a brief dinner. We eventually made it back to Haynes' apartment in Stuyvesant town at 1 a.m.
We woke up and were ready at 10 a.m. to start moving Clarissa to her new place in Brooklyn. This lasted until 3 p.m. and then we got a large load of Meagan's stuff to her new place. During all of this, Haynes' friend Scott Reinhard got to town and helped out. In Brooklyn we climbed to the roof and celebrated quickly with a couple beers. Later, Meagan brought us all out to dinner for the help and we all ended up back at the Manhattan apartment for some late night cookies and talk to be eventually joined by Meagan's friend Joe (who she knew from San Francisco) and Haynes' friend Halligan (who was in town from Philly and whose engagement photos are the most amazing I've ever seen).
The next day Haynes and I attended the Graffiti Baptist Church, arriving late, but spending enough time there for Haynes to say his goodbyes and for me to meet this family of Christians in the Lower East Side for the first time. When we left we went straight back to the duties as moving machines and got Kara and Meagan on their way. Haynes stayed with them on the tail end of the trip while Scott and I took the bikes over the Manhattan Bridge all the way to the Brooklyn Museum. There we enjoyed the exhibits (my favorite piece probably being the plastic Indian) and rode over to my friend Amanda's place until Haynes and Cam were able to pick us up.
From there we dropped off Cam and headed to Katz's Deli (this is where Harry met Sally) where we met my friends, Drew and Danis, and Haynes' friends, Nina and Michelle.
After a great meal we went to Max Fisch's, a nearby bar, and then to my favorite, McSorley's, where they always remind you to "Be Good or Be Gone." Before ending the night we hopped over to another Irish pub where music is played every Sunday evening. This was a great end to the night and a good reminder of Haynes' and my adventure in Galway.
Monday morning was another early one, waking up to head up the Hudson to Beacon, New York. We made our way out of the city and to Sleepy Hollow where we stopped for photos and a few good bagels. Then we made a stop with an awesome outlook over the Hudson (somewhere near to where West Point is).
We drove through the hometown of my classmate Carly and eventually made it to the Dia: Beacon. This unexpected treasure is one of the coolest museums I have ever been to and was only bettered by the building in which it is located - a former Nabisco cookie box factory located right off the Hudson. The windows and display spaces and building design all made for a great atmosphere to view so many amazing large pieces of modern art. The most notable pieces belonged to Richard Serra and Haynes stole a few clicks with his iPhone.
After a few hours there we drove the same route back home, proving to be late for the meeting I had already postponed, and then getting pizza at Two Boots before dropping Scott of at LaGuardia. Then we moved a final load of Meagan's stuff and again her and Kara treated us to dinner at a Mexican place near to their new home.Tuesday was the earliest morning of all, waking up at 6 a.m. to make it to the rescheduled 7:30 a.m. meeting with CGI U. I got breakfast at our meeting place, Lou's Cafe, a coffee and had a good discussion. Then Haynes picked me up at 8:30 a.m. and started to bring me to LaGuardia until I realized that my 10 a.m. flight was actually out of Newark. Haynes used his amazing, yet scary, driving skills again to try to get me to the terminal in time but I only made it 20 minutes before the flight and thus had to settle for checking in for the next one at 4:40 p.m. So I missed the Tillman Tunnel event that night in Tempe and had a lot of time to think and return phone calls, and also think about life after my Capstone - the topic of my next post. But after an exciting and exhausting trip filled with celebration, work, and other adventures, I was ready to head back to any form of consistency and rest and say goodbye to our nation's capital and the city.
