Hill Country

In DC I met up with Kate, and we hit the Hill Country BBQ.  It was awesome!  Hill Countr reminded me of the real Hill Country in Austin TX :)  If you are in town, I recommend!

DC Peeps!

 A quick stop while in DC for work this week.  I actually find peeps gross, but was amazed that this actually exists!

Vacation in the city

Last week, as mentioned on Saute Away, I headed to DC for a week of work and fun! I had a poster presentation Tuesday afternoon that brought me to town. I thought we had a good little paper and our presentation went well! Woo hoo for Jersey and Bell!

Other highlights of the week included several amazing meals and some tourist fun! We did a capitol tour as well as checking out the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House. We also were able to score tix for the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the National Geographic.

Saturday we had a day of play in the city. Kate introduced me to Hell's Kitchen and the Eastern Market. I love farmers markets!!! That evening we got our fancy on and we went to see the Capitol Steps. I nearly died - they were hi-l-ar-ious. They take the news, make it funny, make it rhyme, and sing it! The whole weekend was fun like that and it was great to see Kate and be a tourist!

The DC trip comes to a close

The trip was fun! Yesterday Kate and I went to this awesomely amazing bookstore/cafe, Kramers & Afterwords or brunch. I loved it!!! I would spend far too much time there if I lived i DC. Both of our meals were great, and the bookstore part was amazing. Check it out.

http://www.kramers.com/

I caught a flight home, and enjoyed getting to sleep in my own bed :-)

A Friday in the city

Yesterday Kate and I took our time and did the Jersey family thing. As in we took more than our sweet time getting going. It was necessary though - it was nasty frigid cold. Seriously. My thin southernized blood had some trouble there!

We went to the National Building Museum. It was really cool. I really liked the exhibit on building and the history of construction in DC. It is across the street from COE headquarters :-) No pics from inside the exhibits - just the building atrium. We had to stay within the rules :-)

http://www.nbm.org/

Later last night we headed over to Ben's Chili Bowl. Apparently it is a DC establishment. Now I have partaken!



http://www.benschilibowl.com/

National Cathedral

After TRB ended I met up with Kate. Thursday afternoon we went and took a tour of the National Cathedral. Neither of us had been there before. It was a fun filled afternoon, and rather educational.

It was really cool. We took a tour, and it was just Kate and I and the docent. It was fun to essentially have a personal tour.

I learned a lot, including

- construction was not completed until fairly recently.

- the cathedral is the 2nd largest in the US and the 6th largest in the world

- constructed of Indiana limestone

- seat of the episcopal diocese of Baltimore

- Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller are buried there

- the space window is awesome

- all of the windows are amazing

- so are the flying buttresses and the gargoyles

There was tons more, but i don't feel like writing it down. Here are some pics.

The space window. It actually has a moon rock in it!

The Creation Window.

A way cool pic of light filtering in through one of the rose windows.

Kate in the Children's chapel - gives you an idea of scale if she is too big!

Flying buttresses. I just like to say that. Tee Hee. How old am i?

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/main.html

DC, here I am, finally.

Made it safely to DC. It was a struggle. We made the 9:30 flight out of Jxn. It left about 20 minutes late due to our plane arriving late. Well, when we got to ATL I hopped off the plane and went up to the gate agent to ask her to hold our flight as we had 17 minutes to get from D28 to A05, and there were like a dozen of us on the plane trying to make that connection. She wouldn't call ahead - so we litteraly ran through the Atlanta airport - to no avail. So, I got in two hours later than planned, and got a workout in. If you don't beleive me, try running with 10 lbs of laptop and stuff on your back :-) Here is my fantabulous room.

Also, check out my new purse. Love it. Totally on major sale when I bought it too.

Ms. Jersey Goes to Washington (pt 2)

Well, isn't that a creative title, NOT. The remainder of my D.C. Trip was fairly uneventful. Tuesday was spent in meetings all day. It was uneventful, but good. I ran into Eileen, who used to work with us, and we caught up over coffee. She and her husband, Airangel, moved to Palm Beach, Fl since Vicksburg didn't really sit with him. They seem really happy! After talking with her for a while I hit the next session - and got a LOT of good talking in. It was a poster session, so I was able to talk with all of the presenters. More importantly, they had two sessions and about 15 posters that were related to things I am really interested in. I think I made some great connections and should be getting some good stuff for my new projects. I spent the afternoon in committee and signed up to do some stuff - so now I'm an active committee member! That is always a good thing to be.

Tuesday night was the U of I reception. Every year they hold a reception inviting all alumns and friends of the CEE dept who are attending TRB. It was another good chance to get in some time with the students as well as schmoozing with the professors. After a drink and some schooze time I cut out and met up with John, Jeb, and Don to go to the ESPN Zone. We were intending to catch BIlly Gillespie and the Kentucky Wildcats vs. the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Unfortunately, they forgot about the time change, so the game didn't start until 9. We didn't feel like sticking around that late, so we ate and watched Michigan State-Ohio State, and then headed home. It was an all around fun time.

Wednesday I hit the sessions in the morning, and then I met up with Kate at her other store. We stopped by the National Building Museum (www.nbm.org) and decided we need to go next time I come visit. We grabbed a heavy lunch and then we split up. I headed back to my hotel since it was time to hit the road sarah.