This past Wednesday through Sunday, I traveled to Washington D.C. for the National Collegiate Honors Conference with Bob Groven, Colin Irvine and another student Jenna. Whoop!

While it was certainly more like a vacation than a conference I learned some exciting things along the way... the most important being that the direction we are trying to go this year with the Honors Review is something maybe only 2 other schools in the country are doing. We are cutting edge! YAY! And now for the photo tour:

One of the first touristy things we did is walk. Everywhere. First stop: The Capitol.

I learned that Bob and I share a fixation with touching national monuments and buildings. I can now officially verify that the capitol building is real and not made of cardboard.

We then made our way to the Washington Monument.

Where again, we had to touch it, and also this time look straight up at it. Odd as it may seem, when you're looking up and can't see the top of the damn thing, it's pretty cool.

Third stop: WWII Memorial. You can't see our faces because Bob thought the fountain was more photo worthy and turned off the flash, but based on this picture I can't argue with him.

The fourth stop on our Marathon Monument Tour was the Lincoln Memorial, and from there we trekked back up, over and around to the Jefferson. Jenna and I calculated, we walked 6 straight hours for upwards of 12+ miles. Go team!

Other highlights of the trip include seeing Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian... AT THE SMITHSONIAN, (Sweeeeeet), and visiting the local establishment called the Rocket Bar (or as Jenna likes to say the Pocket Rocket Bar). Never mind that we were completely out of place, we made new friends and all was good. We also spent Halloween on the roof of Chris Scribner's dorm at Georgetown and experienced what it really means to party East Coast style. CRAZY. That's all I can say.

We also had many food adventures. See, Bob likes to eat fancy weird food, and Jenna and I like chicken fingers. Needless to say, it made things interesting. The first night included such delicacies as onion pie and tomato paste soup. The second night featured a goat leg, and then we finally made him take us to a sports bar where everyone was happy thanks to good beer and burgers. The last night we had dinner however, was a total win-win. We ate at a tapas restaurant, and oooooh my god I have never had a more delicious meal. I was unfamiliar with the concept of tapas dining until DC, but basically it's appetizer-sized dishes that you order and share and pass around. Between myself, Bob, Colin, Jenna and Chris (making a total of 12 dishes) there wasn't a single thing that I tasted and didn't like. I can't wait to eat tapas here in Minneapolis! Eeee!

Me and the Profs. The other side benefit of the trip was spending time with these two. The fact that they are amazing professors aside, they helped me figure out what I'm going to do post graduation so I finally have a plan! Yahoo! (Details to come later)

Later days, more tapas please!