DC

I was given permission from my doctors to make the trip out to DC for the National Science Foundation conference. I went last year and present my research and co-lead a discussion on incorporating research into the K-12 education system. I had submitted abstracts again for this year but ended up being VERY thankful that they were not accepted.


Cherelle and I went down to Boulder to stay with her parents on Thursday night because our flight left at 6:00 in the morning. That evening we had dinner at her ?college ministers? house and my cousin Elliot was able to make it over after his training. It was absolutely great having the opportunity to chat with him! He lives an hour away and I probably have only seen him once a semester and he is graduating this semester! Totally going down for his graduation!


Friday morning Cherelle and I left for the airport and were shocked to see that everyone was already there. Cherelle had been amazing and had worked with the airline for me to have a wheelchair... which meant we got to bypass the security line and we got to pre-board :) We made it to Baltimore and then had to do lots of walking and bus/train riding to make it to DC and then much more walking to make it to the conference.


Saturday morning I woke up with a massive migraine and could not force myself to get up and moving. I felt so horrible, I wanted to be at the conference but physically couldn't do it... I had worked myself too hard the day before. Finally around 2:30 I was feeling much better and was all ready to go to the conference. I was on my way out the door when Cherelle and Kate showed up and said let's go sight-see. I had missed the conference for that day :( Turns out our team had done really well, we got awarded for our progress report and Kate was given an award for preparing the best GK-12 website! She is so talented and you should hire her for all your website designs (shameless promotion). I was also very sad that the keynote speaker discussed geckos feet and how we can use their feet "technology" in the scientific community, a lesson which I had come up previously for my high school students. So of course we ended up going sight seeing, this time taking cabs everywhere!


Then we went to the museum of nature and science we were all on the same page with what we wanted to see in the short time we had... the rocks and the dinosaurs! The three of us were inspired by the gems and all the different forms and colorations they could take on that we started discussing a lesson for our students! That night we all met up together and ate at a very yummy ?chineese? food restaurant. I even tried jelly fish, not too bad actually. We had so much food and variety to choose from!


The next day I was feeling well and was up and ready for the conference! I went over to have the continental breakfast and the group was told by our boss to go out and sightsee, so we did! Cherelle, Kate and I went to the Lincoln memorial and got our pictures with Honest Abe. We had someone take a picture of the three of us in front of him.... they cut of his head.... really?!?!?!  We took Kate back to the hotel so that they could catch their flight. Cherelle and I went back out to have dinner on the Potomac river I believe it was. it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We stopped by the White House and took a couple of pictures, there were snipers standing on the roof, the president very well could have been there that day. We then went to the museum of American history and looked around there for awhile. That night for dinner we sought out a restaurant where I could get a lobster roll, and MMMMMM it was delicious!


Cherelle and myself had stayed an extra day so that we could do some more sight seeing, well once again I couldn't make myself get out of bed. So Cherelle went out exploring without me :( She got to see the supreme court and she went to the postal museum and got to go shopping and found some pretty cool stuff... I was so jealous.... but I have to look out for my health first and I needed to stay in and rest.


We left that afternoon and we made it back safely and had radiation the next day. I am so thankful for Cherelle and Kate and their knowledge of traveling and sense of direction. Couldn't have done it myself! They are great travel buddies!