Washington, D.C.

On Sunday morning, again at 7 am, we boarded a train from NYC to DC. It let us off right at the Historical Mall of Washington, where we met up with our friends Edie and Rudy, who we have spent a lot of time with already this summer, as well as Tanya and Julia, two friends from DU who are living and interning in DC for the summer. We were very surprised at the state of our National Mall, which encompasses the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, with the Washington Monument in the center. For a site that receives approximately 24 million visitors each year, the ground was barren and dry and the air was smoggy and grey. Apparently, National Park funding has been cut and the watering of the lawn was seen as a disposable commodity.

Once at The Mall, it was a short walk to the National Museum of American History. This Museum holds treasures from The Ruby Slipper from the Wizard of Oz to the inaugural dresses of all the First Ladies to the original Muppets.   It was then time to check in at the AIPAC  Leadership conference that we would be attending for the next few days. The conference kindly provided us boarding at The Capitol Hilton, which served three delicious meals each day. That night, we attended several workshops before exploring the city with Rudy and another DU friend, Sam White. We even made a late night stop at The White House and conversed with the attending Secret Service men out front. We were surprised at how close we were able to get to the actual house!

Ashley, Tanya, Sam, Katherine, Summer, and Rudy
The DU Crew

dinner at the conference

On Monday morning, we partook in more conference meetings and then that night we went to a local club with a large group of other students from the conference. It was a lot of fun to meet a variety of student leaders from around the world. Tuesday was more of a free day and we took the opportunity to explore Georgetown. The shops in the town were very quaint and there was even a water front that we enjoyed walking on. Wednesday was the last day of the Conference and after saying goodbye to our new friend we toured the Capitol Building (led by our personal tour guide, Julia, whose internship is at the capitol). In addition to walking the halls of our nation’s capital, we were able to sit in the gallery at the Senate as it was in session, which was very neat. Our last stop took us to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was very heart wrenching but enlightening to witness memories of the historical event. From there, Ashley's friend from middle school took us to the airport where we said goodbye to Washington and our whirlwind trip!

at the capitol building