This week I got the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for work, and holy cow am I exhausted.
But honestly, that city is amazing.
I never thought I'd be giddy to see a landmark, but cresting the top of the steps at the Lincoln Memorial made me feel like I had just rounded the corner straight into a celebrity.
Everything there is just larger than life.
I went to D.C. for work because that's where this year's NAMI conference was held. So, with my coworker and friend James, we traveled there for nearly the entire week - with his service dog Cotton in tow.
I'll admit, I had trepidations about traveling with a dog. I get nervous traveling by myself because anymore, half of the videos on youtube seem to be about the TSA or different airlines ruining people's trips - but this dog really did amazing.
She sat and traveled on four cramped airplanes better than most humans - even on the two flights where she had to sit under James' feet because there wasn't enough space for her in front of him.
The conference was great. For those not in the know, NAMI (the National Alliance in Mental Illness) puts on a conference every year for both professional clinician and patients (consumers) alike. They have multiple different speakers, and they talk on topics that both apply to people who work in the field - and people who receive services themselves.
And this year, since the conference was in D.C., they even organized a "march" on the capitol, where people were bused to the capitol building and then allowed to speak to their state's senators.
... and then also given free time to explore the capitol grounds and surrounding areas.
We even got to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Native Americans (where the cafeteria served traditional Native American foods).
Trips like this always leave me feeling so thankful. I can't accurately put into words how thankful I am to have a job that allows me to do the things I do - often in places I never thought I'd get to see.
We even got to see a real life Dragon Ball Z character, though I wasn't fast enough with my phone's camera function to do the character justice.
No joke... this kid was skating around the Washington Monument with his hands up like he was shooting fireballs.
I like to think the secret service was just there for show, and we now have anime characters guarding the president.
All things said, the trip was an amazing blast, and while I was ready to go home, I didn't leave D.C. before I saw a ton of amazing things - and ate a ton of amazing food.
Living with three people who don't like Asian food made me happy that I was traveling with a friend who liked it as much as me.
We ate at the same phò place twice this trip.
... it didn't hurt that they were super big fans of the dog we traveled with, and even gave her a bowl of water and her own (free) plate of meat.
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When I got back home, I was greeted by a super excited wife and two eager kids. I didn't get home until late Sunday night, but it wasn't too late for them to throw me a "Welcome Home Luau", complete with some of my favorite foods (chips and white Mexican queso, pasta salad, broccoli with ranch dip, shrimp with rice, and even pineapple cupcakes).
Definitely in the top five cures for homesick-ness.
So, while I'm super excited to be home - I'm also super tired and ready for another weekend. I wanted to share my experiences from this week, and now I'm off to play xbox with my son.
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