Washington, DC

I flew out of Unalaska on Saturday afternoon, great flight, no problems, spent the night in Anchorage and had to get up at 5 AM to go to the airport and catch a flight to Minneapolis. I got stuck in the window seat, which I don't really like, though it is better than the middle seat. I would SO much rather be on the aisle. Anyway, very long but smooth flight to Minneapolis, got in a little late and got to the next flight when it was boarding. No time to hang out. Off we went to DC, another good flight and finally arrived at 8:40 PM. This is our last retreat for the Healthy Native Communities Fellowship; my teammates Donna and Char arrived later the same night. It's a four hour time difference so we had the worst time getting to sleep and had to get up early the next day for training sessions. I think I am still on AK time and when we get up at 7, it's really 3 AM to me!

We convinced our trainers to let us have a few hours off yesterday in return for going back and working into the night last night. We got out and walked around in the sunshine--who would have guessed it would be in the 80's in DC? Not this one, who brought nothing but long sleeved shirts and sweaters! Oh well, I was just happy to be out in the sun and would much rather be hot than cold.

So here's my little gallery of photos from walking around. I loved that funky piece of art above.

Part of the Smithsonian. Of course, we had nowhere near the time to look at everything.

Cop on a Segway

Rockets at the Air and Space Museum

Monument and trees

Inside the Art Museum

Cool hand sculptures

Flowers are still blooming

Fountain

The Capitol

Monks at the Air and Space Museum

Shout out to my Air Force upbringing

On the street

Today we had a great speaker in the morning, Regis Pecos from the New Mexico Leadership Institute, who discussed the effects of 100 years of government policy on Native American culture. This afternoon, we visited one of the Upside Down Organization's schools nearby. I will post more about that tomorrow! In the morning, we are going as a group to tour the White House. We can't take anything with us but our IDs, so no photos. I am also hoping to see my niece Kristinn and family tomorrow night.