Return to DC

I'm in Washington, DC, for the third time in 2009. Two colleagues from ETSU's Honors College and I drove up yesterday for this year's conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). It was a nasty day for driving. Rain, rain, rain, all the way from Tennessee to DC, over 400 miles of rain from the sky and spray from beneath the tires of fellow travelers. We left Johnson City a little after noon—causing me to miss my second 4 O'clock Club meeting in October—and arrived at the Grand Hyatt on the corner of 11th and H Streets at a little after seven o'clock. As a consolation for the 4 O'clock meeting, my colleagues and I went across the street to eat (and drink) at Capitol City Brewing Co., where I had some calamari, a fine turkey burger and a couple of glasses of their "Prohibition Porter."

This morning I woke up a little before six o'clock (as usual), but after staying up for a bit, I went back to bed (not as usual) and dozed until around nine. Then I got up, put on my walking clothes and headed for the Mall—not the shopping mall—where I did a bit of walking and jogging. The place was splashy and smelled of earth after the nearly two inches of rain that fell here yesterday and last night. I passed by the Washington Memorial and the World War II Memorial. As is my wont, I paid an emotional visit to the Lincoln Memorial and then headed back toward my hotel. On the way, I stopped at a little diner called Ollie's Trolley (http://www.olliestrolleydc.com/) for a breakfast of French toast and bacon.

It's now nearly one o'clock, and I'm heading out to find some lunch and walk around the city. The rain has moved out. The sun is shining from a blue sky. And I'm hungry.