DC Conference Day 3

Lobby Day! Having packed our bags, we left at 8:30 to get to our 8:30 meeting with Gabrielle at Rep. Keating's office.

The students gave an excellent presentation on why we care about these issues, and on our specific legislative asks - support for bills to address the issues in Syria and Yemen and Burma.

After the presentation, we were treated to a tour by Harwich alum, Tyler Nickerson, who is interning in the office.

TNick gave an awesome tour, knowing that there is no such thing as too much historical detail for our group. From there, we headed to lunch at the Senate Dining Hall - always a treat! We then had a 2pm meeting in Sen. Warren's office with Feras Sleiman (who we have met with more than any other staffer - four times?), and a 3pm meeting with Andrew Zack in Sen. Markey's office.

The students again impressed with their knowledge and commitment to these issues. After these meetings, we had time for a brief visit to the Library of Congress before heading to the Metro to get back to Crystal City.

We shuttled to the hotel to grab our bags, and then to the airport to catch our 7:30 flight to Logan, which was a bit delayed. After finally getting to Boston, we had to wait for the last P&B bus to the Cape, getting home around 1am. A long journey as always, but a great one!

DC Conference Day 2

After getting up and grabbing some breakfast, we headed to the Metro to get to our conference at Impact Hub by 10. We were thrilled to see Mac Hamilton, STAND Executive Director, and Grace Fernandes from the national leadership team (both Harwich/Monomoy alums). The conference was a pretty intense review of the situations in Burma, Yemen, and Burundi, and we also had time to prepare for our presentations for Lobby Day tomorrow.

Following the conference, we grabbed a bite at Shake Shack, then did our night monument tour - for the first time we did it as a walking tour, starting at the White House, then heading to the MLK, FDR, and Lincoln memorials, and well as the Korean and Vietnam memorials.

The last bit of our walk got interesting, as we hiked over to the Arlington Cemetery stop, only to find that it was closed after 8, so then finding our way to the Pentagon stop, and then a short Metro ride to Crystal City, and finally our shuttle to the hotel. Time for sleep!

DC Conference Day 1

Welcome to our DC Conference Tip for 2017-2018! This year, our travel day happens to be Veteran's Day, so we arranged an early flight to Reagan National Airport in order to be able to attend the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

We started on the 3am bus from Exit 6 to Logan. Meeting the rest of the group at Logan, we got on our 7am AA flight to DCA.

We landed at 9, grabbed our bags, caught the shuttle to the Courtyard by Marriott Crystal City, dropped our bags, then headed to the Metro. Our timing worked well, and we got through security and walked up to the pavilion in time for the ceremony. Then it was delayed awaiting the Vice President's arrival. Fortunately we found seats in the sun - it was 20 degrees.

We also were treated to patriotic songs from the Marine Corps band while we waited, then enjoyed a parade of Veterans organizations, and a series of rousing speeches.

It took a while to get out of there after the ceremony, and we visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and stopped at JFK's grave on our way out.

We decided to walk by the Lincoln Memorial, past the reflecting pool, stop briefly at the WWII Memorial, and then past the Washington Memorial to grab a quick bite from the food trucks.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Holocaust Museum - powerful as always, especially for those for whom it was their first visit.

After the visit, we headed back to Crystal City to grab some food and then settle in to our rooms, and an early bedtime to recover from the day of travel.