What I Learned on My Trip to Washington, D.C.

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Even without politics, Washington, D.C. is an interesting place to visit. In fact, getting to it can be life-altering.  My husband, son, and I travelled by car to Washington from Ontario (Canada) on May 5th and made our way home May 10th. Travelling by car may have taken extra time, but it added to our list of adventures and was cheaper than flying. I learned a lot on this trip both inside and outside my conference (Society for Technical Communication's 2017 Summit #stc17).

Driving (or at least being a passenger)

• There is a Washington in Pennsylvania, so ignoring your GPS because you can see signs pointing to Washington can add to your travel time. Sometimes the GPS can be right. This was our first time using one, so we had not built a trusting relationship yet.
• US Route 30, while very picturesque, is like driving in a spiral blind-folded. Once you get on that road it’s not easy to get off. The sharp turns and steep grade get even more fun when the fog starts. We did not take this way home; we just paid the toll. 
• When I say we went to Washington, D.C. I actually mean we went to Virginia and Maryland too. Being from Ontario, driving a short distance and being in multiple provinces/states, just doesn’t happen. I have a bad sense of direction, so knowing which state I was in at any given time was impossible for me.
• Driving in Washington can be dangerous. Highways can be parking lots, even on weekends. Turn signals are optional (well at least using them), as is making sure there is enough room to fit between cars when changing lanes. We were told not to even try driving downtown. We listened to the experts.

The Sites

• At the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, even astronauts need to control their attitude; at least they needed an attitude control and attitude stick on the Mercury Capsule 15B Freedom 7II. With my lack of knowledge about vehicles (planes, spaceships, and automobiles) I had no idea that attitude control and attitude stick were real terms and not typos for altitude. Who names this stuff and why didn’t they think it was funny and change it to something else? I have what I call a facilitation stick at work that is a very long ruler. Perhaps I actually own an attitude stick and just gave it the wrong name. 

• The flight simulators at the Smithsonian can be a real bonding experience for a father and son. My two guys tried the F-16 simulator and had a blast. I’m pretty sure they only had a light breakfast because they knew they would be doing rolls in their plane. It was with a sense of pride that they told me they hit 4 of 5 targets.
• National Harbor is beautiful at night, especially the Capital Wheel (huge Ferris wheel). It’s also something difficult for me to type. My first instinct is to put a “u” in harbour (the Canadian way of spelling it), so I have to resist. This point could technically be included under Being Canadian, which appears later in this post. 
• When you talk about your peeps at the National Harbor, you could be talking about the Peeps store. I didn’t even know there were Peeps-only places. 

• A second trip to Washington is required since we didn’t even make it to the historical sites. My conference got in the way. 

My Conference

• The conference I attended was at the Gaylord. Words just can’t fully describe it. (See above picture for view from atrium to river.) 
• Jimmy, our waiter at breakfast, was the epitome of speed and efficiency. He almost seemed to know what we wanted before we knew we wanted it. No other waiter/waitress compared at any other location. 
• Fear can make you wake up pretty quickly. When I found out the videos I thought I had embedded in my PowerPoint slides would not work because they were still pointing to the internet, my need for coffee went out the window. Who needs caffeine when you have adrenaline? Thank goodness for the kindness of two strangers who were also presenting at the conference. Mike Parkinson helped me download my videos and insert them into my presentation mere minutes before he was giving his own presentation. Vivianne Costa told me which room she was going into for the next education session so that I could come and get her if I needed more help.  
• A deep breath can cure a lot of things. All the trepidation I felt leading up to my presentation simply disappeared once I started. Initial feedback has been positive, although formal evaluations are still in progress. The truth is, even if the feedback is not what I hope, success occurred when I agreed to do something that was outside my comfort zone.
• The people at the conference were great, as were the education sessions! The speed networking session was one of the highlights for me. It's always great to meet new people. 

Being Canadian

• There is still some confusion about what Canada is like compared to the United States. Someone asked me how I could stand living in the cold. I thought he was talking about our winters and then I started to wonder if he meant cold weather all-year round. I never got to tell him that our summers are very hot and living without an air-conditioner (I do) can be very difficult. Someone else asked my husband what it was like living in a place with so much darkness. The person thought there was less daylight in Canada than in the US. You have to go really far north to experience extended periods of light or darkness. 
• Our currency is still something to look at least based on the reaction of people when you pull Canadian currency out of your wallet. Our red, green, purple, and brown bills were fascinating before, but our newer bills are even more interesting. They are still colourful, but now they have a plastic-like quality to them with a small section where you can look right through the bill.   
• It’s expensive in Washington, and even more so when the Canadian dollar is not even close to par. In fact, it wouldn't even be cost-effective to attempt to counterfeit Canadian currency, no matter how special the bills look.
• It's always great to learn the history of other countries. There's a lot of American history to learn, which is why we'll have to return to see the many things that we missed on our first visit.

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