Day Two | Travel Blog

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capitol hill

Today was a fairly mellow day and a good reminder how much I love Washington, DC! I lived here for two years and coming from Oregon, many parts of the city left me looking like a deer in headlights. Remember Marion Barry? He was Mayor while I was here and the city earned the honor of the murder capital of the US. Then, there were awesome discoveries and experiences–the Smithsonians, political rally's every month, the Bush inauguration (I'll never forget during his speech he kept saying, “winds of change are blowing” it was one of the coldest days of the year with a crisp wind blowing). The city offered many opportunities and opened my eyes to a range of diversity I hadn't seen or experienced in Oregon.

For a little trip down memory lane, today I took a nice run down the mall and through Dupont Circle. Then, took advantage of being here to meet with Senator Wyden's staff to talk about the Calling for Act 211. Speaking of 211, now is a good opportunity to roll out the brand new 211info website, www.211info.org. The new site was the result of a vision and hard work from Matt Kinshella, 211info's

Smithsonian Castle and Gardens

Communication Manager. Check it out! Our goal was to take the awesome work 211 staff do on the phone lines to the website and to proactively share information about resources in the community.
(For all the non-211 followers out there….211 is a number, like 911, designed to connect people to community services such as housing, health care and food.)

Then, I hit up the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden–two places I had not yet seen. See some pictures…
One of the paintings was titled, “Tropes de Teens” which was too good to pass up as the parent of two teenagers!

Tomorrow the adventure truly begins! We meet in the afternoon as the team of fellows that will be traveling together and share dinner with European fellows who are also in DC.

Oh, and my son Sean turns 16!

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