More updates: Washington DC

Cleaning out my to-blog list, since I will hopefully soon have a whole new list of things to post and share (leaving for Hawaii in approximately 3 days).

Toward the end of last month, I went to Washington for the annual Informatics symposium. I didn't present anything, but our department had enough surplus budget that my boss encouraged me to ask if I could go and they said I could.


Here's a sunset view from my room


I always see this building across the way from our hotel (we're always at the same hotel) with Argentine paraphernalia, and I always wonder what it is. So this year I went over and checked it out.


I'm not sure what a military aggregator is ("agregaduria militar"), but that's what this building is. I'm always tempted to knock on the door and find out, or at least find out if there's anywhere in the neighborhood where I could score some empanadas, but it doesn't seem like an office building.  I don't know. Someday...

Generally, the conference is meetings/presentations all day and then walking around to dinner at night, but I did take one evening to take the Metro downtown and meet up with my friend Colette.  She's a statistician at the USDA, so I met her at her building and we walked over to the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial (or is it monument?).






Got there in time for some decent sunset pictures


We had discussed going to dinner and Colette made us a reservation at the famous (at least we'd both heard of it) "Old Ebbitt Grill", near the White House, reportedly a favorite of such famous folks as Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Warren G. Harding, and a few other presidents.  Somehow we both ended up getting the same thing (some delicious cannelloni) and then we each got a dessert (I got peanut butter pie, she got chocolate cake).

Definitely an enjoyable evening. I even got to see the inside of the Dept. of Agriculture, though I couldn't find the stamps that say "USDA Grade A Beef". :)