Big D, Little D

Woah, what a few days!  I've had a whirlwind Monday-Tuesday, starting with a 3:30am wake up call and a pre-dawn flight to DC, where I spent two days at a federal conference.  We actually got to stay in the heart of the city (2 blocks from Capitol Hill), which was pretty cool-especially for non profit conferences...check it out!

Lobby-swanky!

My room-loved the lighted headboards

 After 16 hours of flights, federal reform, and a swim in the lap pool, I headed out to explore the city (which never gets old-I've been to DC a million times and could never get bored with it.)  Along with some old favorites, we found a few new things...

Not too sure what this is, but I thought it was cool!

Segueway tour....I kept looking for the banana stand, no luck :-(

 Familiar sights.....

 Dinner in authentic Chinatown.  Yum!

 For some reason, my tour of Pennsylvania Ave lacked the one sight I as after...the White House.  I haven't been there since I was a kid (early 90s) and wanted to check it out.  In my meeting addled brain, I was too dumb to realize I could look it up on my phone (lame) and realize I was going the wrong way down Pennsylvania!  Rae, you dummy.  Nonetheless, I decided a pre day 2 of meetings called for an early morning stroll, so I set out yesterday morning to find out if Mr. Obama would have coffee with me.

First I saw George (um, sideways).  Looks like the restoration is going well!

 Then headed to the big honchos house.  Sadly, there was no breakfast waiting for me, and no president.  Damn.

 But I did get a protest parade!  Striking workers on P Ave demanding Fair wages...the atmosphere in our nations capitol was to put it mildly, a bit tense.

 Walkway on Pennsylvania Ave....pretty neat line of presidential quotes.

 Ford's Theatre (well, the renovated theatre)

 Chinatown during daylight!

 Whew, what a crazy two days in Washington!  After another day full of meetings, I caught the 4pm flight home.  I was super lucky to get upgraded into "business coach" and am a big enough dork to take a picture...I have never, ever been boarded in zone 1!  Woohoo!  Small pleasures.

And after two days in the big D, I came home to Rochester.....to the little d. And I wasn't happy about it.  Last night I was supposed to run the Corporate Challenge with 11,000 of my closest friends.  I got off the plane a bit after 5, and Greg was waiting with my running clothes.  And....pea soup.  It was in the upper 80s, muggy, and really gross. Ugh.  Usually I wouldn't care, but I promised myself, my baby, and my hubby that I would be a smart preggo runner.  So we pow-wowed, and I took my dns (did not started).  Lame...I feel like a weenie, but I know it was the right thing to do.
Especially since my feet look like basketballs today.  I suppose pregnancy catches up with the best of us!  Hopefully the weather breaks tonight....until then, I am swimming, yoga-ing, and doing anything OFF my feet. 

How has your week been so far?  any locals run in the challenge?  How was it?