I am so excited about our conference in DC. Oh my gosh there are so many things to do and see. When I was looking online I noticed that to tour the White House you must get a special ticket. For this you have to contact your congressman and put in an application. When I emailed my congressman they had me fill out a form and informed me a background check will be done. I asked if the background check when I renewed my real estate license would help and was informed, no this will be done  by the secret service.  Just wanted to let you know if you want to do this according to my congressman's office it takes a minimum of four weeks (accent on minimum) then you may or may not get this.

Yes I am trying to be adult about this. I know we have great education and meetings. I also know there is a moonlight monuments tour, a trolly tour, free concerts, national zoo, congressional library, museums, amazing monuments, ok too many things to put in this post, the history of our country right there.

This is the link I found to the Moonlight Monuments tour.  We have nothing scheduled for Wednesday or Friday night at our conference so I thought one of those nights would be good.

http://www.trolleytours.com/washington-dc/night-tours.asp

These people also have other tours during the day, the kind where you can get on and off whenever you want.

Actually our hotel appears to be within walking distance to some things. (2 or 3 miles) but I do not know how hard it is to get around on foot.   The metro station is very near the hotel and my friend who went there last year said you can go everywhere in DC easily on the metro and you can get a day pass that is really inexpensive. He told me not to attempt driving in DC.

For those members who still have K-12 kids a visit to Washington D.C. will allow them to have memories for a lifetime. I was there 2 years ago with my family and the experience was outstanding.

Bring your spouse & kids to the convention. Plan out your schedule so one spouse can attend some classes for CE and then take advantage of the historical sites to see as a family.

If you drive a car DC really, really  enforces their parking rules. My suggestion would be to use a parking lot when available.  If one wants to visit the houses of Congress I suggest one contacts their local representative ASAP for a visit. Local transportation is good and cheap. Security to everything is like any neighborhood airport.

Tim

There actually are several hotels in the area which have smoking rooms. The one I was considering was only 1/2 mile away. A friend pointed out to me that only 1/2 mile in that area might mean walking part of the way across a major highway, I looked, he was correct. In New Mexico we tend to think a mile is just right there, based on the advise I have received that is not true in Arlington. Of course we typically do not think about public transportation since our public transportation system leaves much to be desired.