Whirlwind Tour of Washington, D.C.

I just got back from my first trip to Washington, D.C. and I have to say it is a beautiful city. I have wanted to visit Washington for years. I was down for some meetings as CREA representative to the International Housing Coalition -- a group co-founded by CREA, NAR and Habitat for Humanity International to promote the goal of “HOUSING FOR ALL” as an essential element to ending poverty worldwide. I have been asked to become more involved in the coalition, and it should be a very interesting experience.

I had a nice city tour in a cab during rush hour -- a 45 minute ride from Dulles Airport. When I arrived at the hotel, I met up with my Director and CEO to check out a really great jazz band (unfortunately I can't recall the name). Then we went to check out the cherry blossoms by the water en route to the restaurant. The only problem was that we were a week or two too late, and the trees were bare! We headed into Georgetown for dinner at Sequoia, which is situated on Washington Harbour (the Potomac River). The restaurant was fantastic. I enjoyed the Tilapia -- the sea bass is also highly recommended. And the view was absolutely stunning.

After dinner we took a stroll through Georgetown, and I really enjoyed this area. This is a major shopping district and I could have done some major damage on my credit card. It was a good thing I was with two gents who were more interested in finding out the score in the Ottawa Senators/Pittsburgh Penguins NHL playoff game than shopping!

The next morning I made the time for a short walking tour of the capital before breakfast, meetings, and a cab ride back to the airport.

I would have loved to have stayed in Washington over the weekend, and probably would have had I not been leaving for Vietnam in one week (YES -- ONE WEEK!!!) I used to think I wanted to go to Washington.... now I know I want to go back! My text trip there is tentatively set for late June, and hopefully I can extend the visit by a few days.