The DPA Conference

Back in February, Brian was notified that he had won the "Distinguished Performance Award." This is the same award he won 2 years ago, however they cancelled our trip due to the economy. So, this year we were a little nervous to get excited. However, they bought our airplane tickets, they booked our hotel, we finally felt that it was going to really happen.

Today, we started our journey on the DPA. We arrived at the airport at 5:50 AM so we could catch our 7:20 flight. However, when we got to the ticket counter the flight had been delayed to 8:00 AM. We figured that was not too bad, but it was going to cause us to miss our connecting flight. So, we would not get in as early as we had hoped. We strolled to the gate, where we started meeting up with follow DPA winners. At 7:45, the airlines told us it would be 8:45 before the plane would depart, next it was going to depart at 11:00. At this point the DPA winners went to the desk to inform the airline staff that they had to be in Washington DC by 6:00 PM. So, instead of having to change flights, we were put on a Delta flight non-stop, with more DPA winners and arrived by 5:30. It was a great flight until the end, which was a very bumpy ride. Once we got to our hotel the royal treatment started. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL, in the ranks of the Grand America. Our hotel was called the Willard Inter Continental, which was literally across the street from the White House. The staff were AMAZING and made sure that we were taken care of.

That night we had a great dinner in our hotel. We met up with more DPA winners. It was fun to get to know some more of Bri's co-workers. After dinner, we asked Terrance and Cassie if they wanted to walk the mall with us that night. Which they did, so we walked and walked and walked all over the Mall. We saw the White House, the World War II monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Washington Memorial. The monuments/memorials are beautiful in the day time, but are by far more incredible at night. It was fun to see the lightening bugs flying around too. It was a great time once we got onto an airplane.