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Even though I am just about traveled out from the South trip, I hit the road again this morning to come to Washington, D.C. for the ALA annual conference. You may remember that I am on the Instructional Technologies Committee, a committee of the Instruction Section of ACRL. When you are on a committee, you have to commit to attending the conferences to participate in the committee work. I am not a big fan of the ALA Annual Conference simply because it is too darn big. Due to its size, it is spread out all over the city, so it’s difficult to plan to attend all the sessions you would like due to having to factor in transportation from one meeting location to another.

My opinion of the down side of the enormity of it all wasn’t swayed today when I arrived at my ALA assigned hotel, Doubletree Crystal City, which is one of the three most far flung conference hotels, located across the Potomac near the Pentagon. By the time I checked in (and someone had cancelled my reservation two days prior!), it was too late to figure out where to catch the Metro to go to the Convention Center to pick up my registration packet. But, because it’s so big, they actually had a satellite registration site here on this side of the river at a hotel a half mile away. So I hiked there and got my final conference program so I can try to plan the logistics of fitting in as many sessions as possible tomorrow!

Washington Monument The D.C. area is my old home stomping grounds and most of my family still lives in the area. So, my sister Kate picked me up for dinner this evening (along with Ron who tagged along from W-S and will abandon me to visit his folks in Baltimore tomorrow). We went to a contemporary Latin American restaurant, Ceiba, that is located on 14th Street. The route to the place took us past the Jefferson Memorial, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where my dad was an engraver for 40 years), the Holocaust Museum, the Washington Monument, and the Mall (where they are setting up for a folklife festival). And those are just the places I recognized!

My plan is to be at the Convention Center bright and early to catch an 8 am session. That will happen if I can find where the Metro station is located near here. The metro trip planner calculates I should leave at 7:12 and arrive at the Mt. Vernon station by 7:25! We’ll see how this country girl does with mass transit. I’ll report in tomorrow evening. Good night!