Made the journey to Washington D.C.! We presented our scientific projects and lived the pampered life in a hotel.
The sun was streaming through the tent and woke me gently before Dani and Christina could. I was startled by how bright it was outside, and how loud the birds were chirping. When I finally left the tent, it was gorgeous outside - no sign of the record-breaking rainfall that had poured for the past three days.
The two hiking groups came together for a quick egg breakfast, then hiked together down to the lodge. I remember that we talked a lot about engineering, about each of our futures and what we hoped to do for a career, and I realized that simply being a part of such an amazing group helped me imagine a more ambitious and unlimited future.
At the lodge, Naomi and I worked on our poster about the macro-invertebrate populations that we had observed. I was amazed by what we could do with such a simple experiment design, even with the limited data and time that we had. Once posters were ready, everyone made a slow walk back to the campsite. It was time to pack up.
We cleaned everything up, and loaded all of our gear into the trailer. It took a long time to break everything down and to say good-bye to Shenandoah, but we finally boarded the large coach bus bound for Washington D.C. It was a three-hour drive, and we spent it relaxing, playing car games and sleeping. Finally, we pulled up in front of an excessively fancy hotel. We gawked at the decor as we made our way to an upstairs dining room with equally fancy food. After we were all stuffed, we relaxed for a movie night, Naomi and I ran through our presentation a few times, we all said our good-nights, then made our way up to the hotel rooms, complete with a bed, bathroom, shower, TV and everything. It almost felt weird to watch Modern Family on the TV, and to fall asleep on the massive, soft bed.