PAEMST Day 4

Wednesday was another early day as we had to meet the buses to take us to the awards ceremony in the  National Academy of Sciences building. we drove around a bit and finally pulled up to the building and most everyone had gotten off the bus before we were told to get back on the bus because we were at the wrong place. We finally got to the right place and were able to eat a quick, light breakfast as our guests were arriving on their own buses.

They eventually had us split up again so the awardees could practice walking in once. We then waited in line as we waited for the director of the National Science Foundation to show up. We eventually found out that she was stuck in traffic so we finally started without her and hoped she'd show up soon. We each had our name read over the stand, were handed our fancy certificates signed by President Obama, and had our picture taken. We had another speaker or two while we were there as well. When all was said and done, they had us take another group picture with all of our certificates. Some people went to the airport straight from the ceremonies while most of us headed back to the hotel on the bus so we could check out and move on.

After checking out, we took a taxi to our new hotel that Michael had arranged for his conference he would be attending the rest of the week. We were just a few blocks from the metro station at the end of the green line so we headed back to DC to do some site seeing together. We were able to visit the Natural History Museum before it closed and then we found a place to eat some burgers and really good fries at Ollie's Trolley. Michael went off on his own to find Institute and Diane and I made our way back to the hotel.

We had brought our groceries along and were glad that we had a coffee pot to heat water up for our Cup of Noodles and the hot chocolate we brought. Diane had to teach me how to use the coffee pot though.