The evening was topped off by a trek to The Hotel Washington where we talked the manager into letting us out on the balcony overlooking the White House even though it was ‘closing time.’ We loved toasting to our experiences in that setting.

Wednesday – May 11, 2005

Breakfast on your own...fortunately I met up with Mary, Tami, and Clance in the dining room, and our tradition of sharing a meal to start each day began. Then it was off to a conference area for the Washington briefing (formerly called the White House briefing – but we’re TOO BIG for the press room now, how awesome is that!) Our speakers included Dabney Friedrick, who works with judicial nominations; Sara Taylor, Office of Political Affairs; Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; Elaine Chao, Secretary of the Department of Labor; and Al Hubbard, Economic Advisor to President Bush. I cannot put into words the experience of being in a room with these people who work at the heart of our nation’s government, learning more information about pending issues, and being able to ask questions. Of course, none of us will forget the poor repairman who wanted to work on the air conditioning unit behind Secretary Chertoff...and was firmly told no by Secret Service agents. Should we duck?

Then we had a wonderful lunch at the Hilton while John Braybender, a national media consultant, shared some great outtakes from the David Vitter campaign...time for a change and negative campaigning have entirely new meanings.