The Shepperd's: "Work" Trip

For those of you who don't know I have been working for 4H Mentoring for the past few months. It is an awesome job and I have really enjoyed it. I get to work with kids and plan activities, it's kind of like playing and getting paid. In the beginning of August I was lucky enough to go with my boss to a conference in Washington D.C. It was the Department of Education Power of Change Conference. For the most part the conference was ok, but there were some really great key note speakers, including a girl the was in the library at Columbine during the tragic shootings.

The great perk of this trip was that it was a chance for me to see Washington D.C.! Jessica and I along with her parents got to go on a night tour, take a water taxi to Alexandria, and explore National Harbor. I am so glad that I got this opportunity and could see all the great history of how the U.S. began and evolved. Another little bonus was that while riding the metro we got to see/ mostly hear the boys in front of us fight....a little scary.

Here is Jessica and I....I am sad because I now know what Gilligan felt like when he realized his 3hr tour was going to be a bit longer. Here's the story; we got tickets for a 3hr night tour that was to take place from 7-10pm. When we got to the bus loading station we found ourselves waiting an extra 20minutes past when we were supposed to leave. Apparently the tour place overbooked by quite a lot and had to rent a large bus at the last second....how they overbooked a whole extra bus load I don't know. So we get on our newly rented bus and finally take off, only to pull over as soon as we get into D.C. Upon looking around we couldn't really figure out why we were stopped. Our bus driver got out and proceeded to sit down next to a lady outside...leaving us all on the bus with no idea of what was going on. Our bus driver continued to flirt with this chick (see picture below). The people in the front of the bus finally told us that we were there to get our tour guide. After about 20 minutes this guy who had been outside on the phone gets on the bus and tells us that our tour guide is on his way from a neighboring city and will be there within 20 minutes due to traffic (sure sure). So.....I'd say about 40 minutes later after our bus driver was left by the lady he was obviously flirting with our tour guide arrived-woohoo. Well the good thing is that our tour guide was amazing and super knowledgeable and really made the tour extra special. We finally finished our tour a little after midnight :)