Hostelling International Meeting

The national conference for Hostelling International was held in Washington D.C. last week and I'm still on my way back to Alaska. I did want to share a bit of good news about the success of my mission. In addition to the meeting, itself, we were lobbying our state's legislators to propose a resolution in the Senate, and the House, to recognize 75 years of hostelling in the U.S. The bottom line is that our Senator Ted Stevens said, YES, he would introduce this resolution on Tuesday, which is yesterday. I can't follow-up on this right now, but I can only assume he did do this yesterday. The selected hotel in Washington was only 2 blocks from the Reagan Center, which is part of a huge World Trade Center Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, but nothing is as easy, or close, as it seems. We had an hour and a half for lunch, so I called my friends at the National Endowment on the Arts, and she said, oh, we're right across the street. That building was the Old Post Office Building, which has now been turned into a large food circus on the main floor, shops on the 2nd floor, and offices above that. Well, she didn't mention that it was the Old Post Office Building, so I walked into the IRS building, which is just behind it. Oops, a big mistake, as I sneaked out -- just kidding, you don't go in and out of any building without a bunch of security checks -- and entered the Old Post Office building, and a 2nd security with a code/number she has given me, to go to the 7th floor. We did have a nice visit, and I managed to gulp a quick sandwich before returning to our meeting. It was a little easier getting back, but still a heap of walking.
The hostelling meeting went fine, and we got a huge binder to take home, which was mostly printouts from what we can get online. It reminded me of government presentations, where they project a powerpoint slide show, then hand it to you printed out, and then read it to you. However, I will say I was pleased over how well the Hostels are doing and the national staff and Board are all very capable.
This was further proved by my flight to Chicago, where I am staying at the "Cadillac of Hostels" which is located on Congress, just off State Street. I was also greeted when I arrived from some of the gals I met in D.C. last week, so it was like, Welcome to Chicago. They have so much going on in the area, and I signed up for a few things, but I'll tell you about that in further blogs, and also I hope to be able to download some of my images when I get to a friendly computer that will be able to read my smartcard. . . . btw, everyone on earth has a cell phone but me. . . ordinarally I have no need, but travelling is difficult without one. I'm a bit out of touch for a few days here. I'll close by saying the weather is great, like springtime here, and this is such a beautiful city architecturally. . . and otherwise.