fifty two.

Dad on campus outside of the Gate of Trustees.  I thought a fitting caption for the photo would be, "I'm glad I'm not paying this time!!!!!" :)

Dad and I woke up on Wednesday with a full day ahead of us.  It happened to be my dad's 52nd birthday that day, so I was pretty excited that I got to be with him on The Day.  He was a really good sport all day as we walked and walked and walked.

We decided that we would try to figure out what I would need to do to catch a bus to take me to the metro station.  We walked to the closest bus stop (2.6 miles away).  An hour later, we arrived but it was really confusing where we were actually supposed to get on a bus.  Half way to the bus stop I was tempted to suggest turning around and simply driving to the metro station (later I really regretted not doing this), but we thought that it would be good for me to try the journey while he was there to accompany me.  45 minutes later we had it sorted and were on a bus.  We got to the metro station, I purchased travel cards and we were on our way. 

I showed him the campus and got my id card.  The excitement was completely overflowing in me by this point.  It was so wonderful to be on campus in the middle of all of the excitement.  It felt so good to be back in a university atmosphere again. 

We then walked about 8 blocks and visited the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam and Korean war memorials.  It was my third time visiting the wall.  It was my dad's first time.  It was an incredibly emotional experience for both of us.  Regardless of how many times I've walked down that path, the power of seeing all of those names is just completely overwhelming.  It was cool to be able to share the experience with dad.

After some site seeing, we headed back to the metro stop on campus.  As we were rounding the corner to go down the escalator to go down to the station, dad pointed to the "colorful" band playing on the street and jokingly said, "I know why you wanted to come here.  You feel like you're in Boulder again."  I chided back, "Yeah, DC is prettymuch Boulder in suits and ties (on high levels of caffiene and amphetamine)"  I left out that last part but thought it later.  DC definitely a bit more high paced that laid-back Boulder, but I am confident that I will come to love it just the same.

We rode the metro back to the station.  At this point I should have just reccomended getting a taxi back to the hosue.  Instead, we took the 50 minute bus ride (to get 2 miles) and the proceeded on the hour-long walk home.  We got back to the house and were WIPED OUT.   We went out to Pizza Hut and enjoyed a delicious stuff-crust pizza and reflected on the day.

I hope it was a happy birthday for you dad.  I was so happy to be able to spend the day with you. (and you've probably noticed, I've changed the blog playlist for you - still couldn't find a good version of "Feels like Home" but hopefully this one is more to your liking ;)