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Come read about my third trip to Washington, D.C., and my competition in the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee!

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Day Seven: Homeward Bound

I think the order of business is to pick up where I left off last night - before the awards banquet.

So you can get a general idea of the banquet hall... this was my table

They showed a slideshow of each speller in order of placing... this was my slide

The guest speaker - Josh Foer, author, Moonwalking with Einstein:  The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

They have an after-party immediately following the banquet - this is Elli and Meghan, the first ones on the dance floor, as usual

Some lady who photobombed Dad's picture

I don't know if you can tell - the one with the yellow cuffs is Arvind, this year's winner.  Every time someone came up to ask him to sign their book (here, I tried) his friends would swoop down around him crying, "Human shield!" then dash away.  Paparazzi - they're always in your hair.
Then, this morning, we drove into Princeton, NJ.  As one who has never been there, it was funny to watch Mom and Dad reminiscing and talking about all that had changed in the *cough*20 years*cough* time since they'd been there last.  For example, the apartment complex they'd lived in had been completely torn down - they can tell you how distressing that was...

We had lunch at the Princetonian Diner, where they used to eat - and it was amazing, by the way.  Definitely recommend it.

Mom, in front of the preschool she used to work at - it's still there!
A tree (the little one in the middle) that Mom and Dad planted at the preschool 20 years ago before they left...

We were in Princeton at possibly the busiest week of the year - graduation.  So there was almost no parking, and like everywhere on the East coast currently, it was blisteringly hot to walk around.  Oh, well.

The Princeton band did a little mini-parade into the... um... "graduation arena"?  Not sure what to call it...

 So now we're about halfway from Princeton to Anderson - at a hotel in Hershey, PA.  The plan is to tour the chocolatey landmarks of the area tomorrow morning, then be back by late tomorrow night.

There's not much else to blog about today, but I will show you this:
Elli laughing - pictures taken on Thursday at lunch

Yeah.  Not much to say about that.  I think it captures the, ah, essence quite nicely, don't you?  :)

~Joe