WASHINGTON DC - DAY 4

We enjoyed breakfast at the Club Floor before getting ready to enjoy our final full day in Washington, DC.  

After yesterday's get-together with friends from our days at The American University it was fitting that we visited the University this morning.  Our last visit was in the 1990's when we showed our children Jennifer and Eric around campus.  We saw several changes to the campus from our days at the University.  Today we saw even more.

We have wonderful memories of our time at school.  We were both Political Science Majors attending the School Of Government & Public Administration.  For us there was no better place for this major.

​It was back in the day when for certain research projects we could take the bus over to Capital Hill and walk freely to the offices of Senators and House of Representative members to obtain information to help with the research.  It was also back in the day where these members did not travel home as often as they do today and we saw many of them speak at our university each year.  

The campus is located in the Northwest of Washington, DC  not too far from many Embassies and in a very pristine residential area.  Space is still limited though as it sits on 84 acres but they have done a nice job of maximizing the space with the addition of new buildings/facilities.  Slightly less then 8,000 undergraduate students attend the university.   The Law School is located 1/2 mile from the main campus and the university has acquired space in a few other locations not directly on the main campus.

When we attended the school there were five residence halls.  Anne Marie lived on campus the entire four years including her senior year as a resident advisor.  Keith lived on campus three years and moved off campus his last year.  We lived in the same dormitory during our sophomore and junior years including on the same floor our junior year which at the time was an experimental floor.  It featured four bedroom and eight bedroom rooms (not suites and no bathrooms in them as one might have today) and the only coed floor on campus.  It had a very large kitchen and lounge area.  

Fast forward to 2017 and that floor no longer has those types of room.  There are some dormitories with suites.  The university now has thirteen dormitories.  We took a taxi over to American University (AU)  We entered the university near McDowell Hall where Keith was provided a dormitory the summer between Junior and Senior Years as he was in-charge of Freshman Orientation.  We stopped at Leonard Hall where Keith lived Freshman Year and Anne Marie lived Senior Year when she was a Resident Hall Advisor.  As we continued across campus we came to a building new to us as it is home to a sport arena, fitness center and indoor swimming.  Back in our day we had to travel to Fort Myer to see the Basketball Play.  Eventually we made our way to Letts Hall where Anne Marie lived as a Freshman and right across from there and also connected on one floor Anderson Hall where we both lived during our Sophomore and Junior Years.  We visited other buildings such as the Library which we saw in the 1990's, the School Of Public Administration (called the School Of Government and Public Administration during our day) where we took classes associated with our major.  We visited a building which was new to us for the School of International Services.  We saw the new Business School Building.  We went over to Mary Graydon Center which still is home to some organizations such as the Student Government which Keith was part of and it has various places to eat.  They still have a place called the Tavern but back in our day it was a rather dark room that looked like a Taverns selling soft drinks, Beer (large mugs at around $2.50), wine, (Mateus), hamburgers, reuben's and some other items to eat and on certain nights would feature a live band.  Oh those were the days.  We went over to the book store although it is in a location different then the one we shopped at and no longer sells books as you can purchase them on-line.  We eventually made our way across the street which used to be on large parking lot which now has some parking but has some new dormitories and an impressed information services building.  In our day the computer course we took featured those computer cards that would represent what we programmed.  The campus is still beautiful and located in an absolutely wonderful location of Washington DC.  For our return trip we walked along Nebraska Avenue passing the Homeland Security area in a former church, NBC/MSNBC, and eventually came to the School Of Law which used to be on campus.  We eventually made it past the Tenley Circle and over to the subway which we took back downtown.

After a ten minute break back at the hotel we walked over to 19th street to find the second MCI Headquarters which Keith worked at.  We then walked over to 17th Street to find the first MCI Headquarters which Keith also worked at but as best we can see it was recently taken down as it is now one large piece of open area and new construction has begun.  

This afternoon we walked over to the harbor and enjoyed the scenery.  We will close now.

This evening we will be dining with friends Bruce and Ellie.  We have not seen them since attending their son's Bar Mitzvah in the 1990's.  They began university one year after we did and Bruce was in Keith's fraternity.