In April we were able to drive up to Washington D.C. and have Carl interviewed by C-SPAN for his winning documentary, "The Great Compromise".
On Tuesday, April 26, 2011, we woke up kind of early and drove up to Washington D.C. Since it was a Tuesday, Carl and I had Latin class. So a quarter till 9 AM we stopped at a Starbucks and Carl and I were able to participate in our Latin Class. An hour passed by and soon enough we were back on the road.
It wasn't that long before we arrived in Washington D.C. Our plan was to visit the Museum of Natural History for the rest of the day. Once we arrived in D.C. we drove a around for a while trying to find parking.
We eventually found a parking garage that was actually open. Our car was checked by security and then dad drove down below. We drove around the first level and went around and around in circles and came to a conclusion that there were no parking spaces on that level so we go down to the second level and basically do the same thing. Then we go back up to the first level go around in a circle then back to the second level. On the second level we looked around then went down to the third level, went around a few times then down to the fourth level and went around several times (it was good if you wanted to spot different license plates and mark them down and get a good look at a car 5 times!!!). The past few times we went around we asked some of the parking assistance people and they would basically direct us to where we had been thinking there were spots open . So we headed up and while doing so we went around a couple of times on each level to see if any cars had left. Finally we reached the first floor and headed toward the exit. We approached the pay booth and said we didn't find any parking. Apparently we had been down there looking for a parking spot for 27 minutes. The security person was going to charge us, but we kept saying how we didn't park. So she called up another worker and he moved his car so we could park in his spot.
After that 1/2 hour spent in a parking garage, we headed up to go to the museum. Before we went to the Museum of Natural History, though, we walked to the Museum of American History to try to find a book by Donald Ritchie, the Senate Historian who talked about Compromise in Carl's interview. Unfortunately we couldn't find any of his books so dad walked all the way over to the Capitol Building while the rest of us visited the Museum of Natural History. We enjoyed all of the exhibits and for the last few we had dad with us to see them.
When we were done exploring the museum we got back into our car and drove to the hotel, which we had stayed at before during our Washington D.C. trip in September 2010. We arrived and unpacked. We chilled out for about an hour and then headed down to the lobby area for dinner. We did pretty much nothing that night except relax and Carl was getting ready for his interview.
The next morning we woke up pretty early and went down to breakfast around 6AM. After breakfast we watched Carl's documentary on C-SPAN. It was not too long after when we headed into D.C. and to C-SPAN's building. We didn't exactly get lost, but along the way we were puzzled about where we were and where we were supposed to be going. It all worked out because we found the building and parking earlier than expected, which was good.
We met up with the employee from C-SPAN and walked to the green room on the first floor. There we waited and another employee (I forgot his name...) came in and gave us a tour of the first floor, including the Q&A studio and the studio where Carl was going to be interviewed. We went back to the green room. We waited a while and watched C-SPAN as several employees popped in to congratulate Carl. Later, a few people came in. Carl recognized all of them. First, it was the employee that gave us a tour of the first floor, then the Washington Journal host for that morning, Greta Brawner and last, Brian Lamb, CEO and founder of C-SPAN. Carl had been talking days before we left about how much he really wanted to see Brian Lamb, but doubted that possibility thinking he would be somewhere else or really busy so he was really excited about it! They visited for a little while then left so Carl could start preparing for his interview.
A bit later Carl was taken away for the interview and we were able to watch the hosts swapping places and Carl getting ready on one of the TV screens. His interview started and we watched the whole thing in the green room.
When Carl was done, we met Craig McAndrew and Pam McGorry, who both work in the Education Department at C-SPAN. They lead us to the 6th floor, which has most of the offices and the studio with the Capitol Building in the background. We got a tour of that floor and Carl got many congratulations from several people.
In the studio (with the Capitol Building in the background) we met the winner from the first contest C-SPAN had and he was from China. We enjoyed the rest of the tour and at noon we had to leave to go to the airport in Baltimore, Maryland for the second part of our trip!
We drove about 45 minutes to the airport while eating Subway food. We arrived at the airport and we weren't there that long. We were sending Christian and Carl off to St. Louis to meet the rest of
Team PyroTech for the robotics competition championships.
Everyone, except for Christian and Carl drove through a bunch of states to get to St. Louis.
Carl's Winning Video:
Carl's Interview:
C-SPAN's StudentCam Website:
This ends part 1 of our big trip!
