I had the privilege of reconnecting with my favorite people from Mundelein Seminary - my classmates Brendan and Chris. It is good to see Washington DC again, with no agenda but to hang out and explore some neat locations:

The Catholic University of America, The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, The Holocaust Museum (been wanting to go to this one for a long time, and whoaaa... it's powerful!), the National Mall (no, it's not for shopping), the Smithsonian, the Capitol Building, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the National Gallery of the Art (I still can't believe they let you take pictures there, aside from the fact that entrances to these museums are free!), Georgetown University (Go Jesuit school! One bigger fight!), the Old Post Office, the Franciscan Monastery, the USCCB Bookstore (bumped into a former semianry classmate who is now a Dominican!), and the systematic subway system. We had a meal at one of the locations of St. Elmo's Fire, and the stairs where they shot the movie Exorcist, both around Georgetown. We had the chance to concelebrate a mass with Cardinal Rigali, and met the Polish nuns that run the Basilica. I had ample time for prayer, visiting chapels and spending time at the crypt, shopped in the bookstores of the Basilica and the CUA, looked around the shopping scene around Georgetown , which is an incredible two-mile stretch of shops, walked miles and miles around the Capital, checked out the view of the White House from the Washington Memorial... checked out the shops at the Union Station. All of these in just three full days! Brendan and I covered a lot, but there is still much to see. Hopefully, I can go back there in the Spring, with expectations of being taken over by the beauty of the cherry blossoms, and possibly exploring even Baltimore by the water. We'll see...