Kaitlynn: Last Day in DC

  Today was our last day in Washington DC.  It started off pretty crappy because of the rain.  But then we were able to go to the ATF, which wasn't that bad.  I however, thought the first part of the tour took forever.  He just kept talking and talking, and it was hard to hear him sometimes because people or other things from the building would be talking or making loud noises, but he still talked at the same tone.  He was also an extremely monotone talker, which made it even more difficult to listen to him for a long period of time.  After the tour, we got to listen to three other people talk.  First, we got to hear a presentation from the Historian at ATF, which was probably the worst part of the tour.  Her presentation dragged on and it wasn't very interesting at all.  Next, we got to listen to a guy from Arson and Explosives.  This guy was really interesting.  He showed us some bombs that people can make, and how easy the ingredients are to obtain that would make a bomb.  Also, he showed us a few pictures of the types of explosives they had confiscated from people; a couple short videos of what could happen to a car with just a few fireworks in them; and a 5 minute long video of the effect of a building bomb.  The third person we got to hear from was a member of the SWAT team.  He was definitely the most interesting, and had the best presentation!  While he was talking to us he kept pulling out all of these guns and protective gear that he has.  It was so cool!  He told us about his job, and what each one of the weapons were.  He even let us pick up the guns and hold them, thankfully they weren't loaded either!  Even though I am scared to death of guns, I really liked his presentation and was able to pick up a gun, just because I knew it didn't have an ammunition in it.  He was also nice enough to let Dylan, Jess, and Trey try on his vest with all of this different equipment in it.  The tour was definitely amazing to say the least!
  After ATF, we had about 2 1/2 or 3 hours of down time before we had to be back at the hotel to get on the bus to leave for the airport.  So we all decided it would be best if we all went back to the hotel and found a place to eat lunch around there.  Kaylie and I decided we were gonna go to Buffalo Wild Wings.  I was excited to get my usual caesar salad, and once we got there I found out they didn't have it anymore because for some reason anchovies were put in their caesar salad so the company discontinued it.  So I had to wind up getting just a plain house salad, boo.  Anyways, right after Kaylie and I ordered, Dylan, Brett, and Caleb came in so we let them sit with us too.  It was a really fun lunch!  Then after that I had to go get a present for one of my friends, so Kaylie and I went shopping in the Crystal City shopping place really fast, and then headed back to the hotel so we could load the bus for the airport.
  Once we got to the airport, it took us a few minutes to figure out what we had to do, so we were walking in and out of the front doors about 3 or 4 times.  I thought it was pretty funny, and I'm sure anyone else looking at us got a kick out of it too.  We finally figured out what we were supposed to do, and it took us all of about 30 minutes to get through checking our bags and security together.  So we had about 2 hours to kill at the airport.  The time seemed to drag by for about the first hour, then thankfully time flew by and we were able to start boarding our flight.  Thankfully there were 40 open seats on the plane, so there was plenty of room for everyone, and we all seemed to spread out too.  The flight attendants were hilarious, and made the trip extremely enjoyable even though I hate flying.  Once we got to St. Louis airport, we all went our different way.  Caleb, Kaylie, and I all got back to campus about 12:30.  I came into my room and then just passed out.  All in all, this trip was amazing!  If I ever get the chance to go to Washington DC again, and I definitely will go!