DC Work Trip - Day 2

I got up at 0545 and started teleworking in my hotel room.  Breakfast was not included in the price of my stay at the Holiday Inn so I skipped the early meal.  At 0815, I walked across the street to Capital Gallery.  I'd intended to join a meeting at one of the companies there but my government customer canceled it.  Instead, I visited the HQ for my old company and met up with some former colleagues.  At 0845, I reached the location for the Off-Site event (all day meeting) and it began at 0900.  With some breaks, we had a very productive series of discussions.  For lunch (1215), I joined many of my colleagues in getting lunch at Cosmo, an old standby for food when I used to work in DC every day (1215).  We actually took the food back to the Off-Site spaces and talked a bunch about post-COVID experiences (almost a working lunch).  After our meal, we moved into some more discussions (also productive) and a fun exercise that allowed us to celebrate our recent project milestone.  Finished at 1500, I took my work stuff back to the Holiday Inn before joining everyone for a walk to the DC Waterfront - it was quite warm but we took our time.  We passed the Benjamin Banneker memorial and then wandered around on the shore of the Potomac until we located The Brighton (where our team happy hour was scheduled).  For the next several hours (1600 to 1900), we enjoyed some local brews, food and great conversation.  This was the first time I'd gotten to hang out with everyone socially since 2020 and it was great!  Afterwards, I walked back (with Chris D) to my hotel and spent a little longer cleaning up work items.  I also got to talk to Mollie on the phone.  I was reading until bed time (just after midnight), full of energy after my day of meetings and colleague reunions.