Well, Elysa and I had a blast this past summer. Earlier in the year, Elysa was offered a summer associate position at Baker Botts in Washington, DC. And fortunately for us, SNL Financial (my company) let me transfer to its Rosslyn office just across the Potomac from Georgetown. So for the 3rd time in our lives, we returned to live in Washington, DC.We moved in May, leaving C'ville for the big city, finding a nice apartment in Ballston, right on the Orange Line of the METRO. If you are looking for a place in the DC area, look there and start with Ballston Place. It is right between two METRO stops and only a few blocks from one of the best rated restaurants in the DC-area: El Pollo Rico. I remembered it from the mission days and it is still the BEST chicken you can ever eat. Imagine, it is probably the only top 20 Zagat-rated restaurant that the full meal costs only $3.90 (you heard me right!)!
Elysa loved Baker Botts. She loved the work and the people she worked with. She was able to concentrate on her personal interests in law: litigation and appellate work. The highlight of her professional experience was getting to have lunch with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and she got to assist a partner in writing a Certiorari Petition to the US Supreme Court. If you are good when you come to visit and you ask nice, Elysa might let you hold her copy of it. Might.
On the recruiting side, Baker Botts wined and dined the Mormons as best they could (the firm did a goood job). It included Elysa going to the finest restaurants almost everyday for lunch, a trip to ESPN Zone, Lebanese Taverna, three... count 'em, three Washington Nationals games (I got to go too! They were great seats, all right behind third base. GO NATS!), a few evening parties, tickets to SPAM-A-LOT, a trip to Six Flags America and an office-wide retreat to the Chesapeake Bay Hyatt (overnight) that included an hour-long massage. Needless to say, it is going to be difficult to go back to poor, starving student mode this fall.While in DC, we got to do somethings that during our previous visits we had never done. In June, our friends, Chris and Amber Lindsay (Chris currently works in the White House Office of Faith-based Initiatives), took us to the Kennedy Center where we watched a matinee of L'Italiana di Algeri from the Presidential Box. It was fabulous! The box was fabulous; the show was just alright! Not only the best seats in the house, but the Presidential box is also connected to a suite that includes a parlor, a coatroom and the only blast-/bulletproof bathroom we have ever seen. The door was so heavy and thick, one woman, who was also in the box with us, went in to use the bathroom during intermission and couldn't get out. We couldn't even hear her bang on the door (it was that thick). Her husband opened the door right before the show continued. It was really hard not to laugh at her.
But that wasn't the only thing the Lindsay's took us to. In July, Chris and Amber took us through the West Wing of the White House. That was really fun and memorable. Among other things, we saw the Situation Room (where the Armageddon scenarios were simulated during the Cold War), the Cabinet Room, and the Oval Office. But the highlight of the tour was actually the White House Press Room. All I can say is enjoy the photos! And yes, that is the real White House Press Room.
And what the Lindsay’s get in return you ask? We took them out to El Pollo Rico!
