June 27 Monday
Elaine arrived late last night. Of course, we had to sit and talk until late into the night. Got up at 4 AM to get ready and then left for Long Beach Airport. For those who have never flown back in the years prior to the current ramp at the airport, Long Beach is a true blast from the past. You sit in a trailer waiting for your boarding time. Any food they sell is premade, or packaged. No national vendors. To board the plane, you go outside, those who are are sitting at the back half of the plane, enter from the rear of the plane, those who are in the first half, get to use the front door. You walk up one of those old moveable steps that you see in the old movies.
We flew Jet Blue, another experience. There are no first class seats, everyone is the same. There are individual TVs at your seat. The attendants are super helpful. For those of us who are older, service was like the old days, they do not use carts to bring the drinks. They take your order and then come back with your drinks. They bring a variety of snacks and you get your choice. They even came around several times during the flight!
We arrived at Dulles with no pre-arranged plan to get to the hotel. Found the Super Shuttle bus area and after waiting for a bit, finally booked a trip to the Crystal Gateway. Quite reasonable too--only $16 per person.
The hotel is very pretty with great staff who practically fell all over themselves greeting us. After getting a bit settled in the room we knew we had to eat as we had not had any meal since we ate a bagel in the airport wating area. We walked down to Legal Seafood who has the motto, "If is it not fresh, it is not legal." Had to wait almost as hour to be seated, but more than worth the wait. I had eaten at the Legal Seafood in Boston several times, but this was a new experience for Elaine. "California Cuisine" this was not. We had a Lobster combo which came with mussles, clams, a corn on the cob, side dish, and a lobster that was well over 1 lb. There was a ton of food!
Following dinner, we walked back to the hotel. We needed to walk off some of the calories. Not only did the walk help, but so did the humidity! This poor girl who is used to ocean breezes was dying with all the humidity.
June 28 Tuesday
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We were up earlyish and headed to the Metro Station and made our way to the Holocaust Museum. The museum is free as is every museum in DC. They distribute tickets for the day every morning, but they can and do get snatched up very quickly. The tickets are timed for you to go see the main permanent exhibit. We ordered the tickets online about a month ago. They only cost us the handling fee! Arrived a bit early so first we say the children's exhibit, "Daniel's Story" which did a very good job explaining the story of the Holocaust for those over the age of 7 and under the age of 13 although there were numerous parents who brought their littles ones. Don't get me started on that one! We then went upstairs to see the main exhibit. If you have never been to the Holocaust Museum, I recommend a trip.
After the museum, we had to eat. Elaine also had to stop off at the Information Center for the Smithsonian. Took us about another hour to eat and boy was that needed. We had not eaten all day and it was now about 2! After filling our bellies at the Natural History Museum, we went upstairs to see the Hope Diamond! It is only 45 carats, and beautiful. Talk about a Kappa Delta Diamond!!! Toured the other Jewels and drooled a lot over them. We then walked over to the American History Museum and saw the exhibit of First Ladies and their inagural gowns and did a bit of shopping in the gift shop. By now it is getting late, we are getting tired and the museum is going to close in a little bit. Off to the Metro and back to the hotel. We were too tired to go wandering around the city for dinner so we decided to stay in the hotel and eat. We had good food, very over priced. Part of the problem is that the hotel is in the middle of renovating their restaruants and there is only one place to have dinner. Back up to the room, watched a bit of TV while reading our books and then off to sleep.
June 29 Wednesday
Registration opened today. We tried to sleep in a bit, then went down to register. Shopped at the KD Boutique and started to meet some new sisters. We then had to go get something to eat before we could head off to Arlington. We ran into a woman named Berkeley while we were getting our fruit smoothies (I met her a little bit earlier at the KD Boutique) and dragged her around with us to Arlington National Cemetary. We walked from the Metro to the cemetary and then walked all over the place. First stop, John Kennedy's gravesite. He is buried with Jackie and 2 of their babies. I have been there but not since Jackie has been interrned there. Following Kennedy's site, we WALKED to the Custiss Lee House. NO SHORT WALK all up hill. A very interesting self-guided tour. Remember, there is HUMIDITY and more HUMIDITY! After the tour of the house, Berekely had to leave to meet her roommates. She is a sister from Albion College.
More walking led us to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We stayed for the changing of the guard. During the summer this takes place every 30 minutes while it takes place every hour during the winter. Talk about impressive. The soldiers train for 9 months before they actually start guarding the Tomb. They are dress in full dress uniform which can be a killer in the heat. They walk down a mat exactly 21 steps, click their heels turn to face the hill below wait a prescribed amount of time, click heels, turn face their beginning spot, formally move rifle with bayonet to the other shoulder, wait the prescribed amount of time, walk the 21 steps stiop and repeat what they did at the other end of the mat. The changing of the guard is a very elaborate ceremony which was really impressive and made a real impression on the audience. We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the opening dinner.
We waited in the lobby meeting old and new sisters. The seating arrangements were easy, alumnae sat with their Alumnae Province and the collegiates sat with their provinces. Province 15 had a small number in attendance, so we only had one table. We were the only table with 3 men! We did the flag salute, sang KD Grace and enjoyed a wonderful dinner.We had salad, shrimp cocktail, pork and then came dessert! White chocolate mousse in a white chocolate shell shaped like the White House. It was very impressive. Everyone tried to figure out how to take the shell home.
Dinner was followed by a welcome from President Julie Johnson who reviewed some of our accomplishments for the year. Following dinner, we had entertainment supplied by The Capitol Steps (www.capitolsteps.com). This is a group of people who are former aides on The Hill who satire everyone and everything! Nothing is safe. If it is in the news, they will add it to their show. The room was roaring with laughter. Some of the jokes went right over the heads of the collegiates, but everyone was laughing so hard that tears were flowing down our faces. They were so much fun. I bought their CD's so that I can enjoy them for a long time. They update their website with new songs and routines everything happens.
Thursday June 30
Up, dressed in my white outfit, had breakfast and then off to the first Business meeting. Since I am in Alumnae Province 15, I got to sit in the last row of delegates! Wild and crazy California women need to be at the back, who knows what havoc we can create if we were to sit anywhere else. The formality of the meeting is quite impressisve from the time the National Council enters until the time they leave. The parade of flags was fun as each chapter was announced in the order in which they were installed. Was hard to belive that Beta Rho Chapter at San Diego State was in the middle! Three chapters got to hang their shields for the first time and one chapter had been recolonized, so they were ablet to rehang their shield! There were 255 delegates at the roll call. 126 collegiates and 51 alumnae delegates. The rest were national officers of all levels. I was disappointed with how few AAs sent delegates. Province 15 only had delegates from Long Beach, Newport Harbor, San Fernando Valley, Coachella and San Mateo. There were just under 800 people registered which is the largest number in attendance since Norfolk in 1997.
Lunch--KD's sure love to eat! We had a salad followed with a dessert of a mousse what looked like mosaic pieces were floating in it. Was absolutely wonderful.
Sara James, a newscaster came to talk and was received a KD Woman of Achievement Award. Then out featured speaker spoke. She is Karen Neuberger who told the story of her life which included a lot of struggles and then she hit the mother lode. She married a man who made her feel like a queen and when she found out she was pregnant at age 41 and she already had a 17 year old daughter, she decided she wanted to be a stay at home mom with this child. She found she was in her pajamas all day quite often, so decided to make a pair of comfortable PJs for herself finding the softest material she had in her stash. Her friends like the PJs she was wearing and she started making them as gifts. She held pajama parties and started selliing her pajamas and thus a business was born. They were sold at Nordstroms and Macy's. A pair were sent to Oprah Winfrey and her big break came when Oprah featured them on her first "My Favorite Things" show. Karen now has a huge business selling jamas and wonderfully soft socks.
Karen talked on the importance of our girlfriends. How she could never have survived without the various girlfriends she has and how we need different girfriends for different reasons. She calls these your "Broad Squad." We each received Karen's book on girlfriends.
The afternoon sessions was a ritual session. Following Julie's ritual address on "The Tie That Binds Us", National Council conducted an initiation. The young lady they initiated worked her heart out trying to get her campus, College of the South, to allow NPC sororities on campus. Until the time that she was finally successful, they would only allow local sororities be chartered. She would call Julie asking for help, but unfortunately, the National Sororities were not in any position to override the rules. Lisa, the hard working young lady, was relentless in her pursuit that Greek Life finally gave in. Once she had the OK, she contacted Julie and the colonization process began. Kappa Delta is currently not only the first NPC house on the campus, but the ONLY NPC house on the campus! Lisa is now an initiate of the chapter at College of the South.
The evening dinner was the awards dinner. Walking into the ballroom was amazing. There was no head table as the table in front was covered with awards in silver, and crystal. Plaques galore and medals were also on display. The milage award went to Beta Rho Chapter at San Diego State. Their 8 members totaled the most milage. I did not keep track of every award presented (they are all listed in the July 3 edition of the Katydid found on National's website). Newport Harbor had a very successful night! We were awarded a certificate as a runner up for our support of chapters that are out of town. We won the 2 alumnae magazine awards--one for the highest dollar total sales and the other for the highest dollar total per capita. We now have 2 packages of KD AA stationary. The biggest surprise for me was when they announced that we won an Alumnae Association Excellance Award. This award is a beautiful silver tray in the shape of a nautilus. My AA members did all the work, but I was able to bask in the glory!
July 1 Friday
The day started off with an optional Earlybird Ideas Session with a continental breakfast. The National Council and Headquarters staff were available for an informal question and answer session. Most of the questions concerned collegiate chapters, but they also answered some qustions and concerns of the AAs.
The business meeting included a vote on each office in which there was only one person running. Since someone was nominated from the floor for VP Membership, that office needed a vote by ballot following a forum in which each candidate gave a statement and then answered questions presented to them by the delegates. The voting on the resolutions presented by the National Council were quick and easy as they mainly to clear up little problems and to clarify questions that arose after they completely overhaul of the bylaws at the last convention.
Lunch was the first disappointing meal of convention. It was more of an appetizer than an meal made up of very skimpy portions of potato salad, chicken salad and tuna salad. The speaker was Susan Whitson, the press secretary for First Lady Laura Bush. She began her career as a high school English teacher and then became a press secretary for Congressman Riley who was a friend of hers. After serving under 2 congressmen, she found she was out of a job when they were not re-elected. She worked for the Bush campaign, applied to be Mrs. Bush’s press secretary and did not get the job. She was then asked to covera ge Jenna and Barbara Bush during the election. She then applied again to be Mrs. Bush’s press secretary and this time she got the job! She said it is the best job in the world and loves what she is doing. Said that flying on Air Force One is a real experience she will miss someday when she no longer has this job.
Following Susan’s talk, there was a presentation on Girl Scouts and KD as a means of giving KD some great exposure to young women. KD is a name many women know and love prior to beginning college and going through recruitment because of their years as Girl Scouts and the previous exposure they had to KD. Back in the olden days when I was still a collegiate and long before there was a KD/Girl Scout collaboration, I was a Brownie leader for a troop sponsored by our house! As a finale to the lunch, 31 little girls ranging from toddler to approximately 8 came into the room wearing darling T shirts that said I WANT TO BEE (with a picture of a bee) A KAPPA DELTA SOMEDAY. Each little girl was a KD legacy!
After lunch, there was a panel of Visionary Women. Each of the women has done extraordinary things with their lives including founding a Literacy program, starting a multimillion dollar business making rolls from a recipe she made at home, a woman who is blind and competed in the paraolympics and is now an attorney, a philanthropist and the CEO of Universal Studios. Each of these amazing women are Kappa Deltas. We learned a lot from each of them while listening to their stories, asking questions and laughing as they entertained us.
The evening was a bus tour of the city. If I thought lunch was a disappointment, dinner made it look like a grand banquet. A box lunch of a turkey wrap made up of more mayo than anything else, fresh fruit with no fork to pierce it, veggie chips and a chocolate cookie (the only good part of the meal). There was no water. We boarded what was suppose to be air conditioned buses, but the AC was lacking in the 80+ temperatures and the zillion per cent humidity. The first stop was to the Capitol. While it was still daylight we went to the new World War II Memorial. After boarding the bus again, we headed over to see the Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and the Viet Nam Wall. The humidity was not letting up and there was no where to buy any water. I was parched. Our final destination was the North Side of the White House. As we walked over to glimpse a view of the West Wing (no, not the TV show, the actual West Wing) I gave a small wave to one of the guards at the front gate, the cute smile I received in return melted my heart.
Upon returning to the hotel, the only place to get anything to either eat (the lack of nutrition from the chocolate chip cookie was now wearing on the KDs ) or a cold drink was the only restaurant in the hotel that is not under renovationl. We took over the place and consumed a billion gallons of water between us.
Saturday July 2
The morning began with Breakout Sessions. I attended the one on Girl Scouts to get some ideas on how Newport Harbor can better participate in this area of KD. The next breakout session was on Shamrock Projects. I had been asked to talk to the group a bit about our successful Shamrock Luncheon. Listening to the collegiates discuss how they get sponsors, and raise funds, I was really impressed with the fund raising lessons they were learning at their young ages. After graduation, they will be sought after by numerous philanthropic groups for their wonderful experience.
Lunch celebrated a Lifetime of Friendship. We inducted ladies into the Nautilus Circle (25 years), White Rose Circle (50 years) and the Emerald Circle (60 years). A video was shown to show what things were like when the ladies pledged each of the years. The roars of laughter when everyone saw the different hair styles and clothing was long lasting.
The Order of the Emerald and the Order of the Pearl were also presented.
Mary Doyle, a former member of Newport Harbor was awarded the Order of the Emerald for her years of service to KD.
The third business sessions began with the CDC’s doing a routine to announce the location of the next NLC and Convention. NLC will be held in Minneapolis, MN and to the loud cheers of the California contingent, Convention will be in Indian Wells, just outside of Palm Springs, at the Esmerelda Hotel. I expect everyone from Newport Harbor to show up in mass.
The results of the election for VP- Membership were announced. The winner is Betty Brown Mulkey. Julie Johnson then gave her State of the Sorority Report (I have a copy for those in Newport Harbor who come to the meeting in September). After the official business meeting came to an end, the new National Council was installed.
Our final event was the White Rose Banquet. All members from California joined together for a group picture. We then went into the Banquet Hall to Celebrate KD and our time together. Dinner started off with a Crab Cake appetizer, followed by Cesear Salad, steak with mash potatoes and vegetable and was finished with a strawberry shortcake.
The top awards were announced. Mountain Brook, AL received the Marjorie Rowles Stakes Outstanding Award for Excellence in an Alumnae Assoication. The top CAB, House Corp and Chapter were also announced. Congratulations to Alpha Rho- University of Maryland on the CAB award, Sigma Iota- University of Washington for the House Corp award, and Zeta Iota- Saint Louis for the Council Award.
Presentations were made to the outgoing council members. Shirley Girardian-Gibson announced that the Southern California Council has dedicated the Rose Garden at Headquarters to Lil Leslie. She has been an inspiration to all of us for her years of service to KD. A new Society of Past Presidents has been formed, with Julie Johnson now a member. Bonnie Warren, our new President, said that 4 living Past Presidents were unable to attend convention. Genevieve Forbes Morse just celebrated her 100th birthday. Corre Stengle and Pat Neiman joined Julie at the podium as a video was show of all the Past Presidents.
Everyone in the room formed a huge KD circle as we sang and said farewell to convention.
Sunday July 3
No set schedule for the day so Elaine and I slept in a bit. Took the Metro to Old Alexandria. Fun place to shop, is an old Colonial town and was an economic hub for the Confederate. We took a boat tour to Georgetown, but found that there was not too much to do. We took the boat back to Alexandria and visited a few shops. Unfortunately for me, the quilt shop had closed for the day. I will call in the morning to see if they are open. If so, I will head back to Alexandria. We were told that more than 50% of the stores will be open even though it is the 4th of July.
July 4 Monday
Went back to Alexandria for lunch. Unfortunately, my quilt shop not only was not open because it was the Fourth, but it seems that they are always closed on Mondays. Oh well, an excuse to return sometime. Headed back to the hotel to get a bedspread to sit on and get something to take with us for dinner.
Headed out on the Metro to the Capitol. We were able to get seats ON the steps of the Capitol. Arrived around 4 PM for the concert and fireworks show. After we went through the security check, saw that there was a lot of seating available but by 6 PM, the place was packed. We could see out beyond the concert to the Mall and it was a total sea of humanity. The Girl Scouts were going around to everyone handing out cold water all day. Sure helped with the heat and humidity. The amount of water consumed was unimaginable!
The concert was wonderful, and the fireworks were spectacular. Sure makes the fireworks in Southern CA look pitiful.
Leaving the Mall was crowded, but very well organized. They closed a lot of streets to traffic to make it easier to get to the Metro lines. They also added a bunch of cars to the orange line while closing some of the other lines within the District. We had to go to Rosslyn to get on the train back to the hotel, but they had the cars coming so quickly that it only took us about an hour to get back!
When we returned, we packed, watched some of the concert on PBS and then off to bed. Have to leave early tomorrow.
July 5 Tueday
We were up early and on the shuttle by 7 AM. Security at Dulles included EVERYONE taking off their shoes! We sat around for a couple of hours reading and then boarded the big jet home. Remember, Long Beach is a blast out of the past, we had to wait outside for the old conveyor belt system to bring us our luggage. Took the shuttle to the car, picked up the dog and the SON and we were home!
