The usual boring tourist attractions...NOT

"Roughed it"" at the Ritz-Carlton (separate beds) just steps from the White House and Capitol Hill. Wood Gundy spared no expense in lodging, food and drink, or agenda.

Extracurricular activities were designed to keep the women (et moi) busy while the men talked shop and networked.

I won't bore you with amateur snapshots of the White House, nor of
Capitol Hill, nor the Washington Monument. Lincoln's, Jefferson's, & Martin Luther King's Memorials . Please feel free to Google images yourself.

But guess what? To my chagrin, nothing was boring or mundane.   I was moved at Arlington National Cemetery with its 360,000 buried row upon row upon row having died in the service of America. JFK's final resting place, brought back a flood of 2nd grade memories ...  November 22, 1963, we were let out of early the day of his assassination and spent the day glued to our black and white Admiral TV.

The Vietnam wall commanded respect for those sacrificed as pawns in chess, the end game yet unclear. The changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier required suppression of lump in throat coupled with uncontrollable desire to place hand over heart and join in The Stars Spangled Banner.  Canadians have much to learn of patriotism from our American brothers.

DC / AC?

My excursion to DC began innocently as the invited guest of my brother Ray, courtesy of CIBC Wood Gundy. Most of the brokers and banker attendees brought their spouses, so I was officially Ray's "partner".

As a result, we were deemed a couple and thus, if you will, the "butts" of numerous jokes and innuendo amongst the alpha male  investment banker types.

The last "brokeback" straw came when Ray and I were strolling (not hand in hand) in Georgetown and we're accosted by a young activist who assumed a positive response to the question "Do you support gay marriage?

But..

... there is always an opposing view...