Paddleboarding with President Obama

Just in time for July 4th... I recently traveled to Washington DC for a grant meeting with US Department of Education - working on our Teaching Science as Inquiry - Aquatic Science project.

While in DC, I attempted to take the president paddleboarding... don't laugh, I think he would really enjoy it! Since he's from Hawaii, and has an affinity for the water, it definitely makes sense...

I'd thought of starting out by telling President Obama that I admire his body surfing style (check out the famous photo to the right!) at Sandy Beach or that I know he takes his kids body boarding (See photo below where he was caught on camera teaching his daughter Malia to bodyboard).

Unfortunately, the president was out of town while I was in DC, and so I was unable to get past the White House lawn even though I brought this authentic wooden paddleboard all the way to DC (see photo below - that thing was hard to get through airport security!).

But stay tuned, I still think that paddleboarding is in our presidential future!

Despite my lack of success paddleboarding with the president, I was able to take in some of the important sites while in DC. After my meeting ended, I took the opportunity to travel to Senator Dan Inouye's office to thank him for his support of education in Hawaii.

I was able to see the senate in session, and I also got to view the senate committee hearings on Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court.