Ryan McFarland

I spent today on “the hill” advocating for recreational programs and funding.  Unfortunately we didn’t get much time with Senator Stevens or Murkowski.  The Senate went into a “vote-a-rama” and was voting on budget issues every 10 minutes or so.  Apparently Dick Cheney had to come in at one point to break a tie.  Anyway…  our appointment for 2:00 with Stevens  was during the vote-a-rama and so we were led to the capitol building via the underground subway that connects the Senate offices to the Capitol.  We saw Lisa Murkowski in the hallway and then met Senator Stevens in between votes but he had a committee meeting he was off to so we just had a moment to greet him.  We then sat down with one of his staff members - Kate - to discuss some of the needs that Alaska has for parks and recreation.  We wrapped up and were headed back down the hall when we passed Joe Liberman and Jim and i each said “hi” while we all turned our shoulders to let the other pass (the hall was that narrow).  We happened upon Senator Stevens again and i asked if we could take a picture for our association newsletter.