Tag Archives: airlines

Traveling in COVID Times

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Almost surreal.

This past Monday, I headed out for a six day trip to California and back. The goal was to deliver my helicopter to a friend in the Los Angeles area. He’ll be leasing it for the next two months and I’ll get it back in mid May. I flew my helicopter down, accompanied part of the way by my friend, and took an airliner home. It was the first time I’ve been in an airliner in about two years.

I thought I’d blog briefly about the hotels, restaurants, and airports I stopped in along the way, mostly because the experiences were so unlike what I’ve had in the past.

The Hotels

The trip required a total of five nights in hotels. Across the board, all hotels required masks in the lobby and other public areas.

The first two nights were in McMinnville, Oregon, where I had stopped to get the helicopter an annual inspection prior to delivering it in Los Angeles. I stayed at a Comfort Inn for about $100/night. The room was comfortable, with everything I needed to get some work done while I waited.

On one full day of my stay in the area, I went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, which I hope to blog about elsewhere. Afterwards, I went into town to grab a bite to eat — more on that later.

Evergreen
The Spruce Goose at Evergreen Aviation Museum was one of the highlights of my trip.

When I got back to my room, I was surprised to see that it had not been freshened by housekeeping. I later discovered that housekeeping services for stay-over guests is something I shouldn’t expect these days. I’m not sure why; maybe they are trying to reduce the exposure of housekeeping staff to potentially infected rooms? I wouldn’t have minded so much, but by not freshening the room, I came back to the same full garbage pail I’d left with the added aroma of that garbage and no coffee for the morning. While I like clean towels and a made bed, not getting those wasn’t a hardship at all.

The breakfast room was pared down beyond reason. They didn’t want you sitting in there, which I could understand, and they made it easy enough to take food to go (and add to your in-room garbage collection). But they lacked a lot of the easy (and safe) basics, like instant oatmeal, cereal packages, or a toaster for the bread, which was placed, unwrapped, in a self-serve lucite box. So yes, you could get a piece of bread or English muffin that everyone may have breathed on, but you couldn’t toast it.

The next night was spent at a Red Roof Inn in Susanville, CA, which was also about $100 for the night. That hotel didn’t even have a coffee maker in the room. And since the hotel consisted of multiple buildings, getting coffee in the lobby in my lounge clothes was not an option. Fortunately, there was a Starbucks across the street, which we hit on our way back to the airport. I’m a sucker for their double smoked bacon sandwiches and can tolerate their lattes.

The last two nights were spent at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton on Century Boulevard. At $125 per night for a 12th floor room that overlooked runways 25L and 25R, I really enjoyed just sitting in my room in the morning and evening, watching the planes go by. (I even live-streamed the action for about 90 minutes.) This is one of the old, soundproofed hotels between the runways on Century, built in 1983. As one Trip Advisor reviewer said, “This is a Hilton, built when Hilton’s were top of the line.” If you stayed in Hiltons back in those days — as I did for my business travel in the late 1980s — you know exactly what he’s talking about. The Hilton name used to mean quality and this hotel is from that era, although it was renovated in 2013. Solid rooms with nice furniture. Giant mirrors for checking your image before going out to that business meeting or a show. Hell, even a lighted makeup mirror in the bathroom. It did lack a few of the amenities you’d find in a modern business hotel, such as additional outlets and USB ports. And it didn’t have the microwaves and fridges I’d had in the other two hotels I stayed in. But my room was large and there were enough towels for both nights of my stay.

View from my Room
I paid $10/night extra for a room facing the runways. Does that make me an #AvGeek?

What was weird, however, was the cold emptiness of the lobby, with minimal furniture — basically a handful of high-top bar tables and chairs — and no lingering people. The second floor, which probably gave access to the pool and hot tubs I could see from my room, was closed. One of the restaurants was closed; another had opened for the first time in a year that very day. Room service was not available. Even that notebook full of hotel information, menus, and area details was missing. Stickers on the elevator floor instructed you to stand in a corner if you were riding with someone else.

Yet the airport shuttle service was completely packed in the morning with so many people waiting that I actually walked a block away to the Marriott to get on their shuttle, which quickly filled up. I guess social distancing only applies when it’s convenient.

Eating Out

I fully expected to do all my dining outdoors or in my room. I had no desire to eat in an enclosed space — and yes, that includes tents erected in parking lots — with a bunch of maskless strangers. (Eating in contributed greatly to my in-room garbage collection.)

I went for a wine tasting in downtown McMinnville. It was outdoor seating and very pleasant. Afterwards, I found a restaurant with outdoor dining in little pods (for lack of a better name). They were small, individual tents, open on one end, with just a single table and four or six chairs in each. I felt pretty safe in there with my mask off, especially since I ate early in the day and may have been the first person in there since lunchtime.

I ate a ton of fast food before getting to Los Angeles. McDonald’s breakfast, Starbucks coffee with breakfast, KFC dinner. Okay, so maybe that’s not “a ton.” But it’s a lot more than I usually eat in a week.

The only time we ate indoors was at the airport restaurant at South Lake Tahoe. We were two of only six customers when we arrived. The server wore a mask the whole time. We didn’t linger.

For dinner at the Hilton, I had to go to the restaurant in the lobby, order my meal to go from the limited menu I was permitted to look at, wait at one of those high top tables in the empty lobby, and take the food upstairs with me. I discovered that my food wasn’t as described on the menu, but it tasted okay. I wish it had been hotter and I was glad I had wine with me. I could have eaten in the restaurant — there were hardly any people in there — but why take a chance?

I had breakfast and lunch at the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market the next day. The last time I’d been there was in the late 1980s and I could not believe how much it had changed. Yes, the charming, closed in area of vendors still existed. What surprised me about the area is how they’d built an entire shopping center around the old Farmer’s Market. I had coffee and a french pastry for breakfast and later had empanadas and an Italian pastry for lunch. In all cases, I found a table off to itself, unmasked, ate, and masked back up. Everyone in Los Angeles was wearing masks inside and out. They apparently get it. (I admit that it took me a little while to get into the habit of wearing a mask outside.)

LA Farmer's Market
At the LA Farmer’s Market. This part is what I remembered from 30 years ago, but I remember it being a lot busier.

I had a snack later at the Santa Monica pier. Again, I ate outside. It was pleasant.

Santa Monica Pier
I killed some time at the Santa Monica pier on a gorgeous day.

By the way, I used Uber to get around Los Angeles. I had to agree to wear a mask before confirming my ride. All the drivers were masked and most windows were open. I didn’t share a ride with anyone.

(And seriously: how do Angelinos deal with all that freaking traffic?)

The Airports

I was at two kinds of airports during my trip: small general aviation and large commercial.

Mask use was hit or miss at the small airports, most of which were in rural areas where folks tend not to worry too much about the virus. But everyone I saw in Tahoe and Los Angeles was wearing a masks, inside and out.

At LAX, announcements warned that if you didn’t wear a mask in the terminal, they’d kick you out. I had to wait 15 minutes (at 6:30 AM) to get into the Alaska Air lounge — I think they were trying to discourage visitors by making us sign up and wait. When I got in, I was asked to stay masked unless I was eating or drinking and then to mask up afterwards. There was plenty of space between groups of guests. At one point, about half the people in there weren’t masked; they made an announcement and then followed it up with a person going table to table to remind people. This was my first visit to an Alaska Air lounge and I enjoyed it.

On the plane, it was the same thing: wear a mask or get kicked out. Of course, they couldn’t kick you out during the flight, but I can only assume that a troublesome passenger would be met by police on landing. I was flying in first class, which included a meal. (I could swear I ordered a sausage and egg wrap, but what I was given was an egg salad wrap. At 8:30 AM. At least it tasted good.) We were told to mask up as soon as we were finished eating or drinking.

I did notice that some of the first class services I’d come to expect were missing. There were no drinks before takeoff while the plane loaded. The flight attendant didn’t offer to hang up my jacket (although I wound up wearing it during the fight anyway.) There were no hot towels before the meal. There was no alcohol other than beer or wine — this seriously bummed me out because I really look forward to bloody marys with breakfast in first class. Besides, who drinks beer or wine in the morning?

Everyone wore masks at SeaTac and, again, there were regular announcements telling you to do so. It’s a federal law. (Thank you, President Biden.)

I had high expectations for the Alaska Lounge at SeaTac, which is, after all, Alaska Air’s hub. I was disappointed. I had the worst bloody mary I’d had in my life — seriously, bud, you only need a drop of Worcestershire — and the only food choices were apples, oranges, a salad, or tomato soup. Service was definitely lacking — I got the distinct impression that the staff simply didn’t care. (The LAX staff was worlds better.) Access to the lounge had come with my First Class (not upgraded) ticket, but I can only imagine how bummed out I’d be if I’d paid the $25 day fee for the privilege of getting that horrible bloody mary.

My flight from SeaTac to Wenatchee was the same as usual, but with masks. They used to offer a beverage service but had stopped long ago. Hell, it’s only a 20-minute flight. Is it really worth handing out cups of bottled water on a flight that short? I don’t. The only drawback is that Alaska had cut the flights to Wenatchee to just two a day and the other one arrives near midnight. This early afternoon flight was packed. I sure wish they’d add back a few flights.

Vacationing During COVID

I should remind readers that this was not a vacation for me. I made the trip for business. I would not have gone if I didn’t have to.

But it wasn’t like that for a lot of the folks on the airport shuttle from hotel to LAX. More than half of them were going on vacation with their kids in tow. At least one family was going to Hawaii.

The only thing I can say to that is WTF? After spending nearly a week sweating behind a mask every time I was in public — which was nearly all the time — I can’t imagine going on a vacation for more of the same. Why not wait until the pandemic is over or more people are vaccinated?

Are people absolutely nuts?

Anyway, I’m glad to be home with my pups and the projects that keep me busy here. I’ll venture down into town once or twice a week as necessary. I have no plans to travel again until May — when it’s time to bring my helicopter home.

Going First Class

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Sometimes spending a little more on your comfort is really worth it.

I was brought up in a lower middle class family that, in my later teen years, was upgraded to middle class after my mom’s divorce and remarriage. I struggled financially to live on my own for a while after college, and then struggled a little less when I began living with my future wasband. It wasn’t until I was in my late-thirties that I began earning what I’d consider a very good living.

Living when money is tight — but not tight enough to actually cause you to miss meals, get evicted, or turn to payroll lending storefronts to meet financial obligations — teaches you frugality and comparison shopping skills. You quickly learn that if you need to buy something, you need to shop around a bit to get the best deal. You need your money to go further. This becomes a mindset, something you do naturally. Something you can’t imagine not doing.

Travel on the Cheap

Even when my personal financial situation started looking very rosy, I was stuck in that mindset. That was especially so when I traveled for business in my early years as a writer. I was a regular speaker at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Boston, and later, New York. I even spoke twice at the event in Toronto.

Macworld did not cover my cost to travel to these events. Its only compensation was free unlimited entrance to the show, snacks and swag in the Speaker room, and a Speaker ribbon that often led to more swag at booths. (The Press ribbon, which I earned by writing for some tech magazines back then, actually worked better.) The cost of airfare and hotels was on me. This was a pretty big financial burden, especially when I traveled to expensive San Francisco from the New York Metro area.

So I shopped for airfare. And yes, I’d even stoop to taking a non-direct flight or redeye if it could save some money. And then I shopped for hotels, winding up with satisfactory lodging within walking distance from the venue.

The crazy thing about all this was that my travel related to the event was a business expense — no doubt about it — and I could write it all off on my taxes, which I did. (Contrary to what some people think, writing things off on your taxes doesn’t mean the government pays for it. It means that it reduces your taxable income. So if you spend $1000 on a trip and your tax rate is 28%, it’s like getting a 28% discount on that expense.) But I was still in that watch-every-penny mindset and even though I could afford better flights or lodging, I just couldn’t see spending more when I could spend less.

That all came to a head one year on a San Francisco trip.

Seeing the Light

Macworld Expo in San Francisco was held in January. While the weather in San Francisco in January isn’t nearly as frigid as it is where I lived in New Jersey, it could be cold. I’d booked a room at the Victorian Hotel — now the Mosser Hotel — on 4th Street, less than three blocks from Moscone. (I think the hotel was just beginning its name change process back in those days — maybe 1998? — because I remember the new name.) I’d stayed there at least once before, so I knew what to expect. (Or thought I did.) The hotel was popular with speakers because it was relatively inexpensive. But it was inexpensive for a reason: it was old and in sore need of renovation. (I hope it’s been fixed up since then.) It did have a good restaurant on the ground floor, though: Annabelle’s was the name. (Funny the things we remember.)

On that particular year, San Francisco was cold and so was my room. The heat — a radiator! — simply did not work. I called down to the desk to see if they could do anything and they sent up a bellman with five blankets. I slept under a pile of seven blankets for the next few nights and dreaded showering.

I remember thinking to myself: What the fuck is wrong with you? You can afford a better room that this! Isn’t your comfort worth it?

The answer, of course, was yes. The next few years, I stayed at the W across the street from Moscone, where I was introduced to modern rooms, feather beds, and other very nice treats.

Airline Travel

The airfare lesson took a bit longer to kick in.

I admit that I stopped doing flights with connections unless there was no other option early on. (My wasband, however, did not. I remember one year when he paid for his family to come to Arizona from New York for Christmas. He bought them tickets on an airline called ATA, which was really cheap, probably because it only had like four planes. The flights had a stopover in Chicago, but not at O’Hare like a normal airline. They stopped at Midway. As anyone could expect in December in Chicago, weather moved in and the plane got suck at Midway. Then there was a mechanical issue. The delay was long and when his mom and sister finally arrived in Phoenix, they were extremely travel worn and cranky — can you blame them? The punchline: he only saved $50 per ticket over a direct flight with another airline. And yes, he could afford the $50 per person.) I’d had enough experience with the problems that arise when you have connecting flights and unnecessary stopovers. Why make a trip more difficult than it needs to be?

Of course, I usually fly out of Wenatchee these days and Horizon only operates a turboprop to Seattle, so all of my flights to anywhere other than Seattle have at least two legs. That can actually work out to benefit me, as you’ll learn in a moment.

(The only trip I occasionally do that I can’t avoid three flights is to visit my sister in St. Augustine, FL. The closest airports are Jacksonville and Daytona and the last time I went there no direct flights from Seattle. That meant flying from Wenatchee to Seattle to Atlanta to Jacksonville and then doing all that in reverse on the way home. No matter how you slice it, you’re traveling for a whole day.)

A few years back, when I was still doing frost control work in California from January and into March, I had a contract where I could stay home until called out. The call would come at 3:30 PM, which is when the hyperlocal weather forecast the grower subscribed to would be released for the evening. As I talked to him, I packed. When I hung up, I booked a flight from Wenatchee to Sacramento. As I was driving to the airport, I booked boarding for my dog, Penny, and dropped her off. As I waited at Wenatchee airport for my flight out, I booked my hotel and rental car. I’d arrive in Sacramento before 9 PM, get my car, and go to my hotel. In the morning, when I was released from standby, I’d book my return flight, check out of the hotel, and go home, picking Penny up along the way.

Every time I did this trip, I earned four legs on Alaska Air’s frequent flyer program. I did it six times in one season. That put me into MVP status. Suddenly, when I started flying Alaska Air, I’d get automatic upgrades to First Class at least 75% of the time. I enjoyed that for a year and a half — and I was doing a lot of airline travel back then. It spoiled me.

First Class is the Way to Travel

You have to understand that First Class isn’t just sitting in a bigger seat at the front of the plane — although, admittedly, that’s a real bonus. It’s free luggage check in. It’s often (depending got how you got to First Class) entry into the Alaska Lounge at SeaTac and a handful of other airports. It’s boarding first. It’s having a flight attendant take your jacket and put it on a hangar (and return it to you later while taxiing to the gate). It’s not having to shuffle down the aisle, hoping there’s space in the overhead bin for your bag. It’s having a drink — whatever you want — as everyone else boards. It’s having a warm towel to clean your hands, more drinks, a hot meal, and often a warm-from-the-oven cookie. It’s not having to worry about someone’s brat kicking the seat behind you or the jackass in front of you reclining his seat so you can count his hair follicles. It’s civilized and comfortable. It makes airline travel bearable.

Honestly, if you spend enough time on long flights — which I consider any flight over two hours — in First Class, you’ll wonder how the hell you managed to fly coach all those years.

Well, that’s how it was for me.

Good things don’t last forever and eventually my status as an Alaska Air MVP lapsed. I was back in the world of regular travel and I can’t say I was happy about it.

But what I discovered is that if I buy my ticket far enough in advance and I’m flexible about travel dates and times, I can often buy a first class ticket for just $100 to $300 more than coach. Here’s a random example for Alaska Air; in this case, if I were going to visit my brother in New Jersey, I’d be buying that First Class ticket leaving Wenatchee at 6:25 AM (keeping in mind that I’m a very early riser):

Fare Example
Would you rather spend five hours and 20 minutes in First Class or stuck in coach, rubbing elbows with some guy with body odor while a kid kicks the back of your seat? Oh, and don’t forget the ability to wait in the Alaska Lounge in Seattle for the two hours between my flight from Wenatchee to my flight out to Newark. Yes, it’s worth an extra $272 to me.

While I realize that not everyone has a few extra hundred bucks sitting around to piss away on air travel, I usually do. I don’t travel by air that much anymore and I want my experience to be as comfortable as possible. I travel alone now, so I don’t have to buy a ticket for traveling companions or worry about what they might be able to afford. I’ve come to realize that my comfort is worth the extra money.

Travel in Comfort

As I get older, I’ve come to realize that my personal comfort is important to me. If I can afford going First Class, I will.

That’s why I’m flying First Class from Los Angeles to Seattle next week. (There is no First Class on Seattle to Wenatchee legs.)

If you’re in a similar situation — older, traveling alone, money in the bank — and you’re not treating yourself to First Class travel when it’s available, why the hell not?

How I Spent My Autumn Vacation, Part 3: In Washington DC

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I take in a few amazing museums.

(Continued from Part 2: The Farewell Tour)

Third Trip is the Charm

This was my third trip as a tourist to Washington DC and only my fifth trip ever. (Two trips were for work and I didn’t really get to see anything.) The first trip was when I was around 10 years old; it was a family vacation. I still remember parts of it: visiting the Mint and seeing stacks of uncut money and my dad surrendering his service weapon (he was a cop) at the White House after they searched my little purse. I also remember running into my third grade teacher on a street corner. (How weird is that?). The second visit was many years later with my future wasband and, oddly, I don’t remember much of that at all. This would be my first solo trip and my first opportunity to make all the decisions about where to go and what to do.

The next part of my trip started long before dawn. I was dead asleep when my brother woke me up at 3:30 AM. So was Penny, who reacted by jumping off the bed and barking her little brains out. Jolted to consciousness, I rushed from the bed to grab her so she wouldn’t wake my brother’s neighbors. That’s when I ran full speed into the footboard at the end of his bed. The bruise I got on my right thigh would haunt me for the next few days.

The Train Ride

A while later, he was dropping me and a small carryon bag off at Metropark Station in Iselin, NJ, which isn’t far from where he lives. I was catching a 5:12 AM Amtrak train to Washington DC. He was going to work and Penny would be starting five days as an apartment dweller.

It took me a few minutes to figure out where I had to go. I waited on the wrong side of the track for about three minutes, then got directions to the other platform. I walked down, through a tunnel under the tracks, and was honestly surprised that I didn’t smell urine. (New York has conditioned me to associate that smell with any tunnel near train tracks.) Then I was up on the other side, waiting with a handful of other people.

Iselin Station Before Dawn
Iselin station, before dawn on a Monday morning.

A few commuter trains came through and stopped to pick up some of the folks waiting. Other folks arrived. Then my train pulled up and the doors opened. I stepped inside, then followed another passenger back through three cars to the Business Class car. I chose one of the few seats facing forward with a table between it and a rear-facing seat and settled in.

I’d bought a Business Class ticket because I’d always upgraded my rail fare when traveling by train to Washington. Back in my early freelance days, one of my clients sent me there occasionally. Since I flew on airliners so often for them, I decided that on short trips I’d take the train from Newark. (I lived in Northern New Jersey at the time.) They’d buy the ticket and I’d spend an extra $50 for the “club car” update. That was a very pleasant experience, with La-Z-Boy style swiveling recliners, small tables between seats, and waiter service with food and drinks. I thought that Business Class would be the same thing. I was wrong. (Silly me.) It’s just slightly nicer seating at the back of the train that’s less crowded because fewer people pay for the upgrade.

Speed Info
In just six minutes, the train reached a speed of 124 miles per hour. Eek.

I didn’t realize the train was the Acela until we started zipping southwest bound along the tracks. I thought we were going fast, but I didn’t realize how fast until I fired up one of my hiking apps for the current speed: 124 mph. Shit. It reminded me of riding on the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island. It isn’t the drops that scare you — it’s the ricketiness of the old wooden tracks and the constant through that they could break and send you careening off into oblivion at any moment.

Nighttime faded into a dreary day with occasionally rain. After crossing New Jersey in about 15 minutes, we took a more southerly route, making a few stops along the way. More people got into the Business Class car. A man sat in the seat opposite mine and unpacked some work on the table. I killed time by writing in a journal I’d started for the trip. Later, I walked up to the very disappointing dining car and got the free drink I was entitled to — an orange juice; it was too early for alcohol — and a microwaved sausage sandwich. I ate back at my seat.

There was some confusion as we neared Washington DC. Apparently a commuter train had some mechanical issues and we were taking on passengers waiting for that. Announcements made it sound as if the other cars were really jammed with passengers. When a woman tried to sit in our car, the conductor told her she needed a Business Class ticket and made her move.

Then we were at Union Station in Washington DC. Because another train was at the platform in front of us, we had to climb down train stairs and make a very long walk on the extended platform to the station. It was drizzling and rather depressing. It was also only around 8:30 AM — a lot earlier than I would have arrived if had I left my brother’s house at 4:45 to catch a plane.

As I left the station, I noted a Verizon Wireless store that was still closed.

The AirBnB

I’d be staying at an AirBnB studio apartment on 11th Street SE for the next few days. Although the host wanted to charge me an extra $45 to check in early, she did agree that I could store my bag on the floor in the “living room” — which was the only room — when I arrived in town. So I caught a shared Lyft — which is really so much cheaper than Uber — and headed over there right from the station.

Row House
The house I stayed in in Washington DC during my visit.

The place was on a very nice tree-lined street, one of a row of attached houses with a few steps leading up to the front door. It wasn’t until I took this photo the next morning that a resident of the area told me that the homes were known as Philadelphia Row and had historic significance. (I’ll let you follow that link or Google for yourself to learn more.) All I cared about was stowing my bag so I wouldn’t have to carry it all day. I followed the access instructions, which required me to open two doors with two different key codes, peeked inside only long enough to make sure the place wasn’t a dump — it wasn’t; more on that later — and left my bag on the floor near the door. Then I locked up and headed out.

The Metro

I chose the Metro for transportation. It was supposed to be close to the AirBnB unit I was staying in. “Close,” however, is a relative term that depends on the person doing the walking and the weather she’s walking in. It was drizzling but warm. I’d donned my old motorcycle rain jacket, which fit over the fleece jacket I’d brought along on this trip, and was able to keep dry during the six-block walk. But the jacket had a rubber lining that made me sweat in the warm, humid weather. Ugh.

I descended underground at the Eastern Market Station. After figuring out how to buy a Metro pass and how much to put on it, I headed for the turnstiles. Soon I was on the platform, waiting for any train that would take me to Smithsonian Station.

It turned out to be a quick, pleasant ride. I got off at my station, climbed up to the surface, and blinked in the bright light of the gray day. It was still raining. I got my bearings and walked the rest of the way to my destination.

The Castle

I had decided to start my visit at the Smithsonian Castle, which is the original Smithsonian Institution Building on the Mall. Although it once housed the museum’s treasures, it’s now an information center with Smithsonian offices. What also makes it a good place to start an early visit of the area museums is that it opens at 9 AM; the other museums open at 10. It was still before 10 AM; hard to believe I’d started in New Jersey just a few hours before.

Smithsonian Castle
The Smithsonian Castle is a great place to start any museum trip to Washington DC.

Follow the Links

I could make this blog post about 20 times longer than it already is by providing details about everything I saw, but do you really want to read that? I hope not because I don’t have the time to write it. Use the links I provided to get information about the highlights of my visit. And then do yourself a favor: schedule your own museum tour in Washington DC one day soon. Bring your kids or grandkids over age 8 if you have some. You won’t regret it.

I spent about an hour there. I spoke to a woman at the information desk, got a brochure that listed all of the Smithsonian museums in the area, got a Metro map, and followed her suggestion to see the permanent exhibit in the West Wing called “The Smithsonian Institution: America’s Treasure Chest.” It included a sampling of items that could be found in the various other Smithsonian Museums. I couldn’t decide which was more impressive: the actual collection or the architecture of the room it was in.

West Wing of Castle
The West Wing of the Smithsonian Castle houses a permanent exhibit of sample items from all Smithsonian Museums.

By the time I was ready to move on, I’d decided on my next two destinations: the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of American History, both of which were right across the Mall.

National Museum of Natural History

I visited the National Museum of Natural History first, primarily because it was the first one I came to when I crossed the mall. There was a slight moment of panic when I thought that a group of about 30 school kids would be coming in with me, but they realized, right before they reached security, that they were in the wrong museum and left. Phew.

Inside, the first thing I did was find a locker for my shoulder bag and rain jacket. I was toting around my Nikon with its medium lens and it was heavy. The only reason I brought it on my trip at all was because there was a tiny scratch in my iPhone 7’s camera lens and I wanted to make sure I could get good pictures my trip. But the iPhone photos weren’t that bad and I didn’t want to lug the heavy Nikon around.

Main Hall of Natural History Museum
The Main Hall of the Natural History Museum. There were a lot of interpretive displays related to that big elephant, perhaps to make us feel a little less bad about killing and stuffing a big elephant.

Seeing Museums on my Own Terms

As I hinted in a sidebar near the beginning of this post, I really enjoyed being able to visit museums on my own terms. Not only could I decide which museums to visit, but I could decide which exhibits in each museum I wanted to visit and how much time I wanted to spend at any exhibit I wanted to see. There was no rush to finish up with things I cared about to see other things I didn’t care about. I made incredibly good use of my time and saw just about everything I wanted to see. After this trip, I can’t imagine visiting a museum any other way.

I was primarily interested in seeing the Gems and Minerals exhibit, which had been recommended to me by many friends who know about my interest in gemstones. Known officially as “The Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals,” it’s a permanent exhibit on the second floor. The Geology part was extensive and informative — I got a real kick out of seeing a display of columnar basalt just like the cliffs behind my home. Wandering on, there were exhibits about mines and mining and then, finally, the rocks I’d come to see: hundreds of specimens of beautiful gemstones from all over the world. I took numerous photos with my iPhone, sometimes setting it right up against the glass to eliminate glare. I wished they had book or website that cataloged every single one; it would be incredibly useful for identifying the specimens that I come across at rock shows.

Colored Rocks
This display, called “So Many Colors,” arranged rock specimens by color. Every single specimen was identified.

Black Light Rocks
This display shows the features of rocks in regular and then black light. (Yes, that’s my reflection in the back of the display.)

More rocks
More rocks.

I could share all my photos with you, but I won’t. If you like rocks, you really need to see this exhibit.

At the end of the exhibit hall were some famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, which was in its own rotating display with its own extra guard. Although a lot of folks had come to see just that, I really enjoyed the rest of the exhibit, which had taken me well over an hour to walk through.

Afterward, I visited just one other exhibit, and I didn’t stay long: “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World.” I didn’t stay long, mostly because the place was full of kids on a school field trip — different, younger kids than at the entrance — and I was developing a headache that I realized was likely due to caffeine withdrawal. I hadn’t had any coffee that morning.

Tyrannosaurus
The Tyrannosaurus was just one set of bones on display.

I did stop at the gift shop, where a saw a lot of rocks like the ones I collect for a lot more money than I usually pay. I also saw gemstone jewelry, most of which wasn’t nearly as nice as mine. Then I found my way down to the ground floor where there was food. I bought a small, remade sandwich wrap, a bottle of water, and something that really saved me: an Awake caffeinated chocolate bar. Holy cow. I ate half the bar right after my sandwich and my headache was gone 15 minutes later. Seriously: I need to buy these and take them with me when I travel.

The Museum of American History

It was nearly 1 PM when I left the museum and walked next door, to the The National Museum of American History. I followed the same drill with security and then stowing my stuff in a locker.

This museum is famous for housing Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers (from The Wizard of Oz) and Archie Bunker’s chair (from All in the Family), neither of which I saw. There’s way much more in its three floors. I didn’t really have anything specific I wanted to see, so I started at the bottom at the hall of Transportation and Technology, specifically, the exhibits about transportation by water and land, electricity, power machinery, and money. That alone took over an hour, with lots of stops to really look at the exhibits and the signs that explained them. I took a few pictures, but not many.

Tucker
If you haven’t seen Tucker: The Man and His Dream from 1988, watch it. You’ll get an idea of how ahead of its time this car was.

The American Enterprise exhibit focused on American pioneers in business and industry. It seemed to me that they made a special effort to include as many women and people of color as they could. That’s a good thing — it introduced me to a lot of American businesspeople I’d never heard of.

I skipped the food exhibition and, therefore, missed Julia Child’s kitchen. Oh, well.

I did go to see the Star Spangled Banner, which used to hang behind a protective screen in the main hall. Now it’s in its own room, laid almost flat, behind a pane of glass. I raised my phone to take a picture and the guard said, “No photos!” I assured her my flash was off but she just repeated, “No photos.” I can’t quite understand why I can’t take a photo of this particular relic, especially if my flash it turned off. I’d share a photo from the museum website, but I can’t find one there, either.

I wandered around a handful of other exhibits but, by that time — late afternoon — I was tired. I decided to grab a Lyft to a restaurant near the AirBnB and call it a day.

Ambar

I wound up at Ambar Capital Hill, a Balkan restaurant. I had never had Balkan food and since it was walking distance from the AirBnB, eating there was a no-brainer for me.

I sat at the bar, as I often do when I’m traveling alone. They had a few happy hour specials of small plates and that’s what I went for. Veal soup, bread basket with traditional spreads, drunken mussels, and Balkan Kebab. All excellent. I tried the Sarajevo Old Fashioned (plum rake, bourbon, bitter, and cane syrup) and later tried an apricot rakia. It was an excellent meal and, as usual, I stuffed myself.

I needed that walk back to the AirBnB.

The AirBnB

I made my way though the two locked doors and finally got a chance to really look at the AirBnB unit I was staying it. It was on the ground floor of the row house with two windows facing front. There was another window facing a back yard, but it was blocked by the full-sized refrigerator in the tiny kitchen.

It wasn’t a bad place, but it certainly wasn’t the “five star” accommodations the host kept reminding me it was. Although both front windows had blinds, only one of them had curtains and neither opened. The double (or maybe queen) bed was shoved up against the wall and had no headboard so the pillows kept falling into the space between the window and the bed. I actually made a list of all the things wrong with the place and sent it to the host at the end of my stay, mostly because every single time he/she sent me one of their long, canned messages it reminded me that the place deserved a 5-star review. That really bugged me. I gave them 4 stars but only because of the value for the money. I got what I paid for. All I did there was sleep, wash up, have coffee in the morning, and reheat some leftovers. It was clean enough and convenient enough. But the $95 cleaning fee really irked me when I found the previous guest’s hair in the shower. Ick.

AirBnB
You’re looking at more than half of the room I stayed in. I don’t see Five Stars here, do you? As I told my host in the private part of the review, it has all the charm of a freshman girl’s dorm room. You can see three of the six fake plants; not sure what purpose they served other than to increase tackiness.

My New Phone

In the morning, after coffee, I took another shared Lyft back to Union Station. I was the first customer at the Verizon store.

I wound up buying a new iPhone XS. The smaller screen one. I really liked what I’d seen about the camera. My iPhone 7 was nearly two years old and the camera lens had a tiny scratch. It didn’t make sense to spend $80 to replace the camera in a phone that old.

They had a 55 and older special going that gave me a second phone worth up to $900 for free, including free data, calls, texts, etc. All I had to pay was sales tax (which they didn’t tell me up front). So I also got a red iPhone 8 max. It’s still in its box. I don’t even know its phone number.

They sold me the insurance on both phones but I later canceled it. I figured that if I broke the new iPhone, I’d use the second one as a spare. Free insurance. Whatever.

On my way out of Union Station, I took my first pictures with the new phone. They came out okay.

The National Postal Museum

The National Postal Museum was right across the street from Union Station. I used to be a serious stamp collector. Now I just buy stamps I like and eventually use them. (I’d love to sell my old stamp collection if you know anyone who is interested in first day covers, commemorative blocks, and other mint stamps.) I walked over to the museum to take a look.

Inverted Jennys
Safely displayed behind glass with a light that goes on only when someone is standing right in front of the display. This is one of the most valuable stamps in the world. The history of its release into the world is fascinating.

The museum has a good display of interesting/historic stamps — including a block of four Inverted Jennys behind glass that I was allowed to photograph — as well as larger displays downstairs for the various ways mail is transported. There were planes hanging from the ceiling and an entire mail car from a train.

Postal Museum
The lower level atrium exhibits at the National Postal Museum.

Postal Train Car
Interpretive signs help visitors understand how mail was processed on-the-go inside train cars like this.

I spent a lot more time there than I expected to, really taking in the exhibits and learning a lot about all kinds of things related to the mail. It might sound dull to you, but I found it fascinating. But then again, I’m interested in a lot of weird things.

It was well after noon when I finished up with the Postal Museum. Before leaving, I stopped at the post office inside the building and bought a bunch of really neat stamps to use over the coming year. In the gift shop, I bought a refrigerator magnet of the Inverted Jenny.

Then I set out, on foot, to the next museum on my list.

The Newseum

The Newseum is the only non-Smithsonian Institution museum I visited on my trip to Washington. It was a must-see for me and my only regret is that I arrived there so late in the day.

I also arrived hungry, which is not a good thing. I decided to buy a ticket for the guided tour to get an overview of the museum’s highlights. While I waited for the tour to start, I went into the ground floor cafeteria, which Wolfgang Puck has put his name on, to have lunch. I had a very disappointing meal of fried catfish and sweet potato fries.

There was just me and an older couple on the tour. (I suspected that they were Trump supporters when they challenged the guide’s description of Fake News at a small exhibit dedicated to that topic.) The guide started us on the top floor and we worked our way down. There is a ton to see. The tour gave us some good highlights and insight, but it wasn’t enough for me and I wound up returning the next day to revisit many of the exhibits. My favorites:

  • Today’s Front Pages are the front pages of newspapers from all over the country and world. Not only are they in a long, narrow exhibit on the top floor, but the exhibit is repeated outside every day so you don’t have to pay to see them. (You can actually view 700+ of these online on the Newseum’s website.)
  • Pictures of the Year has award-winning news photography from the past 75 years.

  • News History
    Here’s an example of a document from the News History Gallery.

    News History Gallery shows 300 newspapers (and their predecessors) dating back to the Middle Ages, with interpretive signs that help you understand the significance of each.

  • Broadcast Tower
    The 9/11 Gallery is very moving in an eerie sort of way.

    9/11 Gallery includes the broadcast tower from the top of the World Trade Center, along with front pages from all over the world. It’s a pretty intense display, especially the section that shows the possessions of a journalist who went in with some firefighters and was killed when one of the towers fell.

  • First Amendment Gallery has displays related to the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
  • Internet, TV, and Radio Gallery traces the history of the spread of news information.
  • First Dogs is an exhibit of photos of Presidents with their pets. It was a fun break from the reality of today’s news cycle.
  • The Berlin Wall is a two-story exhibit that the Newseum building was actually constructed around. It includes several panels from the Berlin Wall — more gathered in any single place outside Berlin — and most of a guard tower, as well as many exhibits explaining what the wall was all about and how it curbed the spread of information.

Berlin Wall
Sections of the Berlin Wall on display at the Newseum.

As I mentioned earlier, although I got a glimpse of many of these things during the guided tour, I actually came back the next day for a much better look. In between, I had dinner at the Carving Room, which a friend recommended. (The food wasn’t bad but the service sucked.) I wound up taking half my meal back to the place I was staying. I did a lot of walking that day, but when it came time to go back to the AirBnB, I used Lyft again. The shared ride service was incredibly cheap and a lot more convenient than the Metro.

The next morning, I returned to the Newseum to really focus on the exhibits that I wanted to see. Honestly, if you’re the kind of person who walks through a museum just looking at the exhibits without reading the signs that go with them, you’re missing half (at least) of the experience.

It was a really beautiful day — the first day of my visit with plenty of sun and bright blue skies. I started my visit to the Newseum with a trip up to the outdoor patio on the top floor. From there, I could look up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. I’d revisit that spot later in the day, before leaving to visit my next stop just to take in that view one more time.

Newseum Patio
The view up Pennsylvania Avenue on the Newseum patio.

A Quick Walk through the National Gallery of Art

My next intended destination was the Air and Space Museum, which was on the other side of the National Mall. I had two ways to get there: I could go the long way east on Pennsylvania Avenue to Fourth Street, walk south across the Mall, and then walk west up Jefferson Drive. Or I could cut pretty much straight through the National Gallery of Art and follow the walkway across the mall right to Air and Space. I took the shortcut.

Fountain
This fountain stands in the main entrance hall for the National Gallery of Art.

I really didn’t intend to spend any time looking at art, but the shortcut required me take a bit of a roundabout route through the building. Along the way was the gift shop, which I think I spent 30 minutes touring. I wound up buying a book and getting some ideas for a jewelry design. Then I made my way out to the south exit, stopping briefly to a few photos of the amazing architecture in the building.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

I’ll admit it: the main reason I came to Washington DC was to see the National Air and Space Museum. The first time I came to Washington, when I was a kid, it might not have even existed. The second time, when I was still a relatively young adult, I had limited interest in aviation. Now, with almost 20 years as a pilot under my belt and some experience with rebuilt or replica antique aircraft, I was very interested in aviation. I had been itching to visit Air and Space for years.

The National Air and Space Museum has two locations. The main location — the one most tourists visit — is the one in Washington DC. That’s the one I’d see that day. The other one is called the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center — named for its benefactor — is in Chantilly, VA. I’d see that the next day.

But first I needed lunch. Always eager to try different ethnic foods, I walked over to the National Museum of the American Indian next door. I’d heard very good things about its cafe. The museum itself looked interesting but I admit that it was not on my list of things to see, mostly because living in Arizona for 15 years, visiting various Native American museums (including the excellent Heard Museum in Phoenix and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City), and spending an unusual amount of time on the Hopi and Navajo reservations had pretty much overdosed me on Native American culture. But the thought of trying some unusual native food enticed me into the building. The cafe was split into regional areas, each one serving up some native food. I had something from Central America — I can’t remember what — and it was good. Of all the museums I visited, this one definitely had the best food, although it was typical cafeteria style serving.

Next door, at the Air and Space Museum, I went through security and then checked my bag and jacket again and began exploring. I’d been wanting to see a planetarium show for a while and there was a planetarium on the premises. The only show on the schedule that looked interesting, Journey to the Stars, was showing just one more time that day in just a few minutes, so I bought a ticket and got on line. Soon I was seated near the wall in the round planetarium, eager to see that machine in the middle do its magic. I was disappointed. Instead of giving us a true planetarium show, they showed a specially formatted movie on the domed ceiling. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t what I had come for.

I think that set the tone for the rest of my visit. Don’t get me wrong — there were a lot of really great exhibits and displays. The Spirit of St. Louis hung from the ceiling. The real original Wright Flyer sat in its own exhibit room. There was an extremely informative exhibit about time and navigation. The Golden Age of Flight told the story, with plenty of aircraft on display, of the period between the two world wars, when aviation first began to thrive. Pioneers of Flight covered “firsts” for pilots and aircraft. Apollo to the Moon was an extremely informative display about the moon missions.

Main Hall
The Spirit of St. Louis is hanging from the ceiling at the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC — with a lunar lander right below it.

WrightFlyer
A panoramic image of the original Wright Flyer. This is the first aircraft that attained controllable, self-powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

Pangborn
Herndon and Pangborn could be found on a plaque in one of the galleries. Wenatchee’s local airport is named for Pangborn. Did you know that it had such a place in aviation history? Only they didn’t land at the airport because it didn’t exist yet; they landed at Fancher Field, which is now a housing development called Fancher Heights.

Docked Spacecraft
I loved the lighting in the museum — natural light through huge windows. This is one of the last shots I took during my visit.

I wandered around and took a ton of photos. Along the way, I noticed what I thought was a disproportionately large percentage of displays designed for children. Explanations were over simplified — no, I didn’t use the phrase dumbed down, although it did come to mind — and questions were left unanswered. There was a lot of touch this, push this button, slide this drawer, compare this to something you know kind of stuff. There were entire galleries I didn’t bother going into because they looked as if they were for kids. Not having kids and not really enjoying their company — especially noisy school groups — I stayed clear. But it left me feeling somewhat disappointed. I didn’t know what was missing, but I felt as if the museum could have been a lot better.

747 Nose
I think this is an example of one of the gee whiz dumbed down displays: a 747 nose poking out of a wall. Although I’m sure there was a plaque about it somewhere, I didn’t see it. The plane could not be accessed by visitors. It just hung there.

And then I was done. I’d seen everything that looked interesting to me and was ready to move on.

Scooting to Lincoln

I retrieved my things and stepped outside. It was still a nice day and it was definitely too early to go back to my AirBnB cubbyhole. It was also my last day in Washington DC so I wanted to make it count. I thought a trip up to the Washington Monument might be nice and thought I’d try walking. It wasn’t far — not even a mile — but it was hot out. The humidity, which I’m not used to at all, was killing me. (Not literally, but you know what I mean.)

My GoPed

Back when I lived in Arizona many years ago and had more money than I knew what to do with, I bought myself a a gas powered scooter called a GoPed. The idea was to fold this thing up and take it with me in my helicopter so I’d have ground transportation when I arrived. And that’s what I did — but just once. You see, I took it to Sedona and climbed aboard to ride down from Airport Mesa into town. Along the way — fortunately, near the start of the ride, was a cattle guard. That’s when I learned that a scooters tiny wheels are not compatible with cattle guards. The scooter stopped short but I didn’t. I landed on my face and broke my nose — a fact that I’ve keep pretty much secret for the past 10 years. I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my life, but that was the dumbest. After that, I wasn’t very interested in riding the GoPed. I wound up giving it away to someone in exchange for him removing the surveillance cameras from my hangar before I moved to Washington.

And, in a weird twist of fate, surgery to fix my crooked nose was not necessary because within a year I had another accident: I tripped over the JetA hose at the airport while fueling a Lear jet. When I landed on my face again, the resulting broken nose actually fixed the first break. Truth is stranger than fiction. The way I see it, I was gypped out of the nose job that I’ve always needed.

So when I saw the row of five Skip rental scooters, I stopped for a closer look. I’d been seeing lots of people scooting around Washington DC on these electric vehicles. With just a long stretch of fine gravel “sidewalk” along the side of the mall and a few street crossings, it didn’t seem as if it would be a difficult ride. Why not give it a go?

After struggling a bit to make the app I downloaded work, I was heading west along the south side of the Mall, moving at a good clip. No, I didn’t have a helmet on. Although they say you have to wear one, there wasn’t one available with the scooter. But you can bet your ass that I was keeping a sharp lookout for potholes. (Cattle guards were unlikely.)

Washington Monument
The Washington Monument was deserted that day because it was closed.

The ride was quick and very enjoyable. The breeze cooled me down and the humidity stopped bothering me so much. But I was disappointed when I got to the Washington Monument: it was closed to the public. Apparently, they’re upgrading the elevator and it won’t be open again until spring 2019.

So I kept going. The Lincoln Memorial wasn’t far beyond it and I was having fun. I scooted up there, stopping once to get a shot of the Monument framed by the trees along the path and a fountain I didn’t realize existed between it and the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln
Although Republicans like to point out that Lincoln was a republican, I truly believe that today’s Republican Party would horrify and disgust him.

Once I reached the Lincoln Memorial — which was a lot more crowded on that Wednesday afternoon than I expected it to be — I found a place off the path near a bike rack filled with rental bikes to leave the scooter and tapped the appropriate buttons on my phone to “return” it. Then I walked up the steps, past dozens of people sitting in the shade, and visited the big statue of Mr. Lincoln. As I looked up at his wise old face I wondered what he would think of “the party of Lincoln” today, led by a barely literate, narcissistic conman who spreads hateful messages that divide the country he fought so hard to keep together 150 years ago.

I walked to the north wing of the building where Lincoln’s second inaugural address had been inscribed on the wall. (The Gettysburg Address is on the wall in the south wing.) Although it touches on many religious themes and quotes Jesus more than once, it finishes with words that I wish a real president would take to heart sometime soon:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Lincoln was a wise man, but I can’t see anything he had in common with today’s Republicans.

Afterwards, I went outside and sat on the steps. The sun was setting on the other side of the building so the steps were in the shade. A lot of people were gathered, sitting around, chatting, resting. I saw the spot on one of the landings where Martin Luther King, Jr. had made his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963; someone had splashed the letters engraved there with water.

Reflecting Pool
In case you’re wondering, this is what Lincoln is looking out at.

Getting a Lyft from there back to the AirBnB took a long time with three scheduled drivers cancelling before one finally arrived. When I got back to the tiny apartment, I ate leftovers from the day before. I was asleep before 9.

Going to Virginia

I checked out of my AirBnB unit around 8 AM and headed toward the metro station on foot carrying my bags. Every time I take a small bag without wheels I swear I’ll use a wheelie bag next time but I still find myself using shoulder bags. That wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t buy so many books along the way.

Breakfast
This was the best breakfast of my trip. The coffee cup was the size of a small soup bowl.

I stopped for breakfast at a cafe near the Eastern Market metro stop. They gave me a huge cup of coffee with my smoked salmon omelette.

Then I used the Metro card I’d bought on my first day to hop on a train bound for Virginia. I made sure I got on the right train so I wouldn’t have to change trains. It took at least 30 minutes to get to Wiehle-Reston East station. Once there, I called a Lyft and took that to the Steven F Udavar-Hazy Center, which is right near Dulles Airport.

At the National Air and Space Museum’s Udavar-Hazy Center

SR-71
In your face: an SR-71 is the first thing you see when you arrive.

It was raining pretty hard when I arrived. I walked in, went through security, and checked all of my bags in a locker. Then I walked into the biggest hangar I’d ever been in and let my jaw drop. I mean, how could I not? I was standing on a platform overlooking the hangar floor with a SR-71 Blackbird right in front of me and a space shuttle in the room behind it. Parked on the floor and hanging from the ceiling on both sides of me were well over 100 aeronautically significant airplanes.

Completely overwhelmed by what I was seeing, I decided to take a free guided tour. I went down to the tour meet-up area where a bunch of people were already waiting. They split the group in two and I went with one guided by a retired aeronautical engineer. When he learned that I was from Washington State, he began stressing the world Boeing and looking pointedly at me every time he said it. (Boeing is based in Seattle. I don’t live anywhere near Seattle.)

He spent 90 minutes showing us around, mostly in the pre-1920 Aviation area and military aviation areas covering the period up to the end of World War II. It was the tip of the iceberg. When he let us loose, I walked the entire floor, reading plaques for anything that interested me, and taking dozens of photos.

Discovery
The Discovery Space Shuttle is in a room surrounded space stuff. When I put a few photos on Twitter, a Twitter friend of mine asked if a computer unit he used to work on (The IDEX II Workstation) was still on display; I went back to this room, found it, and sent him a photo.

Planes
Planes, planes, and more planes. This is the commercial and general aviation side of the building, with a Concorde, Boeing 707 (367-80 or “Dash 80”), and I think a DC-3(?) with all kind of planes hanging around them. The Vertical Flight area was in the far corner of this room.

World's Smallest Plane
This plane was so small that it fit under the wing of another plane.

I won’t share all the photos. (Seriously: after reading this far you must be exhausted.) I will say this: if you have any interest whatsoever in aviation, you must go visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Honestly — it will blow you away. This is an aviation museum designed for real aviation enthusiasts. Kids would likely get bored within an hour, but if you are fascinated by aviation and want to see and learn about all kinds of aircraft, this is the place to visit.

I spent nearly the whole day there. By 3 PM, I was hungry and very disappointed to see that the only food available was at the McDonald’s inside the museum. (Really? Is that the best they can do?) I bought some sort of chicken thing that actually contained chicken, some fries, and one of their cheap hot-fudge sundaes.

After my late lunch, I made my way up to the observation tower to watch the planes coming in for landing at Dulles. It was a perfectly miserable day with low ceilings and heavy rain. The jets came out of the clouds not far from the tower, which has 360° views of the surrounding area. There was an aviation radio tuned into the approach (but sadly not tower) frequency. I stayed for about 20 minutes; while I was there a group of high school students came up with sketch books and sketched various part of the tower’s inside.

Watching Planes Land
What a miserable day, eh?

Winding Down and Heading Out

By about 4:30, I was ready to go. I called the Fairfield Inn, where I’d booked a room, and arranged for a shuttle. Soon I was in a very comfortable business style hotel room that looked out over the hotel’s front entrance. I settled in to watch a movie on HBO. I was exhausted.

Later, I found a Chinese restaurant online that delivered and ordered enough food to meet their delivery minimums. I was surprised when the delivery guy brought it right to my room. It was really good but there was a ton leftover. I stowed it in the room’s little fridge.

In the morning, I woke early, as I usually do. I washed all of my dirty clothes in the laundry room on the premises. While I was waiting for it to finish, I checked out the free breakfast. I was absolutely appalled by the mess left by other guests and not tended to by any hotel staff. I’m talking about food on the floor and countertops, abandoned meals, lack of forks and napkins, empty coffee urns. And that was less than an hour after breakfast opened! It was a real shame; the hotel was nice and very comfortable, but they completely dropped the ball on the breakfast.

By 10:30, I was heading out in the hotel shuttle. Rather than go all the way back into the city for a return train ride, I’d booked a flight on American Airlines to Newark. I could carry on my bag. By some miracle, I got TSA Pre√ so security went quickly. The flight was short and I tracked our progress on ForeFlight along the way, seeing a lot of familiar territory from the air.

My brother met me at the airport and we went back to his place where Penny was very happy to see me.

We ate that leftover Chinese food for dinner.

(Continued in Part 4: Killing Time in New Jersey)