Washington Dulles, Saturday, June 14, 2008

Hey me! I'm dead tired but have to blog or it gets out of control. OK - here's the lowdown. The girls and I boarded the plane w/o incident. BTW, there was a tween who was on the plane with a live turtle. That was an interesting observation. Well, back to my update.

Boarded Virgin America - which by the way did now allow me to pre-check but might be because they are still setting up this airline. Folks, let me tell you - I sincerely liked this plane. Not sure what it was as numbers don't really interest me - guess I should have but the plane was nice - regular 3 seats on each side of the aisle. The girls and I took up row 19A, B, C. The nice thing about this was that I was able to sit comfortably w/o banging my knees on the seat in front of me. Remember my description of the May flight on Delta? Well, this was one was a bit bumpier than that one and we did have a crying kid on there but you know what? I would fly this airline again in a heartbeat. As I said, the interior was white with a sorta magenta mood lighting in the middle just below the windows. The seats were black leather and each seat had its own little screen. Only complimentary stuff provided was of course, soda, juices and coffee. Anything else you had to pay for and get this folks, they didn't accept cash. You had to pay for it via credit card on the little screen in front of you. Then once you place an order, it was processed and brought to you in your seat. What was even funnier was that each seat had its own little "Wii-type" control in the armrest. One side wa like a remote and then you flipped it over and it was like a little Wii control. This allowed you to play games, view movies which you had to pay for but they did have some free movies which Megan says were pretty lame movies. As for me? I spent it playing some stupid (not really) dominoe type game which you had to pair up before they disappeared. I have played this game before and I am pretty good at it but I was really enjoying laughing at myself because I was playing with only 2 hrs of sleep in me. Plus no breakfast. April, thank God she ordered breakfast, had an egg mcmuffin type sandwich but Megan and decided to wait until later on the plane, then we ended up all falling asleep so we didn't eat all day until later. More on that later.

So anyway, with my reaction time extremely slowed down, I decided to hit the light and try to catch some sleep - which we all did. The flight turned out to be pretty full and very bumpy, but with the condition of the plane and the niceness of it - it wasn't /2 as bad as the May flight. I will definitely love to fly Virgin America again. Heck, I may just have to take Virgin Atlantic to Europe just to try them out too. LOL - seems that VAmerica may have just started flying into Dulles.

Before we landed, we were placed into 2 holding patterns due to rain but we landed actually pretty smoothly. We disembarked but I made April call the NYLC to explain that she was on the ground but still in the plane. That little girl surprised me - she is really taking steps to becoming more independant. I thought I was going to have to do everything for her but she got her stuff together (with some strong coaching from Mom) and her paperwork. I oversaw it a bit but of course w/o her knowing. Anyway, once we disembarked, we hightailed it to carasoul 14 picked up our suitcases and then Megan and I dumped April off with the reps from NYLC.

Megan and I then hit the Supershuttle counter where we paid $32 for both of us to be taken to the Sheraton Premier at Tyson's Corner where we beat April by about 15 minutes. She had to pay $40 to take their shuttle (which non-invited people were not allowed to take). That's ok - I think this trip will be doing wonders for her self-esteem. Just before I left her - I asked her if she would have been afraid w/o me and she said yes but if I can handle it never having been here - she could too. That's my girl! Anyway, little confession here -Megan reminded me as we were leaving that she and I have actually been here - you see, way back when Megan was in 8th grade, I accompanied her and her American Heritage Group to a Washington DC trip. We landed in Dulles Intl Airport - where they had examples of their future monorail cars displayed. They are very similar to what Orlando has.

So, Megan and I here, seems we are in a mostly business district but that was a rather late evening observation. We ended up having dinner in the restaurant or rather the bar portion of the restaurant as the actual restaurant was closed but you know what? It actually turned out pretty nice. It was a bit expensive but the food wasn't 1/2 bad. It surprised me. I had penne pasta with sausage, spinach and broccoli and Megan had a grill ham and cheese panini (think grilled ham and cheese sandwich) ROTFLMAO which was actually pretty good. I had good old-fashinoned ice tea and later we split a chocolate brownie with ice cream - I took 2 bites of it and left it. It was not to my liking - even if I had to pay $9 for it. Megan and I decided that no matter what - tomorrow we are eating outside - Dinner came out to about $75 for us two alone - w/o drinks.

So, the rooms are about $264 a night and have a double bed. The room is fairly big sized but I'm not sure I want to spend 11 nights here for that rate. Once we explore a bit - we may decide to move into Washington DC if I can find a more decent rate. I like the hotel, it had a nice ambiance, but if April is ok with us leaving - I think I might enjoy being closer to the hubbub of the nation - its a bit too quiet here for me. Although tonight I am rather glad. I am sitting here typing with my eyes 1/2 closed so I may be ending this here.

Oh - by the way, found out that the hotel has a courtesy shuttle to Tyson's Corner Mall every 1 hr until 10 pm and since MEGAN FORGOT HER SWIMSUIT - we just have to go and get one. FYI - I managed to fit everything I had into one small suitcase - but that one went into a bigger one "just in case of souvenirs." Yeah right - whom I kidding? I need my dose of shopping. ROTFL

Oh yeah - another reason to like Virgin America? One suitcase is free up to 70 lbs! A second suitcase up to 50 # is $25 and then anymore up to 10 is $50. So I'll bite the bullet and pay the extra $25 if I "buy anything." LOL

OK - looks like Megan found this Ghost Graveyard Tour in Alexandria - only about 22 miles from the hotel, was hoping to get away w/o renting a car buy may have to do it. Also, she got really excited to find out there is a Museum of Crime and Punishment - she says she'll punish me if I don't take her. HHHHMMMMM...........that girl sounds more and more like me. What did I create? ROTFL

As for me, I'm looking forward to cruising the Potomac River at night to veiw the monuments by night. Got my monopod and lenses ready - I hope they turn out. And speaking of turning out - I am turning in - dead beat and hope to catch up to all the Easterners by Sunday. My computer says 7:19 but its really 10:19 and these old eyes are tired. So with that folks, its off to slumberland for me.

Stay tuned for our further adventures in Washington DC updates as I add them.

Nighty Night!