Mr Portinga Goes to Washington - Day 4

Ok, got back to DC last night, and got ready to do some sightseeing today. The following is notes I wrote towards the end of the day, just a stream of thoughts during my journey back home and later typed up.

7/21/2008, about 7:00PM I covered a lot of ground in DC today. Got off the Metro a bit after 10 this morning and turned West down the mall, heading towards the Washington Monument. It’s free to go up in it, but by the time I was there (bout 10:45-11am), the only times available were after 6pm. I think you can reserve spots ahead of time, good to know if I ever when I go back again someday. From there it was to the WWII memorial, down the reflecting pool and on to the Lincoln Memorial.

After Lincoln, I took a cab to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and wandered around there for a few hours.   From there I headed to the East end of the mall to take a bit of a look at the Capital building and FDR memorial. I didn’t go up to the Capital… next time. Then a very short stroll through the conservatory before making my way back tgo the Metro station.

I picked up my bags at the hotel and they shuttled me to the airport. After getting to the terminal I cleaned up and changed clothes. I figured it would be the polite thing to do for my fellow flyers after walking around and getting sweaty all day. Then I went to check in at US Air only to find out I’m not flying US Air. My ticket was issued by them, but I’m flying AirTran. So, another shuttle to Terminal A and I got checked in right away. It was just after 5pm, now I have about 90 minutes to kill. Terminal A seems to be the smaller terminal area here… only 9 gates, similar to the difference between Lindbergh and Humphrey terminals in Minneapolis…?

I am not on the “no fly” list, obviously. But I do seem to be on a “shady character” list or something cause I got the joy of going through the special screening once again.

At some rather bland pizza for dinner, the gate actually had an area set up for plugging in laptops and such. My phone is having issues (another story for another time), so I tried to get it charged up for a bit, then we got moved from gate 9 to gate 1. No bid deal, it was just across the hall basically.. and we boarded on time… only to be tolkd we will be sitting on the runway about 20 minutes before we can gtake off. And since my phone isn’t working, I have no way to tell time, which may not be a bad thing.

I’m hoping I can get wi-fi at the Atlanta airport to check on some work stuff.

This plan is the largest of the ones I’ve been on this week - well, all three of them. It has three rows of “Business Class”, four seats across. then the rest is five seats across. I’m in 16D - right side aisle. Oh joy, there’s a baby in the row behind me. This could be fun. (side note to dad, the baby didn’t cry once and slept most of the trip).

7:29-25? We are taxing out. Flight attendants are sitting down, that’s a good sign.

BTW, my feet hurt.

Just saw the Pentagon. I want to tour there next time.

I forgot my SanDisk has a clock. It’s 7:32, well, central time. So 8:32 here in the SE. I’m assuming we’re pretty close. Actuallyl, as I finished writing that, the pilot came on to say we will be landing soon, and that’s it’s still 90 outside in Atalanta. Glad I’m staying insdie.

Did you ever stop to think about how when a plan lands, it’s kind of nothing more than a “controlled fall”.

No? Well, good. That’s probably not something to dwell on when you are on final approach.

8:55 - We’re down, and I still have two hours to kill. I’m not sure how we can take off over 30 minutes later than we’re supposed to, yet arrive less than 10 minutes later? Maybe the pilot was speeding?

Wow, this is a nice terminal Lots of stores and food places, very clean, open, a lot like Minneapolis I guess. I should have dinner… let’s see… Oscar Meyer Hot Dog Zone? Popye’s Chicken? Atlanta Bread? Actually, a Chicago dog sounds good.

The Delta terminal has a charging station, a sort of kiosk with 4 seats. And… free wifi - they seem to have a “crewwifi” zone here… works for me. Checked some email and such and I suppose I should head to the gate, I’m a lil ways down from where I need to be.

Ok, we were about 15 minutes from boarding time and a storm rolls in, with lightening. The ramp is closed. On top of that, the plan that we are flying out on hasn’t landed yet, and won’t be cause of the storm. 11:13 - storm has cleared, our plan will be landing soon, letting folks from DC Dulles off… then we can get on.

And my feet still hurt.

I upgraded to business class. $69 to do so. I think it will be worth it… even if I sleep. Those seats looked comfy. I’ve been typing up my written notes as I stand here waiting for something to happen… we’re pushing 11:40 at this point. All the food places are closed now.. oh! I bought trail mix in DC. Kewl, something to get me through for a bit I guess.

Of course, as soon as I decided to plug the laptop in to charge for a bit, they start boarding.

11:58 EST, we pull out of the gate.  Only about 50 minutes late. We’re in a Boeing 717, and the flight is gonna be about 2hours, 13minutes. If I’m lucky, we’ll touch down by 1:30.

There are a lot of different lights on the runway… blue, orange, green, red. Oh, I’m not lucky. 12:30 and we’re moving again. There was a line to leave it seems. 12:40, still on the ground. I’m very glad I went for the upgrade - and not just for the pre-flight beverage. 12:44, and we’re next to go.

1:45 local time - cabing lights went up and we got ready to land. I saw a lot of lightening as we were flying… behind us and to the left. Wish I could have seen it better. Lights out - we’re landing.

Ok, I got lucky. We flew in to Humphrey terminal, which is where I was parked. No having to get my luggage, walk to the tram, take the tram to the light-rail station, take the light-rail to the Humphrey terminal, walk over half-mile through the new parking garage to where I was actually parked.

Instead, we were at the end of the terminal, gate H10. Walk to the main entry, downstairs to luggage claim. Claim luggage, go back upstairs, across the skyway to the parking garage, up to third level (purple), down a ways and there’s my Jeep waiting for me. I made it home about 3am. Got a load of laundry going, finished typing this up and am posting it now.

Adding a few pictures… but to see the bulk of them you’ll need to hit my photos site.

Ok, time for bed.

Washington DC [photos.upmykilt.net]