DC or not DC, that is the question
We’ve been back from Washington DC nearly a week now, and I’m just getting to writing about it. To say the week has been hectic would be an understatement. In DC we were busy, frozen, mildly ill, confused, frustrated, and even lost. Despite all that I think we had an enjoyable time!
First of all, we didn’t stay in DC proper. No, we were right next to Dulles (IAD) which I think was a good move. There were lots of restaurants close by, and our hotel had a stove and fridge so we made some food on our own. It was far too cold though. They should do something about that. Maybe burn a lot of oil to release CO2 into the air so that we can raise global temperatures or something.
We were actually in town to take a class, and that went well. We both enjoyed it, met some interesting people, and got what we wanted out of it. The venue was nice enough despite the temperatures. They had free beer in the evenings on Tuesday through Thursday but I am sad to say it was worth exactly what I paid for it.
We should have known something was wrong with the city by watching the local news channels. They actually had news anchors out in the cold without coats so they could measure how quickly they went into hypothermia. They did this live on air. They had a special on a crack dealer who is now an “author,” (self published, books only available in his DC ghetto.) I swear the show was geared for second graders. I’ve mentioned this to a few people already whom have unanimously replied: “It’s DC, what do you expect out of a town of politicians?” Owch.
We spent about a day and a half in the capitol itself and enjoyed that. The first day we just drove in and explored. It’s interesting to note that google maps completely fails at DC. I had printed directions from a few landmarks, to and from our hotel and the like so I’d have a good basis of getting around. The tourism website for DC says
One of the easiest cities in the US to navigate. The north-south roads are all numbered and the east-west roads are all lettered.
That would be excellent and easy… if the roads managed to keep the same names, or go in straight lines! I’ve got a generally great sense of direction, and hardly ever have trouble finding my way about a metro area, but this was not a place designed by the sane. London doesn’t have anything on the loops, twists and misdirection of DC. This was actually the day which was less confusing
On friday we went in early, parked at Arlington Cemetary to catch a tour bus. I had googled my way there as well. Google told us two roads to take turns on which don’t actually exist along that route (or at all?) We ended up at a military installation, but the gate guard was nice enough not to shoot us, and instead give us directions. His directions were wrong as well, but they were close enough we managed to get to our destination. Now we hopped on a bus and started sight seeing. It was nice. I got some good shots of and from the Lincoln Memorial and then we spent the bulk of the day at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I got to see Space Ship One, the Eniac, Kermit, and several other important historical artifacts. Yes, Kermit the frog, he was on loan from the American History Museum
We continued to ride the tour route and got the whole narration eventually. It was good, and nice to be in a heated vehichle as opposed to loosing extremities outside. Once we finished our tour we decided to go ahead and start out for the airport since we had had so much confusion the previous day. It’s a good thing we did. DC has several roundabouts which aren’t unfamiliar to me, it’s just that DC has a different concept of them. You see, as we were leaving the cemetary, we come upon a large one. There are 5-7 roads intersecting here. I’m not sure how many exactly because NONE OF THEM ARE LABELED. Not only are they not labeled, if you take one, you can drive miles and still not know what road you are on, as it’s not labeled anywhere! Through a bit of luck we came to an interestate. I could do a quick loop around back to the road we were on and actually see it’s name. From there we managed to get back to the highway we wanted. This is just the most colourful example of the road systems in DC and Virginia… there were many more, but I’ll spare you.
We got to the airport about an hour after I wanted to, but it worked out ok as our flight was delayed about 3 hours… Oh well, at least it was a smooth flight.
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