June 21, 2008 – Write From Karen

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We’re here, it’s gorgeous and I’m pooped.

We caught our flight out of town at 9:45 a.m. Everything ran like clockwork and we didn’t have any problems on our way to St. Louis. There were only about 12 people on board so it was like we had the whole plane to ourselves. It was a quick and uneventful flight. We arrived in St. Louis, had just enough time to grab a soft pretzel, make a bathroom break and then we were boarding a plane for Washington D.C.

The plane was packed. And the ONE baby on board? Sat directly in front of us and whimpered and wailed the whole trip.

*SIGH*

Finally, a flight attendant gave the man (it was a single father traveling with his son) … something to help the baby’s ears from popping. I couldn’t see what it was, but whatever it was did the trick and the baby stopped screaming.

My ears were grateful. Poor little guy.

When we landed, we had to wait on the runway for about 15 minutes because our gate was having some sort of technical difficulty. The baby started getting restless.

I started praying.

Finally, the tower re-routed us to another gate and we disembarked. We stumbled our way down to the baggage area, retrieved all of our bags (we were glad to see our bags made it) and we walked aimlessly trying to find the rental car agency.

We looked … and saw nothing. Finally, the husband spotted a sign – a shuttle bus would take us to our car rental place. We hopped on board (well, I say hopped, but we had four large pieces of luggage and three carry-ons slowing us down) and we drove another mile to rent our car. We ended up with a white Dodge Journey. This thing is a monster. The seats are hard and the air conditioning sucks, but hey, we had wheels.

And then? The REAL fun began. We exited the airport and PROMPTLY took a wrong turn and got COMPLETELY LOST … in a town where the streets that run north and south are named after states and the streets that run east and west are letters of the alphabet, literally run in circles and where NOTHING makes sense … yeah, that one.

I’m afraid I got just a TAD cranky. Word is, I got juuust a BIT irritated because I had visions of us ending up on the wrong side of town, out of gas and living in our expensive, but useless rental car.

I mean, you MIGHT hear that was the case but the fact was, I laughed it off and said, “Oh well, kids. This is a part of Washington D.C. I bet you never thought you’d see.”

Or … that could have been the hubs talking. That whole episode is a bit fuzzy, if you want the truth. 😀

Somehow, the hubs, through all of my ~~bitching~~ helpful navigational tips, finally got us back on course and our trip to our hotel, the trip that was only supposed to take us four minutes, actually took us 40 minutes.

I have to be honest. I was a bit freaked out and was, er, maybe, but I wouldn’t swear to it, just a tad … er … difficult to be around at that time period.

*blush* I’m not proud of my behavior. I have a tendency to be a little … tense whenever I go someplace new. But I’ve since calmed down and have gotten my bearings.

This is not say that I understand this place, but I’m certainly learning.

Our hotel room is nice, but certainly NOT worth the money we’re paying for it. I suppose the real reason for the price is because it’s in the HEART of Washington D.C., just down the street from The White House, as a matter of fact. We have a pretty nice kitchenette and an awesome view from our balcony but we’ve stayed in better places.

The first thing we did after checking in, was search for a grocery store. We arrived at our hotel room about 3:00 and were ravenous. We asked the valet, who directed us to Trader Joe’s.

It was like entering a foreign country. For those that don’t know, Trader Joe’s is an organic grocery store and everything costs about three times more than we’re used to paying. But we were starving and ended up buying some breakfast food, some deli meat, juice, bread and a couple of pizzas for dinner.

I about had a cow when our total rang up. Uh yeah, we’ll be hunting for another grocery store tomorrow.

After eating our pizza (that was actually pretty good, quite frankly), we left our hotel room to locate the Foggy Bottom Metro Station. After taking a few wrong turns (the streets here – they are INSANE), we found it. It’s literally just down the street and will be VERY CONVENIENT to use for the next several days. In fact, we won’t even have to drive most days – it’ll be great. The boys are looking forward to riding the train and I’m looking forward to not having to worry about getting lost.

Again.

We plan on heading to the National Museum of Natural History and the Old Post Office Tower and Pavilion tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have lots more to talk about then.

In the meantime?