Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013 - Travel Day to DC

With the alarm ringing at 3:30 am, our day began early! Quickly got dressed, finalized our packing and headed out the door by juast after 4:00, not leaving too much time for a margin of error. Unfortunately, that was tested as we discoverd the freeway exit we needed was closed, and we had to take a detour that took us several miles out of way, but with no traffic, that didn't take long. We arrived at the Clarion, which offers off-site parking for almost half the price of the airport, had a nice chat with the night clerk until the shuttle driver returned. It didn't take long to check-in, a bit longer to get through security, though for some reason they gave us a pink card that meant I didn't have to take off my jacket or shoes, though Hubby did because he had to have a patdown, just because of his defibrillator, but it didn't take any longer than usual. No breakfast places were open, not that our stomachs were ready yet anyway, nor did we really have time. Loading began about 15 minutes after we arrived, and we were in the air before we knew it. Had coffee and snacks (all they had), an uneventful flight, arrived by 9:30 local time, and arrived at the hotel by 10. Unfortunately, no rooms were ready, so we would have to wait. By now, we were starving, so we put our baggage in storage and headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Room still a long way from ready, so we took the shuttle over to Pentagon row, and did some grocery shopping. Got back by 12:30, room still not ready. Sat around the lobby for another hour+ before they finally got us into our room. By now we were exhausted, and rested most of the day, with Indian from Marsala Express delivered, watched a couple of movies on Showtime, including War Horse, which we had seen the stage play on Broadway back in Oct. 2011. Nicely done by Spielberg, though there were several production elements which we didn't agree with, it was still very worthwhile. Finally got to bed after 10:00, ready for some serious sleep!