The trip to D.C.

I made it home, safely, from my first trip to Washington D.C. It was a good trip, I had a lot of fun with the hubby. When we finally got in to town (about 8 p.m.) on Friday night, we checked into the Roach Motel, ate dinner at the hubby's favorite restaurant the Austin Grille and did a little touring.
My darling, lovely, wonderful husband assured me that everything was close together or could be easily reached by the fantastical and majestic Metro subway (it was close together in comparison to the distance between the world's continents I guess). So, I bought a new pair of shoes for the trip the night before we left. Yes ladies, you understand where I'm going with this. I had athletic shoes I had planned on wearing, but come on - I couldn't wear white, yellow and green athletic shoes with a cute pink top! So, I found a nice pair of brown shoes (my old ones had no soles left) that were marked half off $100, so I got them for $50. A great pair of walking shoes the salesman told me.

So, I figured that I wouldn't be doing that much walking so a new pair of good quality shoes would be fine. Ha! We walked to the White House, about twice as far than we expected. That was fine, I was in D.C. for Heaven's sakes. The half-wit security guard at the White House viewing area said "oh, the Lincoln Memorial is just a couple blocks that way." So, the hubby and I merrily trodge toward the Lincoln Memorial. He, an American history buff and huge fan of D.C. was anxious to show me the sites. Me, a happy wife, joyous that the hubby could show me around his favorite city. And curious to see the big, pretty buildings I always saw on tv.

We walk about 6 or 7 blocks and FINALLY got to Constitution Ave. Granted, this was about 11 p.m. (on St. Patty's day - lots of drunks) so it was fully dark. I looked way in the distance and say, "honey, is that the Lincoln Memorial waaaaaaaaay over there?" He said yes. I kept going, determined to see this damned building. After walking for-freaking-ever around a body of water and past some drunks, we finally make it to the building.

I was cold with numb ears, but hey - I was in D.C.! Tough it out sister! So we looked at the memorial and the hubby was probably getting annoyed with my constant comments like "I wish I could sit on his lap" or "wouldn't it be fun to stand up there and pretend to pick his nose?" He was trying to share the historical significance of the writings on the wall and I was acting like a five-year-old.

We're done looking around and I had finished snapping pictures of everything so we decide to ask the friendly security guard at the memorial where the nearest Metro stop was. "Take Foggy Bottom, it's just a couple of blocks that way." He pointed in a direction that covered a several block width, but we figured we would just keep moving and ask someone else.

A local narrowed the direction for us, but he was a bit drunk and we couldn't understand his specific instructions. So we approached a security guard booth at a parking garage. He, too, pointed in a general vicinity of the district saying "a few blocks that way." Riiiiiight.

We were pretty fed up so we grabbed a taxi to go back to the hotel (it was about 30 degrees outside, not up for much more walking). Upon arrival back at Roach Motel, there was an enlarged map on the wall outlining the Metro stations. Lo and behold, the Foggy Bottom station was just as far as our hotel was from Lincoln Memorial, but in the opposite direction! So my new shoes got a couple miles in on their first day.

I won't even talk about the next day...my poor hubby had to put up with a permanent scowl on my face when every step felt like I was walking on swords with no water to drink. But my new shoes now look and feel worn and weathered. Yes, I'm done whining. I wasn't grumpy just because my feet hurt, but we made such an effort to get to the Capitol/Supreme Court/Library of Congress area and the first two buildings were closed for tours! Luckily I found a fantastic little area near the Capitol (I'll post a picture tomorrow). We waited about 30 minutes in line to get in to the Library of Congress to then find out you can go into the viewing room unless you do their group tour, which didn't take off for another 45 minutes. Poor hubby, he really wanted to show me the neat buildings and I really wanted to see them. Especially the blood stain on the floor of the House of Reps, or is it the Senate, but I digress.

All in all I had a great time. It's a cool city, granted I barely left my hotel room outside of the conference after the hubby flew home Sunday. The conference was good, it was about media relations and it was interesting to hear what reporters had to say.

I accidentally packed a book I was trying to finish for a contest judging in the carry-on that was in the overhead bin. I was in the window seat in a row of people I didn't know, and they fell asleep. So, I didn't get my book. But it forced me to work on my story and I edited the first two chapters and added a couple of scenes. Hopefully it will be ready for a couple of upcoming contests.

I also updated my Web site a bit. I encourage you to stop by the links page and visit the WRITE-ONS! pages - a writing group working to finish our WIP's by August 1, led by the fantastic Michelle Rowen.

Hopefully I'll have some photos of my trip to post tomorrow.