Washington D.C. (2002)

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying our first few days of spring. Summer travel season is just around the corner so I thought that today I would share about one of my experiences in 2002.

This trip was my high school graduation present from my mom and step dad. A few months before my graduation I found out that they were planning a trip to the east coast so that my step dad could go to a G.I. Joe convention in Norfolk, VA. My mom was planning on using this time to visit some friends of ours in Lancaster, PA which is where I was born. I didn't have any memories of Lancaster so when I heard about this I literately begged them to take me. Much to my delight they agreed. We left California around 8pm and flew to Atlanta, GA which is where all of us (my mom, my step dad, his friend and myself) would need to catch connecting flights. As soon as we landed, the guys had to head right to their flight for Norfolk while my mom and I had about a 3 1/2 hour layover until ours left for Harrisburg, PA. We got something to eat, found where the gate was that our flight would leave from and decided to walk around the airport. If you've never been to the airport in Atlanta, it's huge and you can easily miss your flight. By the time we got back to the gate for our flight they had just closed the door. They opened the door and let my mom go but stopped me and searched my stuff. By the time they let me go, I hurried as fast as I could down the Jetway and realized that I needed to go down to the tarmac. No one was there to tell me where to go so I stood there literately asking myself "Where do I go?." Finally one of the ground crew members pointed me in the right direction and when I turned around only then did a see a women waving at me with my mom right behind her. They kept telling her to get on the plane but once she saw that I wasn't behind her she refused to get on without me. When we got on the plane one of the other passengers was nice enough to move to another seat so that we could sit together. It was one of the smallest airplanes that I'd ever been on. There was 2 seats on each side of the plane, 10 1/2 rows of seats (we were directly across from the lavatory) and only 1 flight attendant. Normally I love to fly but on this flight I was just praying that we got to Harrisburg safely.

Once we got there, the trip was a lot of fun. As soon as we landed and got our bags, our friend drove us to Chocolate World in Hershey, PA. I was surprised at the fact that I didn't feel tired since I had only a little bit of sleep on the flight between California and Atlanta. Next we drove by Hershey Medical Center which is where I spent the week after I was born since I was born premature. We finally drove past Lancaster General Hospital which is where I was born and went straight to our friend's house from some much needed rest. On our first night in Lancaster we had dinner with an Amish family at their house. I only saw the inside of their kitchen but they were very nice and their little boy who was about 2 just loved me. Afterwards I was supposed to hang out with our friend's daughter and her friend but we ended up just watching a movie after I feel asleep in her car. The next day I went to the mall with her and 2 of her friend's and that night all of us went and watched some fireworks.

Our friends had decided that they would also take the week off that we were out and that we would all go on vacation together. After 2 days in PA the 5 of us drove down to Alexandria, VA. On our wasy through Maryland we had to go through this really long tunnel and there was a lot of traffic. Whenever my mom goes through a tunnel she plays that game where you have to hold up your feet and hold your breathe until you're out of the tunnel. All of us kept on saying that she couldn't do it but she actually did. My stepdad joined us the next day after the convention was over and his friend flew back home to California. While in Virginia we stayed at the Fairfield Inn which is a timeshare place. It was in Old Town Alexandria and was made of brick just like most of the buildings around it. It felt like a 5 star hotel and was nice. We could see the Washington Monument outside our window and if we walked down the block we could see the Capital Rotunda. Our unit had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a diningroom and a living room with a sofa bed. My mom and stepdad let our friends have the suite since was his birthday while they took the other bedroom and us teenagers shared the sofa bed. The staff there was very nice and the concerige was very friendly. His name was J.R. Every single time we went to him for something he was very helpful. Every time we made a meal in our room someone would go take him a plate. Apparently we weren't the only one's who did that because one night he came to out unit to return a plate that wasn't ours. When we left everyone took pictures with him and he always had a smile on his face.

We pretty much spent most of the time there around Alexandria. On our first night there, my mom, our friend's daughter and I went on a "Ghost Tour." Our tour guide was a lady dressed in colonial style clothing and walked us around the city while telling ghost stories. On our 3rd day in VA we all went into D.C. It was beyond humid and we took the local Metro train in. We first went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was awesome. Luckly I've always been interested in space so I had a lot of fun there. Then we walked to the White House. It was I think about 15 blocks away but it might as well of been a million. I would've probably died of exhuastion if we hadn't stopped for drinks and ice cream. Gatorade saved my life that day. We spent about 5 minutes in front of the White House and then headed for the Metro station and went back to our timeshare. That cold shower felt awesome. Over the next few days we just hung out at the timesahre and around Alexandria. We went on a nighttime riverboat ride on the Potomac River and even took in a movie. On the day before we left, us girls went to Mount Vernon which is where George Washington lived. It was really nice and the historians have really done a nice job at preserving it.

On the day we left, our friends drove back to PA while my stepdad, my mom and I drove to the airport in Norfolk to catch our flight home. On our way to the airport we stopped in Williamsburg to see a few shops however this made us miss our flight to Atlanta. We didn't know that on a Saturday you should allow 2 hours to get from Williamsburg to Norfolk. We got to the airport 30 minutes before our flight left but it was past the cutoff time for checking baggage so we had to wait 3 hours for the next flight to Atlanta. By the time we got there we had missed both flights to our area in California and had to spend the night in the airport lounge. It was the most uncomfortable night of my life and I wanted to find the recording that says "please don't leave your bags unattended" and smash it since it went on about every 30 seconds or so. Luckly we all go on the same flight the next morning but the only 3 seats together were in the exit row. Although I was old enough to sit there (I think you gotta be 18 for most airlines), I've always looked young for my age and the flight attendents actually stopped dead in their tracks just to ask me to verify my age. This was after takeoff and while they were bringing the food cart by with breakfast. One of them was actually on the same flight we were on from Virginia the night before.

Lessons learned here:
1) If you're going to D.C. in the summer time, take a car with some air conditioning.
2) Try to find out how much time you should allow to get to the airport so that you don't miss your flight.

Until the next line.