stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni

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I've decided to reinstate my travel blog in honor of the great deal of traveling I'll be doing this summer. I'll try much harder to keep it updated. I think it will help that I plan on staying on land the entire time. The internet tends to be a bit more reliable on land.

To commemorate the blog reinstatement, I bring you . . . Washington, DC

I took the red eye last night to DC. I flew Virgin America and I felt like I was walking into a night club when I saw the blue and purple lighting throughout the cabin. I was ready for the flight attendant to hand me a martini. I have to say, Virgin is quite the awesome airline. I was already a fan of the lighting, but I was on sensory overload with all the media options. Movies, TV, music videos, radio, games. You could shop from your seat and order food for purchase. It almost made trying to sleep too hard. There was even a little remote in the armrest that popped out of its holder. It was all pretty snazzy. I'll have to try flying a non-red eye sometime so I might actually take full advantage of everything. We even arrived early to DC, by about half an hour.

I vaguely remember the Super Shuttle ride at 6:30am today. I remember thinking about how much space they have around here. The airport is in the middle of nowhere, which is usually a standard for most cities, but not in LA. LAX is surrounded by businesses, houses, freeways, and an ocean. The more I travel to other parts of the US, the more I realize just how cramped LA really is.

The houses are huge out here. I can't tell if the neighborhoods we were driving by were really nice or that's just the standard size of houses out here. Lot's of brick buildings and porches. They're great. And every road/street/parkway/expressway/exit seems to have historical context. The names I didn't recognize sparked my historical curiosity. It made start to wonder, who is Clara Barton and why does she have a parkway named after her? (She was a heroic nurse during the Civil War and created the American Red Cross so Google informs me--I think she earned that Parkway)

I got to the hotel, but it was way too early to check in and the rest of my family wasn't getting here until after 11am, so I dropped off my luggage, and I got to partake in the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Then I took a walk through the neighborhood. The hotel is adjacent to the Chevy Chase Pavilion, which I find endlessly amusing. Apparently there's also a neighborhood called Chevy Chase, Maryland. I was hoping to find a statue erected to such a fine 80's comedic actor, but sadly, my mother informed me that the town is not named after him. Apparently, Chevy Chase is a stage name that I'm assuming he took from the name of the town. Now I really want to know what Chevy Chase means and why there's a town with that name.

It's incredibly gloomy here, but kind of soothing. It's been raining on and off since I got here and I haven't seen the sun yet. That probably also means I won't see the full moon while I'm here either. Bummer.

We're only here for three days, so it's going to kind of be a whirlwind patriotic tour. On the list is the Smithsonian, and the monument district--as several of them all seem to make up their own little one stop gawk.

Many many pictures are sure to result.

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