A Capital of my Own

A mere 14 hours after the end of my last final, at 5:30 am, the adventure begins.  It is spring break, I have had a long quarter and it is time for some new experiences with my favorite travel companion, my dear mother Holly.

I have 2 primary reasons to go to DC beyond just relaxing and exploring.  First is to look at potential graduate schools and to evaluate DC as a potential place to live and work in the future. The second reason is to correct a minor embarrassment; I have been to 6 national capitals (Rome, London, Moscow, Paris, Helsinki, and Tallinn) in the last 4 years, and yet until now have not been to DC.

The flight out of LAX was uneventful (which for any flight is a good thing!) and like a typical tourist I passed the time in the air with a book on the 90s conflicts between Chechnya and the Russian government.  I was unprepared for how rural the area around Dulles Airport appeared to be from the air, it almost reminded me of the flying into Saint Petersburg.  The airport is about an hours drive from the center of DC and is in Virginia but they oddly call it a DC airport.

Driving into the city at 5:00pm local time I got to see the DC traffic people complain about, but it has got NOTHING on SoCal traffic. From a distance while driving into the city, I could see the Washington Monument and the Capital Building and it was surreal to see these oft photographed images of America.

The rest of the day was uneventful: checked into our hotel 1 block away from the White House; took a little walk past the Treasury Department, Commerce Department, EPA, FBI, IRS, USAID, and Justice Department buildings on the way to dinner; and saw the presidential motorcade (4 motorcycles, 2 police cars, 5 suburbans, 2 limos and 2 vans) on its way to do presidential things.

 

This is going to be a great trip and the weather is in the 70s and sunny for the next few days unlike the rain in store for home.

My first big observation, in the bar of the restaurant, in the hotel elevators and on every other TV in the city I have seen is on CNN.  Even during March Madness with 3636 basketball games a day, where sports would be on in every other town DC watches CNN.

My kind of town, it seems I have arrived in US Governmental Disneyland!