One Beautiful Day

For those of you who live vicariously through my travels, here's the trip report for Saturday, May 24, 2008.

My first priority was to get to Arlington National Cemetery to get a new pass, as my permanent pass is in my file cabinet deep within the storage unit. I knew the visitor's center opened at 8:00 and had suggested to Lee that I would pick him up to be there by 8:00 or else meet him there at 8:00. But I didn't know the whole story.

Lee was with about a thousand bikers who had ridden from California and were scheduled to ride into Arlington shortly after 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. I learned this fact at 7:30 as I was eating my breakfast. So I quickly finished breakfast, grabbed my purse, and headed for the cemetery. I arrived seven minutes before the gate opened and, once the gate opened, was able to be about the twelfth vehicle through into the parking lot, after one car and ten motorcycles.

I got a temporary pass and decided to go on in to John's niche in the columbarium before going to pick up Lee. As I wrote yesterday, I was struck by the number of new graves. It's just sobering to see row after row of white headstones, so precisely set in place. To think of the loss, the broken hearts of parents and spouses and children—it's just an enormous loss. After fifteen minutes or so, I went back to my hotel.

After a quick post to my blog, I went over to the Westin Gateway and picked up Lee and we went back to Arlington National Cemetery. We went first into the columbarium, then drove around looking at the graves, marveling at those headstones incised with dates from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then we went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier—as we walked up the steps, I realized I hadn't been there since 1982 or 1983! Many of Lee's riding buddies were there, and four of them laid a wreath at the tomb.

Getting back in the car, Lee and I discussed our plans for the rest of the day and decided we would go to see Shear Madness at Kennedy Center last night. Several calls to 411 yielded no results, so we stopped in at my hotel to check their Web site. And my laptop battery died. Oops. That's what I get for packing so hurriedly.

Grabbed a Washington travel magazine and headed out for Alexandria. Lee called the number in the magazine and got very good seats for the play. We parked in a lot down near the Potomac and set out to find lunch. O'Connell's on King Street was our choice, and we sat at an outdoor table on the sidewalk, people-watching and enjoying a fabulous Irish brunch. Mine was crab Eggs Benedict with a fabulous scone. MegaYum.

Those who know me well know of my dream to open an arts center in Youngstown. So our next stop was the Torpedo Factory, where we wandered, poking into studios and chatting with artists. Then wandered out on the docks and headed back to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream.

It was about a quarter of four when we left Alexandria. I dropped Lee at his hotel, then checked my voicemail to learn my realtor had sent me an offer on my Continental Ranch house! And my laptop was out of juice! My next stop was Best Buy where I was able to buy a new HP AC adapter for a mere $90. (It's only money.) Then I ran over to Nordstrom to return some pants I had bought Boston two weeks ago. It's Women's and Children's Sale time at Nordstrom, but I exercised great restraint. How could I do that? By remembering how much I'm going to be out-of-pocket at the end of June!

Back to the hotel, to the business center, I printed out the contract, then checked my mortgage balances, then came upstairs to consult with my realtor. Left him with a couple of assignments, then ran back over to the Westin to pick up Lee and head for the Kennedy Center.

The play Shear Madness was, as always, a knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud hoot with lots of geographically topical references. We had a ball. I think the last time I saw this play was in 1987. Think of all that's changed in the world since 1987! Computers, cell phones, texting, cassettes vs. CDs, VCRs vs. DVRs, VHS vs. DVD. Mind-boggling!

Afterwards, we walked around the KenCen roof deck, then to Georgetown where we wandered down M Street. We checked out lots of menus, but ended up at Dean & DeLuca, picking up soup and bread and dessert and eating on their patio. Had an interesting conversation with the kayaker at the table next to ours, then wandered back along Georgetown streets and the towpath to the parking garage.

Interspersed in all this driving were calls from my tenants, my realtor, and my sister-in-law with more details about Mother's birthday party next weekend.

Dropped Lee back at his hotel around 9:30, then headed to my hotel to sign papers and fax them back to the realtor. Sent e-mail to tenants asking how I could help them over the next two months before they move to Colorado. Watched ten minutes of SNL and closed my eyes, exhausted.

Sunday: water taxi from Alexandria to National Harbor.

BTW: I'm loving my new Nikon CoolPix.

BTW2: I'm with Lee about hating Harleys. They're everywhere and outrageously, unnecessarily noisy. You know the saying about the inverse proportions between a man's equipment and the size of his truck? I think the same holds true for the number of decibels emitting from his motorcycle!