Washington DC/ Arlington, Virginia Day 1

What a day! We spent Friday night and most of Saturday in St. Charles at my cousins wedding. It was fun but we didn't get home until 10 AM. Sunday morning we went to church and then ran home and finished some last minute packing, loaded up the truck and headed to mom and dad's for our ride to O'Hare.

Our trip started with great company. What a joy it is to spend an uninterrupted hour with not only close family but like-minded believers. We enjoyed discussing the lastest doctrines at church, the family news, all the details of the wedding the night before and also some casual, random discussions. They dropped us off at O'Hare at 2:35 pm exactly 2 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. We used curbside check in (which cost $2 per bag plus tip) b/c that is what our boarding pass instructed. It was nice getting rid of the big suitcases right away. When we entered the airport we immediately got into line to go through the detectors and X-Ray machines. We took off our shoes, took out the laptop and emptied our pockets. Out of our 3 bags the only problem was the water bottle that I had inside of one. They were real nice and asked me if I wanted to go back out and finish it off. I just opted to have them throw it out.

Scott and I killed two hours at our gate and loaded the plane about 15 minutes after the estimated boarding time. B/c we had printed our boarding pass the night before (thanks mom!) we were in group 2 which got to load right after first class. We headed to our seats and got settled in. The plane took off about 15 minutes late but the pilot didn't even mention it. I don't think he was too concerned. The flight was fun. We flew all the way across Lake Michigan and then went above the clouds (there were a lot of them). For a while all we could see was clouds but at one time it cleared up and there were many hills and valleys. I think it must have been close to the Appalachians. We were about 20 minutes from DC so it seemed like the timing was right. The plane landed smoothly w/ hardly a bump. We were right next to the back of the wing so we enjoyed watching the science behind it all, especially when they put on the "brakes"! I was disappointed that we didn't get to see any of DC from above b/c of the clouds.

We hopped off the plane and picked up our luggage almost immediately. Then we decided to walk over to the Metro and figure out our ticket situation for the week. The man there was very helpful and recommended that we buy the week unlimited pass. It was $26.40 which we decided should be paid for itself by the end of the week possibly sooner. After purchasing these we headed back to the hotel shuttle bus pick up area and called the hotel. We sat outside and waited for about 10 minutes. By the time we reached the hotel and had a quick bite to eat it was 10 pm (we lost an hour when we hit eastern time). Our view out the window shows the Washington Monument and the Capital. We unloaded our bags and made plans for the next day! See you then! :)

For more pictures go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/asj693/WashingtonDC_Day1?authkey=60RE0lL4GJs