Washington DC - Holiday Decorations

I have had to work most of my daylight hours here in DC so my only free time has been at night. It's been pretty cold but I still managed to get out and see a few of the holiday decorations.

I met some friends at Lauriol Plaza for dinner one night. This was my first visit to this restaurant and I thought it was excellent Spanish food. The place is three stories tall and gets a little noisy but the service is very good. I had the Bistec Cubano and would probably order it again.

After dinner, we headed over toward the White House to see the National Christmas Tree. I thought the tree looked very nice but the trains around the base looked kind of unfinished. The trains themselves were very cool but the bases were just green plywood and it seemed a little under done. Maybe they weren't done yet...

The next night, I ate at the Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon City. I had the Chicken Shwarma plate with Hummus. It was very good but made me want to go back to the Middle East for the real thing.

Later, I headed over to Union Station in DC to see the decorations there and it was also very well done. The building itself is very impressive on it's own with the huge ceilings and archways. The tree and the wreaths looked nice although my pictures don't do it justice.

Well, tomorrow it's back to the West Coast for the remainder of 2007 with a small break until early January. Then it is off to Vegas for CES, my favorite show of the year.

Happy Holidays!

PMD to SFO to IAD

It has been pretty cold in the High Desert of California since after Thanksgiving averaging in the upper 20s. We even actually had some rain which was very welcome after our dry year prior. In one storm we received more rainfall then the entire year before. Anyway, it's the cold that led to my problems on this Monday morning.

The Palmdale (PMD) service by United Airlines, operated by SkyWest, is a new service since June of 2007 so they haven't experienced their first desert winter yet. I arrived for my 6:00 AM flight at around 5:15 AM to find that the CRJ-200 was covered in ice just like my truck was this morning when I came out of my house. This normally isn't a problem at a major airport but at Palmdale, United is the only carrier and the only flight so they don't have any de-icing equipment available yet.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my 6:00 AM flight didn't thaw out and leave until 9:20 AM for San Francisco (SFO). This caused me to miss my connection to Washington Dulles (IAD) which left promptly at 10:05 AM. This also ruined my chance of an upgrade for which I was on the list on the missed flight. The Gate Agent at Palmdale booked me on the next flight which left at 11:00 AM which I barely made and, of course, my checked bag didn't. Luckily the United Baggage Representative tracked my bag to the next flight and offered to have my bag delivered to my Hotel. United has a website to track your bag which informed me my bag would be delivered between 1:00 and 5:00 AM. Sure enough, I called down to the front desk of The Marriott Courtyard and my bag had been delivered around 3:00 AM.

Once I was on my flight from SFO to IAD, it wasn't bad. I was still in Economy Plus so I had the extra leg room. I watched Transformers on the inboard entertainment system on the Boeing 767 and got to see a beautiful sunset out of my window. 4 hours and 20 minutes later I was landing in Washington DC.

Washington Dulles seems like it has been under construction since I can remember and they still use these bizarre shuttles to get you from one terminal to the other. I call it the people mover, but they refer to it as the Mobile Lounge. I hope someday they have a decent train system.

So I picked up my National Rental Car at Dulles and headed for my Marriott Courtyard in Landover Maryland. This property is located near the warehouse I need to work in this week to repair all of my broken gear that has collected over the past 12 months. I like Courtyard's because I always know what to expect. A clean room, free internet and a good nights sleep.

Long Day of Travel Home

Yesterday started at 7:00AM Eastern Time when I left The Courtyard and headed for Orlando International Airport (MCO). If any airport is in need of remodeling, it's this one. They are working on it but it really felt like I was in a third world country. This is the first time I've flow US Airways because that's the only flight I could get home. US Airways is a Star Alliance partner like United so I still received my United Miles and boarding priority with my Star Alliance Gold status.

The US Airways Boeing 757 left on time and I made it to Philadelphia (PHL) in plenty of time to have lunch and make my long flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco (SFO). Philadelphia Airport is very nice and has a lot of restaurant choices. I had Dan Dan Noodles at the Sky Asian Bistro in Concourse C. It was excellent and so was the service. This was my last chance for Yuengling and it went perfectly with the spicy noodle dish.

We had a 150 mile per hour headwind heading west so it took us 6.5 hours to make it across the country. When we finally arrived, about 40 minutes late due to the headwind, I had about an hour before boarding United's Sky West flight back to Palmdale (PMD) It's good to be home again. A one week break then it is off to our Nation's Capital.