greetings from the "other" washington

I made it to Aunt Rebecca's house just outside DC no problem. Got here last night and spent today sleeping, doing touristy things, and eating mexican food! Good times for sure.

I'm afraid I'm using up any good airplane karma I may still have. See, on the second flight I'm in 11F, a window seat (I always get window seats). Turns out something silly called "economy plus" ends at row 10, which is an exit row. And then I realize, wait a second, there is no seat in front of my seat!! So for some unknown reason, I had a cheap ticket and more legroom than I could possibly use while the people in front of me had more expensive tickets and less legroom. hehehe. The only bad part was that some poor guy's seat was supposed to be 10F...which didn't exist. But he found some other seat and all was well.

Today I slept till noon (which was only *really* 9am, so give me a break), got some $20 bills turned into larger bills so I don't have to carry a wad of cash, and then Rebecca and I went out to the new Air & Space museum at Dullus airport. It was really cool!! To start, hardly anyone else was there. That is the only way to do museums or other attractions like that - when it's virtually empty. They have the space shuttle Enterprise as well as a bunch of snazzy airplanes and other random space things. (two things of note - the Enola Gay and an air france supersonic jet.) There's also an observation tower that gives you a great panorama of the area, and since it's right by the airport you get a fantastic view of all these planes taking off and landing. The only things we didn't do was see an IMAX film (the mars rover one was only at 1pm and we got there around 3) or ride in a simulator (it cost $7 and no one was manning the station when we wandered over there). But it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

This evening we went out to dinner in DC with a couple Rebecca knows through her Quaker meeting. They've both been to Moscow several times and had all kinds of great stories! (we'll pretend that many of these stories didn't involve getting sick or being ousted from an apartment or almost being arrested.) :) But it turns one or both of them will be in Moscow towards the end of March, and I got their contact info. I really do love random connections like that.

that's all for now. time for me to get some sleep because I've got a 10:25 flight to New York, a meeting with Alex from KEI to get my passport and visa (for real this time) at the JFK airport, and a flight to Russia at 5:45. did I ever mention how odd this is?? but part of me will be glad to just GET THERE already. I think. I don't know. right, bedtime. :)