Friday, May 15, 2015

Day 1 in DC

As part of my attempt to become a fully functioning adult, I'm in Washington, D.C. this week. By myself.

I got to SeaTac airport a bit too early. I sat at the gate and charged my phone and played with my iPad. But I still had at least an hour to kill so I decided to find the bar.

Mission accomplished. Sitting at the bar, I ordered a drink and a pizza. The bartender was chatting with all of us sitting at the bar and through the course of the conversation, it was revealed that the man 3 seats to my left was on his way to Las Vegas to get married. The woman next to me paid for his meal and drinks. It was a faith-in-humanity restoring moment.

When I finally boarded my plane, I decided to "Time Travel."  Time Travel by my definition, is when you board an airplane having consumed at least once alcoholic beverage, and then pop an ambien as your plane taxies to the runway. I fell asleep shortly after takeoff and woke up once to have a glass of water. I basically fell asleep in Seattle and woke up on the other side of the country. If you're traveling without children, I highly recommend Time Travel.

My flight landed at about 9 pm on Friday night. I got a metro card and made my way to my Airbnb near the Eastern Market. I struggled with the lock on the front door, but finally got myself in and settled. The homeowners' cats were quick to introduce themselves and check me out.


Later in the night my hosts, Scott and Yen, came home and we chatted for a bit. I was tired from traveling all day so I took a shower, watched some Netflix and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up and explored the Eastern Market. There was an indoor part that reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle, and an outside portion similar to a flea market. I had no time constraints so I wandered at my own pace, looking at everything. I didn't buy anything because the stuff that interested me was A) overpriced, B) too big to fit in my suitcase, or C) more cash than I had on me. I made a tactical error in not using an ATM before I left home. I thought there would be branches of my bank in DC. I was wrong. I hate ATM fees so for the rest of the week I made due with the case on hand at the time. Maybe $60?

I followed the smell of fresh donuts to a little tent and bought a bag of donuts, covered them in powdered sugar and called it breakfast. I knew I wanted to go to the National Portrait Gallery as I hadn't had time to visit the last time I was in DC. I stuffed my face with donuts and got rather lost trying to find the Metro station.

I found the metro, got off at the right stop, but my lack of a map meant that I took the long way to the National Portrait Gallery. I made a full loop around the Verizon Center where a crowd was gathered to enter and watch a hockey game. I almost wanted to get a cheap seat in the nosebleeds but decide that a hockey game by myself seemed kind of lonely.

So I finally found the Portrait Gallery and walked until I'd seen most of it and my feet were tired. I took the metro back to my neighborhood and found a Taco place for dinner. Eating alone was lonely so I kept busy texting with friends, mostly Kate. Besides dinner though, it was a good first day. I was still a bit nervous being alone, but it will get easier gradually.

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