The First Day

Things got off to a very early start this morning as I left for the airport about 5 AM. Things went pretty smooth on the flight to Minneapolis. When I got there, my flight to DC was delayed 30 minutes and then we had to sit on the runway for another 30 minutes as it was raining in Minneapolis and things were backed up a little bit. All in all, for a Northwest flight, it went pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of Northwest Airlines. They do OK, but I would rather fly other airlines if I had a chance. This time around however, the Northwest flight is the one that worked best for me to get to DC.

I jumped on the METRO after picking up my bag and took it from the airport to the Farragut West stop. There were two guys sitting by me that had hats that pertained to Montana. One guy had his University of Montana hat on and another had a Ted's Montana Grill hat. I'm guessing most of you know the University of Montana, but for those of you that don't now, Ted's Montana Grill was stated by Ted Turner as a way for him to serve the buffalo that he raises in Montana and elsewhere. You can check out more on Ted's Montana Grill by clicking on that link.

One interesting tidbit about Ted is that through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Totaling 1,910,000 acres (7,700 km²), his US land-holdings make Turner the largest individual landowner in North America.

I thought it was a neat little coincidence that there were two people sporting hats with Montana references on my METRO ride. It's a smaller world than you think.

Most to the METRO ride is underground, so you don't get to see much of the surrounding area. But I think the METRO is a great way to get around out here, and always use it when I'm in DC. When we did go past the stop at Arlington Cemetery you did see the typical summer DC tourists. There are tired, hot, and sweaty from the DC summer. Having lived here for the summer, it is a scene I remember well. It was not overwhelmingly hot in DC (about 90, pretty close to back home), but is always that humidity that gets folks like me from the arid west. And you can definitely see it on the tourists.

One thing I'm quite happy about is that it will be winter in South Africa. The forecast is for 50 to 65 degrees when I'm there and that suits me just fine.

Once I reached my final destination, I somehow managed to come out of the METRO in the wrong place, even though I took extra time to make sure I didn't. It was only a block extra to the hotel, and I have a nice little room here at Club Quarters. It is just south of Farragut Square, a nice little park with a statue of Admiral David Farragut.

Check in at the hotel was done by using an electronic kiosk. I like using stuff like that, but it was the first time I had check into a hotel using just a machine. We had our little welcome packet waiting and I ironed my clothes for tomorrow. I don't have the best view in the world, just the construction of the building next to me. Before you know it, it was time for dinner.

The group boarded the bus for a nice, quiet dinner/get-to-know-you evening at a restaurant that was otherwise closed. We ate up stairs, family style. The food was wonderful, good Italian with pasta, eggplant, and flank steak. We had one guest from South Africa, so the conversation was quite good between meeting people and hearing from her about South Africa.

After dinner we came back to the hotel. I needed to take a walk an since we are only a few block for the White House I decided I would take a jaunt around the west end of the National Mall. I always loving going down there to look at the monuments and walk among the memorials. My pictures of the evenings are here.

Made it back to the hotel around 11 PM DC time and 8 PM Billings time. I should be going to sleep cause we have an early start tomorrow. We are visiting the ACYPL headquarters for an orientation, the Department of State and their South Africa Desk, and the Embassy of South Africa. Should be lots of fun. Then we get on a plane for Amsterdam. With a packed day, I probably wont be able to write until very late tomorrow evening. Or early in Amsterdam as it where.