Falcon and Finally D.C.

Friday, June 19, 2015
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Our rescheduled flight was delayed so we ended up doing quite a bit of waiting at the gate. That wasn't anyone's favorite, but we made it onboard and were seated next to each other (there had been some question when we were initially reassigned) so that was good. Then something completely unexpected happened. A man with a falcon came and sat in our row! He was from the U.S. Air Force Academy and was taking one of their mascots, a prairie falcon named Echo, to an event in Virginia. We all had a good laugh about the bird and the baby being assigned to the same row (what could go wrong?) but in the end all five of us remained in our row for the duration of the flight. Without incident, I'm happy to report.

By the time we finally made it to our hotel in Foggy Bottom Bryan had been up for about 27 hours and only dozed off briefly . So we put Desmond in the pack-n-play (or, as I am now calling it, the "pack-n-snack") portable crib provided by our hotel and got some rest. Desmond ate puffs and played fairly happily while we napped.

Our hotel room is very nice, I'm happy to report. We are on the eighth floor of the Courtyard Marriott in Foggy Bottom which is centrally located to all the monuments, the White House and what have you. The air conditioning works well, there is a seating area, plenty of room for the crib and the bed is comfortable. Not bad for our free stay!

After a few hours, Desmond finally melted down some in the hotel room near the end of our nap as we were freshening up and I tried to get him ready to go. Changing and feeding him didn't seem to fix it, but he calmed once we got him back in the carrier for our walk. I think the security of being near his Papa was comforting to him after so much newness.

We got ourselves some Subway sandwiches. We took them to go and walked over to the Washington Mall to see the monuments. The park was beautiful and spacious enough not to feel crowded even though there were tons of people milling around.

We are happy to have arrived and gotten our bearings. We had to laugh because no more had we finished our sandwiches and were quickly striding towards the park than someone stopped and asked us directions. We must look like we know what we're doing. Funny thing was, Bryan was actually able to direct them to the Starbucks they were looking for.

Check out the photos to see what we saw today. Thanks for following along on our trip!

Comments

Leslie
2015-06-20

Wow! Looks like you had a great time seeing the sights. Thanks for the pics.

Traci Katz
2015-06-20

Wow! So many fun memories already!

Auntie Lannie
2015-06-20

I mis-read the sentence, and thought you had referred to Bryan as "Foggy Bottom Bryan". It would have made perfect sense, considering the long flight and delays.

Jaynie
2015-06-20

A falcon! That has to be the most unusual thing I've ever heard!

2025-02-10

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