20 hours in DC

I had to go back to DC this week for a meeting.  I was set to arrive about 10pm on Tuesday and leave about 5pm on Wednesday.  Yeah, relaxing trip?

Tuesday started out with Dan?s first trip to snooze!  I can?t believe that I have been twice now and he?s never been.  We thought we?d avoid the wait by going Tuesday morning.  Alas, there was still a wait, but 20 minutes was manageable.  We took that 20 minutes to enjoy the complimentary coffee and study the menu.  Dan had done a hard workout that morning so he was eyeing two entrees.

An omelet with garlic, basil and tomatoes

and strawberry rhubarb pancakes.

I knew my eating would be off that day so I decided to treat myself with the Rice Crispy French toast.  Yes, it was completely insanely decadent.  And delicious.

Thank goodness I had such a big breakfast because that would turn out to be my only meal of the day.  After breakfast I was headed to the airport to begin the first of two long days of travel.  Not only did I have to fly back across the country, I had layovers on both trips.  BOOO

Neither trip was all that bad, but I didn?t have enough time on my layover to get a real lunch/dinner.  I grabbed a bag of popcorn and walked onto the flight where, much to my surprise I bumped into an old friend of mine!  We were able to sit next to each other and spend the time catching up.  It was such a fun surprise and it definitely made the flight go faster!

The trip to the hotel was uneventful and I wish I could say the same for settling into the hotel.  I registered at The State Plaza hotel since it was close to my meeting and I?d only be there for about 8 hours.  Well, I should have checked some reviews.  It was totally bootleg!  I had serious issues getting to my room (had to exit the building and walk through a parking garage and then find the magic door that would lead me to my elevator.  It was a production and it was like 90 degrees with 90% humidity.  I was NOT a happy camper. 

I also noticed that the hallway didn?t seem all that cool and I got nervous.  When I got to the room I could hear water flowing and I was really nervous, I didn?t think I could get back to the front desk if I tried!  I walked into the room and assessed the situation, the toilet was off track.  Easy fix.  yay!  The a/c was another issue, it was at max and wouldn?t go any further. 

I then had a chance to look around the room and I swear, it looked like a low-rent studio apartment.

It even had a bootleg kitchen. 

Of course it also had a huge bleach spot on the floor.  Gross! I tried not to think about WHY they had to bleach the carpet (and why they didn?t just remove the carpet!)

But I was tired and hungry and all I cared about was getting some room service and going to bed.  Room Service ended at 9pm and the only close by restaurant was closed.  So?I had popcorn for dinner.

FAIL!  And then Wednesday morning I woke up to go to the meeting and couldn?t find a coffee/breakfast place close to the hotel and so I went without a meal until noon!  At least the meeting place had coffee but I was so hot and the room with the coffee didn?t have a/c?  Other than that the trip was a success, I planned ahead for the trip back and bought dinner at the DC airport, see I?m learning!

Have you ever bumped into someone randomly while traveling?