Posing with Albert

I had a work trip at the National Academies of Science in Washington DC. During one of the breaks, I went outside for a picture with Albert.

Washington DC (Jan 24-26)

I made a quick trip to Washington DC this week. I left Phoenix on Thursday morning and my plane landed at 4:10 in the afternoon - about 15 minutes early! This gave me just enough time to catch a cab to my hotel, check-in, take my bag to my room and run downstairs to my 5:00 pm meeting. I even had 2 minutes to spare!

Between the working dinner and meetings, my evening lasted until about 9 pm. I was tired, it was cold out, and I hadn't unpacked, so I headed up to the room to watch some tv and relax. Most of Friday was full of meetings, but we were released around 6:00 pm. A colleague and I headed to dinner. The first restaurant had an hour and half wait, and we were hungry, so we walked a bit further from the hotel. We eventually decided on Rosa Mexicano. The chips were a bit too salty, but the guacamole was delicious. Both of us enjoyed our meals.

After dinner, we wandered through Chinatown on the way back to the hotel.

The night was still early, so I met up with a couple more colleagues and we took a walk to the mall and to view the capitol at night, before heading back to the hotel.

U.S. Capitol building at night

Washington monument at night

On Saturday, I had to get up early in the morning for my day of meetings. I had about an hour to spare between the time my meetings ended and I had to head to the airport. I thought about trying to do a bit of sightseeing, but it was cold out and I wasn't particularly motivated. Instead, I picked up a copy of Michael Crichton's book Next and started reading that. By the time my flight back to Phoenix landed, I was done with the book. It was ok, but not one of his best works. I thought State of Fear was better.

Washington DC (Sept 29-Oct 2)

I had to make a quick trip to Washington DC for work. On one of the nights, there was a reception and dinner for us at the Smithsonian Castle. Since I had never been to the Castle before, it was a welcome change from a convention dinner at the hotel. During the post-dinner presentation, we also learned quite a bit about the history of the Smithsonian Institution.

Inside the castle....

I stayed at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza. For the most part, I was pleased with this hotel. The first night, I was rather grossed out when I pulled the comforter back and discovered this blanket on the bed.
I wasn't certain if this was a set-in stain or fresh (and had no plans to find out). I called housekeeping and asked them to send somebody up to give me new blankets. I guess I should have been more specific, because they just brought a new blanket. I'm sorry, but with something on the bed that looks that disgusting, I expect the entire bed to be stripped and made fresh. The woman from housekeeping had to make a second trip to get everything to completely make the bed from scratch. At least she was very polite about it.


Also, the in-room internet did not work reliably. You can go to the front desk for a signal booster, but they have limited quantities of those (they had already run out when I requested one). So, they got my $9.95 for internet, and I got a whopping 30 minutes (total - across multiple attempts within 24 hours) of connection. It's already a pet peeve of mine when $200+/night hotels charge for internet, but it's inexcusable when they charge and then can't deliver reliable service.

Washington DC

I was supposed to be in Washington DC this weekend for business, but the "stomach flu" grounded me at home. Since it was a business trip, I probably wouldn't have had much of a chance for sight-seeing anyway, so here are a few pictures of some of the memorials from a previous trip to DC.






Lincoln Memorial













Washington Memorial









World War II Memorial













Korean Memorial









Vietnam Memorial

PandaMania

When I visited Washington DC a couple years ago, there was a city wide art display called PandaMania with decorated panda bears. Below are a couple of the pictures I took of them.

I hadn't realized that it was a temporary display at the time, and that the bears would be auctioned off. I thought it was a permanent display - like the New Glarus Painted Cows.

The panda to the right was hanging around at the National Zoo.


This was my favorite panda, because of all the jewels on it. It was in front of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, which is pretty upscale. Its official name is "Ling Ling in the Sky with Diamonds"











Perennial Panda was found sitting in a flower bed near the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, near the Adams Morgan/Zoo metro station.








Yin-Yang was found standing outside the entrance to the National Zoo.


And of course, you can't forget about the real pandas!