2008 - Washington DC Day One - Train to Arlington and Washington
| Day One: Train to Washington and Alexandria, VA |
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| Written by Drew Hannush | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Of all of the trips that I have taken in the last few years, my trip to Washington, DC in September was the most energetic and exhausting.
It started with an inspiration...what would it be like to take a trip WITHOUT a car? I had never tried it before and it seemed intriguing. But before you start thinking I pulled a Bill Bryson and started walking from Greenville up the Appalachian Trail or some noise like that...get real! I only had a weekend! The idea was, go to a transportation friendly area and use the public transportation. After all, in September, gasoline was still around $4 a gallon. So I pulled out the calculator and started running numbers...what would it cost to ride the train, versus how much it would cost for extra nights in a hotel (because of driving) and gasoline. In the end, I found $160 roundtrip to be very reasonable. Plus, since the train only comes at 11 o'clock at night going north from Greenville and comes back at 6 pm from Washington, I didn't need 2 nights of hotels. Einstien would just sleep on the train. We'll get back to that sleep thing later. I went ahead and bought my tickets for Amtrak and made my hotel reservations in Alexandria, Virginia and I was ready to go.
Well, my first problem was finding the train station. Just like a horrible Greyhound Bus experience I had had many years before, I found that the train station is never next to the Ritz-Carlton...maybe an old discarded Ritz Cracker, but not the Ritz-Carlton. The wife usually goes to bed around 9 pm because she has to get up at the crack of dawn for work, so she planned on dropping me off at 8:30. When we got down to the area where the train station was supposed to be, we drove right past it. Not much in the way of signs around there...guess not too many people are dashing off to the train for vacation. So we finally find the place and the station doesn't open until 10 pm. You know that cold chill you get when you feel something creepy is about to happen? Well, I had it. And I knew the wife was probably going to drop me off anyway...can't stop a woman from keeping her sleep schedule (beauty sleep ya know). So we kissed goodbye and there I was, expecting to be waiting for an hour next to a dirty old Ritz Cracker.
Luckily, an older gentleman, who was apparently quite used to the train (he grew up in the neighborhood), walked up and helped me pass the time with some light conversation. He had just retired and was thinking about taking a train ride to New Orleans and was just coming down to check on the cost of fare. We chatted for quite a while about life in South Carolina and how things had changed since he was a boy. I always love talking to people about their experiences growing up in a place that I didn't. It helps me get more of a feel for the flavor of the area. Plus the historian in me is always looking for some little known fact I can store away in my brain. When the sales office opened, I stepped inside with my bag, massive bottle of water, and can of roasted almonds (I wasn't sure what I was going to get to eat on the train). As the people filtered in, one fairly chubby man came in and sat down. I heard him talking in a British accent, which always gets my attention. I worked my way into the conversation and found that he had been traveling all across the United States and he was taking the train to New York so he could fly home. I learned more about Premiere League Soccer in an hour with him than I had learned in a whole lifetime. His team was apparently Manchester City and he was quite passionate about them.
Once the train arrived, I made my way toward the steps (felt like all those old movies where people are dashing toward the steps of the train...ready to wave goodbye to their loved ones. All at once, I was asked where was my destination and I said Alexandria. They shuffled me off to the car that was loaded with Alexandrian travelers. I thought this was quite ingenious...until I got my seat assignment. Apparently the fellow I sat next to had left his personality in Atlanta or some previous destination. We rode together for 9 hours and he never once looked at me. Nor did he ever really take off his headphones. No bother though, I understand that some people like to keep to themselves and I try not to be pushy. And anyway, since I didn't have a hotel room until the next night and I was to be on the train until 9 am, I needed to sleep anyway. Ahhh, sleep...wonderful...slee..hey what was that? Bounce, bounce, bounce...rattle, rattle, bounce bounce. Okay, what was I thinking! I'm the person that could never sleep in the car; partly because of the excitement of the trip, but also because I don't sleep well when riding in a perculator.
All I can say is, my Mp3 player saved me. I was entertained all night. Luckily I had loaded it with so many good tunes, I was actually enjoying not sleeping. So I just rested my eyes a lot. I can tell you though, I found the long stops to be quite irritating. We must have stopped in Charlotte for an hour and Greensboro for a half hour. Why the delays, I don't know, but it got me thinking we were going to be late and that kept me on edge for most of the night. By the time we got into Virginia, the sun was starting to come up. So I thought, hey, that will be nice...Virginia has such pretty scenery. Uh, yeah, when you're in a car! Mostly I saw trees. When I didn't see trees, we were in a ditch. So two lessons learned, you don't ride a train for sleep and you don't ride a train for scenery. After all of the delays, I'm glad to report that we got into Alexandria a couple of minutes early. I took my bag, didn't say goodbye to the guy next to me and departed for my hotel which was 3 blocks away.
I will have to complement the Residence Inn hotel I stayed in. I came in at 10 am and they let me check in. I was very relieved by that. My hope was to walk back the three blocks after I settled and get on the Metro into Washington for the day. You will notice that I only have a few pictures on this page and none of them are from this day (September 11th). I knew I had two days to take as many pictures as I wanted and the last thing I wanted to do was carry a camera around with me through all of the security checks I was going to have to go through. So the camera stayed at the hotel while I did some quick looking around. After I figured out the Metro machine, I jumped on the subway and rode downtown. My first step was to go take in some sites. I went down toward The Capitol area and decided to go to the secret cafeteria my Dad told me about. See, my Dad likes to research geneology and presidents, so he spends a lot of time at the Library of Congress (right behind The Capitol). So he told me there was a good, inexpensive cafeteria that the employees used in Library of Congress. Since I was on a tight budget, this sounded good to me.
Well, I had a little trouble finding it. He said it was between the Adams and Madision buildings underground...but all I could find was on that was on a top floor. I went into the main building and asked someone and he did a double take on me at first, not really thinking (I guess) that I would know of that one. He sent me down an elevator into the basement. So here I am, September 11th (the most security rich day of the year) wandering around in the basement of the Library of Congress with the pipes and hot water heaters. I did actually find it after a long walk, but it was filthy and not quite so cheap. I think I spent $5 for a bottle of water and a slice of pepperoni pizza. I scarfed it down and went back upstairs. After taking a peek inside the Library of Congress from up above...and marvelling at it, I went across the street to The Capitol, intent on taking a tour. And so I did. I was pointed in the direction of the ticket stand and went through a series of questions. Once through, I had a very short wait before they walked us up to the first checkpoint.
I was told by someone later that day that the District of Columbia has some crazy number of law enforcement units that work there. I think I saw all of them. Once we got inside the last checkpoint, a gentleman who worked for The Capitol started asking people where they were from. He looked at me and I said "South Carolina." He seemed unimpressed and moved on. Everyone else but me was from out of the country. He turned to another couple and they said "Korea" and he started talking to them in Korean...and I mean conversing. The next couple was from Norway...and he started speaking to them in their language. I was floored. No wonder he glanced over me with such speed. After a nice tour (it wasn't my first time) we were let loose to roam the museum area. I asked if I could watch congress in session or the senate. I was told I would have to walk across the street to the congressional offices to talk to my congressman about tickets. But then, someone told me if I wanted to go see the Senate, I could just walk over to the chamber where the Supreme Court once met and they could tell me how to get in touch with my Senator.
So I followed their directions and talked to a woman in front of the door leading to the Senate chamber. She said, oh, just walk down that hall and tell the people at the desk that you want tickets to see the Senate session. So I did. About halfway down the hall, a policeman stopped me. He said, "where do you think you're going?" in a stern voice. I said waiving my finger in the previous direction, "the woman down the hall told me to come down here to get Senate tickets." To my surprise, he just walked away, grumbling "they want us to protect this area and then they do stupid crap like this." Stunned, I spun around to continue my path, what the heck. And I about ran over Elizabeth Dole headed in the opposite direction. When I got to the desk, they didn't even ask me who my Senator was and just gave me a pass. Do I look that innocent to everyone or what? So I headed back to where I came from and made my way up five million hallways to the Senate chamber. When I got there, there wasn't anyone there. So I determined that I would wait.
And wait I did. Do you know that from 12:30 pm to a little after 2 pm I sat there and hear a total of three senators. And that during that whole time, other than Phil Gramm who was the acting President of the Senate and the pages and chamber typist...no one else sat down or stayed. Government inaction, not government in action...as they say. And the speeches were less than inspiring. At best I saw Harry Ried walk through and beyond that, not too many recognizable faces. And I know a lot of those faces. When I walked back down, the woman who had previously got me in trouble said, "didn't see much did you?" We both laughed. I said, "I take it, that is the norm." She nodded. The rest of the afternoon I basically wandered. It wasn't long before I wanted out of downtown and thought I would take in Alexandria. So when I got back to my hotel, I began looking through the literature in my room (and enjoying some black licorice hard candies, of which I scarfed down in record time). I found an Irish restaurant that I thought I'd like to try -can't turn down Sheppards Pie. And low an behold, they had a coupon for buy one meal, get the second one free. I thought, hey, since I have a refrigerator, I could just store the other meal in there. So I walked halfway across old Alexandria and arrived at Murphy's: A Grand Irish Pub.
Now tell me if I am being cheap or crass in some sort of way. I ordered a Guinness up front and then when they came back to take my order, I said I was going to use my buy one get one free coupon to have a to go item. I figured after knocking down a couple of Guinness' I would get my to go item then. Well, the waitress said, er uh, she didn't know if she could honor it and went off to the owner to ask. I figured at least he would honor a buy one get one free deal...I mean, so I was only one person, what difference did that make? He came to the table and said I had to be two people to get the deal. I wanted to argue the finer points of "the customer's always right" but I decided to shut up about it. I drank down my Guinness, stuffed my face and walked out as fast as I could. I was quite disgusted. If you're not going to honor it, don't offer it, I say. He probably would have made up the difference on the Guinness I would buy, but no matter. So was I wrong to be upset about this? All I can say is, the food was good but not great...I see no reason to return to Murphy's...especially since there is another Irish restaurant on the same street. I'll try that one next time. Well, after walking down the rest of the street, I went back to my hotel and fell asleep listening to John McCain and Barrack Obama doing interviews about service. That was enough to lull me right into a coma... |
