MyraMark: Washington, DC; a vacation from the tropical island!

I have been wanting to blog for several days now! I am getting over this mentality that blogging is a hassle, and switching to the gear that blogging is recording my memories. Since I'm super forgetful, I need to do it way more often!

First off, I went to Washington, DC at the end of October, right after family weekend with my mom! My mom, dad and I got to board the plane towards the beginning because I had "Priority Access" on my ticket since it was purchased with my mom's advantage miles (I also flew exit row since we weren't going to get seats altogether and I like the extra leg room--they were stuck towards the back). We all left together and landed in Miami where we picked up our bags, went through customs, rechecked our bags, and had a scrumptious lunch at TGIF (AMERICAN FOOD!!!) in the airport. Our DC connection was leaving before my dad's DFW flight, so we said our goodbyes upon departure. My mom and I originally didn't have seats together, but we got that switched around at the gate where I said goodbye to my row 11 seat, and her to her row 24 seat, and we sat side by side on row 27, the last row of the plane! That mother/daughter love. :) We chatted with the guy next to us who was flying buddy pass/stand by which is what I would be flying back. I feel sorry for him because he had to answer a lot of my questions about the whole process, but he was very friendly and very insightful! He asked me who I knew and what the person did, and when I said it was given to us as a wedding present by my husband's friend, I realized I don't really know what Matt does! I think he works in sales and puts together proposals for colleges, but I could be making that up completely... Anyway, upon arriving in DC, we took a cab to the hotel. I was blown away at how nice the hotel was! My mom and I were pretty exhausted from the 10am departure to the 7pm arrival, so we decided to see what we could eat at the bar for dinner. We had a pumpkin spice cocktail and some pretty tasty crab cakes (made by their world-famous chef, which for some reason, doesn't really matter to me. Maybe cooking is an art I just don't understand yet.) Then we headed up to our room where our luggage was waiting. My mom had requested a queen bed initially, but then double beds when she found out I was going. She said the double bed room was much smaller than the rooms she has stayed in before (the last two years she went to the conference held at the same hotel). That was mind-blowing to me, because that is a really large hotel room! haha, anyway, I hate when you have such a nice hotel room because then you never want to leave it!

The next couple of days, while my mom was in meetings, I was pretty much on my own. First thing I did the next day was head to the nearest metro station and get myself a week-long pass! I headed out to Maryland in search of the Jared shop that I had pulled up on my phone (I couldn't have survived without the iPhone Google map capabilities!). Only, once I got off the train, I couldn't get out of the station! Apparently the card I bought was only for times that weren't rush hour, and apparently 9am is rush hour... Anyway, the guy let me out and said my magnetic strip was broken (I don't think that was the case, but I took my chance anyway!) My custom-designed wedding ring jacket had split and I needed to get it resoldered. Once I arrived at the Jared's (almost an hour tram ride and then a 15 minute walk), it wasn't open yet! So I headed nearby to the Old Navy, Ross, and other stores nearby to pass the time. Then I went back to Jared's and the lady was looking at my ring and it broke in half! She took it back to the jeweler and he said that he wanted to keep it overnight to have plenty of time to fix it. After taking awhile to look up my insurance information, I signed my form and was on my way. But instead of heading back to the subway, I went shopping! I found a dollar tree (spent $30--everything is a dollar...), another similar store where everything was $5, and a Ross. Once I was loaded with stuff to bring back to Grenada, I made my way to the nearest sign of fast food and was delighted that it was a Qdoba (like a Chipotle to me--yay for Mexican food!). After a filling lunch, I headed to the hotel with all my goodies! After the machine yelled at me for trying to enter, when I technically hadn't exited (according to my metro card), a different agent had to come let me in. My magnetic strip had apparently fixed itself! :) That night, for dinner, we went to capitol hill and ate dinner with the big wigs, including some senators and representatives. It was more just a reception, but the food was good none-the-less! I spent most of the night chatting with the wife of someone who works for the Department of Defense. Her and her friend were tagging along with their husband to Australia for a conference two weeks later. (*a little jealous*) Anyway, she was a school teacher and we had a great talk about teaching elementary. She is retired but subbing for someone on maternity leave. She sounds like a great teacher, and I love how different things are from state to state, yet the problems all seem to be the same! Other than the chat, I enjoyed getting pulled into a couple photos because I was young and had make up on (it was fun getting pretty with my mom!). They used me, but hey, maybe I'll be in some newsletter or something, with the label "guest" and Myra Tshirhart (yes, it was spelled wrong) on my name tag.

The next day, I had to return to the same place, but not until afternoon. I had a relaxing morning (breakfast with my mom before her meetings) and made sure that my online classes were all up to date. After she had gone in to the meeting, I hung out with a couple other people from her conference that were skipping the meeting to talk about photography and some great shots (they were seriously amazing landscapes) that one of the guys had taken in Alaska. I'm definitely adding that trip to my bucket list! And then I headed off to do some sight seeing! I took a very short metro trip (no issues) to the national mall to find some museums. Apparently this town doesn't do anything early, so the first place I went, once I finally oriented myself to the large grassy area, was to the Nation Parks Museum where I saw a creep Smokey the Bear, and awesomely designed museum with a log cabin (wouldn't that be a fun job!?), signed the guest book, and got my mom a butterfly bookmark that they were giving away (as well as a postcard, map and brochure...I think I was the only person to come in the last two days!). Then I headed out to see what else I could do. I ended up going to the Smithsonian Castle, which I had been to before, but apparently Mark and I had missed the wings. So I went to see the collection of artifacts housed in the castle, brushed up on my Smithsonian history, and watched a video hosted by Ben Stiller as an intro to all the museums. Then I headed to the National History Museum and took my time going through some exhibits. When I came three years ago, Mark and I rushed through things to see as much as we could. This time, I stopped to actually read stuff; it was nice until all the field trips started to arrive! I definitely saw some new things that I don't remember walking through before like the actual star-spangled banner, the history of transportation, and the exhibit of the first ladies. And I revisited the Presidents section, just because I find it so interesting and I wanted to see Obama's addition! After a lot of time at the museum, I headed back to catch some free lunch at the hotel with the conference and then back to Jared's to pick up my ring (and visit the Target!). Around the time I got back, my mom was just finishing up her last meeting for the conference. We headed to the Old Ebbit Grill for dinner; we were waiting for our buzzer to go off and decided to walk around the white house grounds (the buzzer said "long range" but it lied because we never heard it go off and when we went in to ask, they said we missed our turn and we had to wait another 20 minutes longer...). But I chatted with some guy that is an architect for the white house and couldn't say exactly what he did with that, just that he constantly sees big name people walking around...which is how we initially got on the subject of what he does. He was just sitting at the bar, and then he decided him and his party of 8 wanted to eat. He went to the counter got told it would be an hour, then got called a minute later. Must be a little important. :) Anyway, my mom complained about the wait and the buzzer and we got free cocktails and an appetizer out of it. The cocktail was AMAZING! It was a caramel rim with coconut and chocolaty tasting. Totally worth more than it cost us (free)! We headed home after that as it was starting to get pretty chilly and we were tired! The next day, even though my mom just wanted to shop!, I insisted we do something DC related! Well, first we went shopping, and to go where I thought it would be the most convenient, we had to take a train to catch a bus (that was actually pretty easy) and then we got off and went to a Walmart, though not the Walmart I was intending on going to! But after that we went to Applebee's for lunch, CVS to purchase a smartcard for our bus fare, and then while waiting for the bus, we had a homeless guy (we assumed based on his other homeless guy friends) pass out drunk and hit his head on the bus stop...so we got to see some action! Anyway, then the bus came and we took it a little further down to the Michael's! After Michael's we were both exhausted from the amount of walking (the bus stop was probably about a 10 minute walk to the Michael's shopping center) and then back. But I still wanted to make sure we did something DC-ish so she couldn't go home and say that she didn't! We dropped our stuff back off at the hotel and caught the metro to the National Portrait Gallery (one of my favorites for some reason!). Luckily, it is one of the latest ones that stay open, so we got there with just over an hour to explore--not long enough by most standards, but when you've been doing nothing but walking all day, that is plenty of time! We both really enjoyed all the President's portraits, especially the captions that told sort of interesting facts rather than large sweeping ideas. I thought the way they presented the information was far different from what I would have expected, but I liked it and so did my mom! They were having some sort of gallery opening party so there were a lot of people walking around dressed up really nice, and we peaked in on the party--I think I want to be in the museum business now! Wow! Anyway, around the museum closing, we were headed back to the metro station, but it was seriously cold that night! A big cold front was coming in and I was not prepared (I actually wore my mom's crocs with socks because that was far better than all my open-toed shoes! And I only had a light jacket--my heaviest for Grenada that I won't ever wear here, but I'm sure it looked light in comparison to the ear muffs and gloves everyone around me had.). We stopped in to get some chili from a place that just smelled so great! We should have gotten two cups because that stuff was amazing! When we were leaving, the wind was so bad that my mom got attacked by the sign that was trying to fly away. It was bitter cold. We made it back to the metro station, took the train like pros, and luckily, the metro stop is super close to our hotel! Once inside and under the blankets, we ate the chili, then ordered room-service pizza, and called it a night!

The next morning started really early, as it was departure day! We took the train to the airport, even though my mom wanted to take a taxi! (I should have listened!) My flight took off just after 7, so we left on the first train our around 5:30. The metro stop is pretty much in the airport, but the time just wasn't quite earlier enough to get to the airport for a 7am departure. I was panicking the whole time that I wasn't going to make it! I printed my boarding pass, checked my bag and headed to the security line, hoping I'd see my mom somewhere (who was trying to get her noon flight bumped up). After I got through security, I made it to my gate with plenty of time! And then called my mom to see if she was in the same terminal at least! She had made it through security and was coming to find me! While I was nervous whether or not I would make the flight from the standby list, I noticed that I no longer had my passport! I couldn't find it! We went crazy, tearing apart all my stuff, retracing my steps, hoping I would find it! I made it through security with it because that was my form of identification! Well, without having to relive the terror, let me just jump forward. I did make it off the stand by list (and was offered a first class ticket!), but I had to decline because I couldn't find my passport. My mom had almost missed her flight (which was like a 7:10am and would have worked perfectly if I made mine!) because she was helping me look! I sent her on her way and did a little bit of crying in the bathroom before I knew what I had to do. I found out where the passport office was and left the airport to go find it. Luckily I had called Mark on Google Voice to let him know and he had calmed me down. I arrived around 9am, did the whole application, went next door to the strategically placed passport photo company and got a couple of awful photos that I paid way too much for, then headed back to the passport office and turned in my application. I was given a number and told to wait in the seating area. I only had to wait a few minutes before my number was called (there were like 20 people waiting before I got there, so I was very shocked and happy about that). At the window, the guy asked me what happened, etc. He wanted to make sure it was gone and not just lost in my backpack. After convincing him that it wasn't (I think the part about sending my bag through the x-ray in search of it really convinced him), he "approved" me for a new passport and got me on the list for the 2pm pickup. I was very fortunate to be in a city where they have a 1 day passport printing office (and you don't always get it in one day even with that criteria) and that I was flying on a Friday, because they wouldn't have been opened over the weekend. Anyway, I knew there wasn't a flight I would make it on to get to Miami in time to make it home that day; it was official, I was going to be staying somewhere overnight and my travel plans were officially altered. I went to a cafe near by (I had too much carry on stuff to be doing much) and I logged into my online classes. I was at least going to get some work done since this was messing with my perfectly laid out plans! After spending a couple hours doing that, I was hungry and cold (from sitting near the door where the outlet was). I went next door to Potbelly's (reminds me of TCU since there is one pretty much on campus!) and had, of course, the PB&J. It's mouthwateringly delicious on their toasted bread! I sat by the window which let in a lot of heat and was between the doors and enjoyed eating my childish sandwich in my grown-up situation. After that, I couldn't kill any more time before 2, so I headed back (it was about 1:30) to the passport office. I wasn't the only one there waiting for the 2 o'clock pickup! Several other people had gone up to the counter, came back and said, "nothing is ready yet." Well, 2:00 rolled by and they were just collecting receipts because nothing was ready! Finally around 2:45, they called my name and presented me with my favorite Government document ever! (though I much preferred my other picture....) Matt had called me at some point to ask why I was a "no fly" in the system. I felt terrible; I am using his buddy pass and I am a reflection of him. I really didn't want anything to get back to him because it could make him look bad. He said it was no problem at all, and the airline counter said it wasn't a problem, but I felt bad. He had already done so much for me (to fly for taxes only back home (and I would have been first class DC to MIA and MIA to GND!). Anyway, he said that I could fly DCA to MIA, MIA to San Juan, and SJU to GND tomorrow morning with a pretty good likelihood of making it off the standby list. I asked him if I could get to Miami tonight because DC was just too cold for me to stay any longer! I headed back to the airport to see what my options were now! I ended up figuring out that when a cold front comes in, and its a Friday, a lot of people want to make it to Miami on standby. But like Matt said, I got on the last flight of the day (around 8pm) and stepped foot in Miami late at night. It wasn't home; Mark wasn't there to greet me, but the humid 80 sure felt better than the low 30s and potential for snow overnight! After some frustrations of finding a hotel, I ended up at a Marriot where I bargained for free breakfast to be included and had a comfy bed and a nice room all to myself. In the morning, I was going to head back to the airport even though my first of two flights (curse the MIA to GND flight for only going every other day!) didn't leave until 2. I was going to make it home! Without too much drama, everything went as planned. I got some more school work done (on my iPhone since the MIA airport didn't have free wifi...). In San Juan, I used a wedding shower present we got from Matt to lounge around in the Admiral's Club lounge (which was AWESOME) until I boarded the last flight headed for home! My friend, Becky, graciously picked me up from the airport and I paid her in candy, a very reasonable trade for both of us! I was finally home, at some odd hour, and glad to be there! The one extra day had cost me taxes on an extra leg of the flight, a hotel room, a couple of extra meals, the cost of a new "expedited" passport, the price of the passport photos, and extra two rides on the metro, my chance to play in the kickball tournament, the SO midterm social, the SO Halloween party, a lot of crying and emotional poise, but in return I got a great story, some time to reflect on being by myself, an appreciation for how far being nice can get you (I wouldn't have made it home without my sincerity and manners!), a mini-vacation in Miami, and something that I attribute to the "everything happens for a reason" plan that I may never know what it was.

And like everyone I interacted with that day, we just couldn't understand where the darn thing went! Things don't usually disappear. I only went to the bathroom and I left all my stuff with my mom. The only thing I could think of was that my pillow fell under my seat and maybe my passport did, too, and someone else must have picked it up and not turned in! Stolen? Was my passport stolen? I just wanted to know what happened! Well, yes and no. My mom found it in her carry on bag when she was packing the next day. I had warned her that if she does find it she might not want to tell me about it! But I'm glad she did because it is the perfect end to my story! The missing passport has been found; however, the bar code strip was deactivated making it invalid, so I will have to carry around the one with the awful photo of me and my puffy eyes and lost hope. It is a story, just like all the other stamps I will get in my passport. :)

Is it alright if I tag along to your conference again next year, Mom?!