Inauguration Day After - Wednesday, January 21st

HOMEWARD BOUND

We had a 10.40am flight out of Ronald Reagan International Airport. We knew it was going to be crowded, so our goal was to get out the door no later than 7.00am. We walked out of Chris' building at 7.05am. We wanted to catch a cab, but the apartment concierge couldn't get someone on the phone. We decided we'd head towards the Metro and see if we could hail a cab on the way. It was freezing cold once again! The wonderful Karma of this awesome trip continued. A cabby saw us come out of the building, turned back around, and caught up to us at the end of the block. We jumped right in hardly believing our good fortune.

This is a side note....

Washington DC and cities like it have an incredible advantage in transportation. Between the public rail/subway, buses, and cabs, you never have to drive anywhere. And, it's reasonable! We never paid more than $25 for 3-4 people in a cab. This trip to the airport, which is in VA, was $22. We could do better in the South.

This is a small snapshot of what we ran into at the airport. The line to check a bag coiled up into itself over and over again. There was a skycap check, but that line was huge too and it was cold! But, we were 3 hours early, so we cheerfully got into line. 2 hours later, we were a little nervous. We found out that if you didn't have to check bags, there was another shorter line, but with our ball gown, uniform, and cold weather gear, we had no choice. We got our boarding pass and headed to security a little before 10.00am. We were really nervous at this time, but security was no sweat. Apparently, the bottle neck was all at the bag check area. We chatted with one of the security officers that was just giddy. He'd seen more celebrities come through that morning than he'd seen in his life and he was having a ball. In fact, Don King (boxing promoter with the big hair) was going through right next to us. I tried to grab my camera after going through security to catch a picture, but was to slow. Big guy just talking up a storm to everyone, just like he does on TV. Really funny!


We got to our flight right before boarding. It's funny, even with the long lines, people missing flights, etc., everyone is still just so happy. You could tell most everyone was tired (See happy/tired picture of Ang to the left), but there is such a sense of optomism and joy all around. We're happy to leave the cold and the crowds, but we're going to miss the energy. Let's hope we can bring some of this back home to the Florida Panhandle! The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Long lay over again in Charlotte, but a chance to read and rest. Arrived in Pensacola a little before 6.00pm. Surprise! It's cold here to!


Great to get home and see the kids again. We really miss them every time we travel. It won't be to long before we can start doing trips like this with them. Can't wait! Gave them their sourvenirs that of course they just had to put on. One last picture of the trip. Yes, we have brainwashed them. :)

This concludes the trip, and an amazing trip it was! There are so many to thank that I can't do it here. Look for one more post to come. My open thank you letter.