July 19

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After less than a week at home, we were off on another expedition.  The Summer National American Contract Bridge League tournament was in Washington, DC, this year.

July is not the best time to visit Washington.  It is HOT (and HUMID), and it is CROWDED.  If they asked me, I would tell them to have the tournament in Washington in the springtime.  Or maybe in the fall (but that's at Thanksgiving, so maybe Washington is CROWDED then, too).  But ... July?  No.  Just no.

Ah well.

Another nice Michigan summer sky, over Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

I can't remember, after all this time (writing this on August 4), why I took so few pics on the way to Washington.  But I only took a few.

This is Cleveland.  (Thank you, Google Maps "Earth" view -- you make it so much easier to figure out where I was when I took pics from airplanes!)

And that was that, for pics from the sky. 

Our trip from BWI to Washington, DC, Union Station was delayed by a bad traffic accident.  We were not involved, thank goodness, but traffic was jammed for miles and miles and miles.

It was late enough when we got to Union Station that we grabbed supper in the food court there, before tackling the Metro (subway system) with all of our Stuff. 

The red line goes from Union Station to the Zoo stop, so it was easy get to the hotel, which was right across the street from the Metro Stop (but up a significantly steep hill).

We checked in, and asked for a QUIET room with a view.  We were victorious.  Look! 

We were between two wings of hotel rooms (you see one at left), but they were relatively far apart, and when we looked straight out from our room (looking south), we got a very nice view of Rock Creek Park (the green area you see above the buildings at the bottom), and we could even see the top of the Washington Monument (when it wasn't quite as hazy as it is in this image).

Hooray.  It pays to ask for what you want.

(Noting that in Des Moines, when we shifted closer to the zoo and the science museum, they put us across from the elevator and right next to the ice machine.  !!!  REALLY???  You're not dead full and you put someone there????  We turned around and went straight back downstairs and said "No thank you.  We need a quiet room, preferably with a view!"  Then they moved us to the perfectly acceptable (much quieter!) room we actually stayed in.)

I'll say again -- it pays to ask for what you want!

In Washington, we started straight out by asking, and saved some time and annoyance.  Note to self -- ask first, rather than getting the noisy room with no view and having to go back downstairs to try again!



We left the Stuff in the (quiet) room (with a view!), and went downstairs to check out the bridge-playing area.  Here is what it looks like before a bridge tournament starts.  This room was an odd shape, but the expert estimate is 250 tables.  That's a lot of bridge!  And this wasn't the only room anyone played in.

After wandering around the public areas of the hotel a bit more, we called it a day.

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