20140415 Tuesday Tax Day
Intentions: Fly in the afternoon to BWI (Baltimore), rent a car, eat at G&M Seafood (best crab cakes in MD), and stay the night near the Airport.
Actual: Son Bill took us in our van to the airport. The inbound flight was slightly late coming from Baltimore, so we were 25 minutes late getting into the air. We were in the clouds immediately. We bumped our way to Baltimore only to find it bumpy and rainy there as well.
Hertz was not in good form today. Got a Prius SUV which we’re still trying to figure out. It being computer-controlled, it has a mind of its own (or its programmers).
We went to lunch at G&M Seafood in Linthicum Heights MD. Dolores loves their crabcakes. It would have take three of me to finish the fettucini carbonara.
Miserable traffic as usual around DC. Rain didn’t help.
Checked in at Holiday Inn Manassas. Temp is 47*f, going down to 28*f tonight. Reminds us of why we left.
We should go out and look around, but we’ll do that tomorrow after the sun melts the frost. The room is warm and the place has a restaurant and bar. Might just stay in.
Just watched the weather news on Channel 9; same cast as when we left ten years ago. Talk about deja vu.
Later, we went to the bar for sandwiches and wine, then retired.
20140416 Wednesday
Intentions: Drive to Virginia, see friends, and drive to IAD (Washington Dulles) in time for our late flight to London.
Slept well. Enjoyed buffet breakfast in the Holiday Inn - simple but good food inexpensively.
Then we hit the road. We saw our old house, looking good. The neighborhood hasn’t changed much, but the trees are larger. We drove through downtown Manassas, where several stores have changed but many remain the same. The Olde Towne Inn, where we stayed the first night when moving there in 1978.
We drove past the old IBM plant, now Lockheed Martin and much reduced from what it was. I worked there at the right time and left at the right time. We continued out past the college where Dolores worked, and on to the upper-class town of Middleburg. We had lunch at the Red Fox Inn, which we used a lot for kids graduation parties and so forth. Still a nice place. Dolores had a great trout with caper-lemon cream sause and I had a terrific shrimp-chicken gumbo. The waitress was cute in listening to our stories of nice event celebrations in our past.
We ran out of ideas, so we decided just to go to the airport and wait, even though we’re quite early. We checked the car in at 1430 and arrived at the gate at 1600, about typical for IAD.
We pulled up in the boarding area for the plane before ours (I said we were early) to find it was cancelled; this will be a good place to read and do funny computer things.
We did computer things and read our books for a while. Then we decided to explore.
We found an “Information” volunteer and asked her a question that evolved into comparing the various river cruises we’ve been on with hers. We had a great conversation with her.
We found a wine palace called “Vino Volo” offering all sorts of wines. WE entered. The wine menu featured glasses from all over, and flights of three glasses ordered by grape or type. Dolores ordered a flight of three Malbecs, French, Argentine, and Australian (Margaret River). I ordered a flight of whites, Silvaner, Pinho Verde, and Chenin Blanc.
Dolores liked the Australian variety best, and I liked the Silvaner. So we each had a full glass of our favorites. That mellowed us nicely and we returned to the gate to read and wait.
Now, it’s approaching flight boarding time, so we’ll end today and resume tomorrow, farther on the way to Brussels.