The amazing thing about going to the same place twice, is that no two days are the same. The light, the weather, the people…..always ensure a different experience.

I landed at 6.45 am yesterday morning, collected the car, a Rav 4 and headed into the city. Thank heavens for satnavs…..you can go anywhere! The trip into the city was during peak hour traffic, so it took a while. But the worst was yet to come….roadworks, the same construction areas as when we where we here in 2014. Slap bang in the middle of the parking garage location. Now Daniel, my trusted Garmin is nowhere near as smart as Waze…but is infinitely more reliable. I also did not have a data card yet to use Waze. So I literally drove around the block (big traffic congested construction site blocks) 6 times, before I figured out where the garage was.

But that was worth it, the garage was about 200m from my apartment, I did a quick recce and figured the best options out. So no problems. Soon it was 10.30am and the pizza shop opened and I went in and had a pizza slice and a coke zero…..yep…as good as I remembered. Then I headed off to find an AT&T store to sort out a phone and data card. I had to kill time until 3pm when I could check in to the apartment. Lordy, but it was an interminably long time to wait. I was tired and grubby and heading to grumpy. Then I found a home network shopping store…. my restraint was admirable, I could have bought a gazillion things. From there it was off to Walmart to people gaze kill more time.

Next time I will definitely book the night before as a check in, when I have such an early arrival….I just left it too late this time. Having been traveling for nearly 30 hours before I could have a shower was not fun. Then to add insult to injury, the check in guy arrived 30 minutes late. I had so eloquently raised my displeasure with the call centre, that I was given a $75 refund on my booking payment. Eventually got into the apartment, which is really great. One bedroom with a great kitchen/lounge area and massive en suite bathroom. It also has a laundry room with washer and dryer. The view is straight into the construction pit unfortunately. After check in, I returned the car to Hertz at Union station- about 1.5km away.

Kudo’s to the guy at Hertz- I had prepaid a tank of petrol, because I knew I would not find fuel in the city. When he saw that I had only done 40 miles- he refunded me $30 foe the fuel. So I had a great day of refunds. I walked back to the apartment and hells bells it was hot and humid. I finally got to have a shower at 4.45pm…..local time….that is 10.45pm your time.

Finally refreshed, I went for a walk around the area….popping in at chemists and grocery stores as I love to do. Also to the Spy Museum. Another slice of pizza for dinner and I was in bed by 8pm….you know when you are dizzy from exhaustion. I did my best to stay awake until 10pm…..but finally gave in to the sandman just after nine. Good thing because at 2pm I got a call saying my alarms had gone off. Good old Debora forgot that I would be away and arrived for work. So it was Chubb, then the alarm…eventually I phoned Funcle to sort it out for me. Then sleep was a battle. So I am tired still!

This morning I caught a bus to Georgetown….so beautiful. Had a walk around and then did the Potomac river cruise. It was really a great little cruise….saw all the monuments from the waters side. The low flying planes coming in to land at Reagan International were awesome to see. Yes Keith, I dodged them all. From there I headed back into the centre and walked through Chinatown to the museums. I spent time in the Natural history museum, the Space and travel museum. In the space museum, they have an exhibition if art during the first world war…..that really impressed me. Unfortunately all the simulators were closed…maybe next time. I had lunch at Ollie’s Trolley – a cheese burger! Very delish. Funny how my bigoted brain works- I had no interest in seeing the White House, knowing that the Trumpster is ensconced there. I walked along Constitution avenue to the Capitol.

This was the highlight of my Washington trip this time. Some seriously nasty clouds had blown in. From the Washington monument side…blazing sun and over the Capitol building these dark clouds. Hey maybe Trump was there!!! Looking across the reflective pools was some of the most spectacular natural lighting I have ever seen. My pics will speak foe themselves. I could not leave as the light kept changing and the reflections became so intense…even a raft of ducks (yes I googled that collective noun) came past and adding to the drama. I then walked home, 15 065 steps for the day. Dinner was early, another pizza slice. Did the washing and packed up for tomorrow. I fly to Minneapolis in the early afternoon, leave for the airport at 11.30am. So the morning will be in the area, doing the ironing and sorting out some pics.

Anyhooo….now I am tired. Chat again in the morning