Trip Report

[ToyotaDon]

Figured I'd start a little trip report here.

Yesterday, we flew to Virginia for a 2-week vacation. The flights were uneventful from Fresno to LA to Washington DC. We are travelling with carry-on luggage only with a 9, 6, and 4 year old. Kudos to my wife for packing enough into 5 roller bags and 5 backpacks. The kids did fine except for my 4-year old daughter falling down on the first escalator she tried to navigate and becoming very afraid of them after that.

My sister and her husband met us at Dulles airport and let us use their Honda Accord for the trip. After dinner at Red Robin, we headed for Fredericksburg, VA. The first cruiser sighting was an 80-series we saw from the airport parking lot. Then we made a wrong turn and I saw a built 80 in the Jammin Java parking lot in Vienna, VA.

I'd like to try and make it to Iron Pig Off Road tomorrow, so pics may be coming.

 

[ToyotaDon]

My 2 boys and I went by IPOR this morning, met 35inchoverdrive, who showed us around the place. My wife and daughter went to the hospital to see a new baby at the same time, so I didn't have the camera until they got back. Here's some stickers for me to share with you local guys when I get back. Put your dibs in now!

 

[D'Animal]

You really need to buy another camera.

Wife gets one and you get one.

How is the humidity?

 

[ToyotaDon]

You really need to buy another camera.

Wife gets one and you get one.

How is the humidity?

Actually, this is the new camera we just bought at Costco before the trip, a Canon Rebel T1i. The old Canon was starting to have trouble focusing, so we upgraded, but didn't bring the old one due to space constraints.

The humidity is up there. We played some softball today with friends, and it made for a sweaty day.

 

[ToyotaDon]

We stayed the first 3 nights with my wife's cousin and her family. Her husband's name is Robert, so remember that for a story I need to tell.

On Saturday, the local volunteer fire station had an open house, so we took the kids to check that out. My three are on the left, their boys are on the right.

Anyways, Fredericksburg is not real far from DC, and it's just South of Quantico Marine Base, so there tends to be a bit of military activity. We were outside on Thursday and saw Marine One, the President's helicopter fly over. Robert said they do the maintenance on it at Quantico, so that's probably what was going on.

Now for this story: Robert works for Goodwill, who has a laundry service that uses a disabled workforce, but in other aspects is just like any other laundry/linen service. He has some sort of supervisory position, but also has to drive a delivery truck at times. One of their accounts is Andrews Air Force Base, where they service the linen for Air Force One. He was commenting that he'd love to take me to work with him on Friday, since he would be going up there, but even he has to have security clearance to get in. Well, he came home from work telling us about the day's events. The POTUS was either in the plane, or en route, because the whole area was on a "ramp freeze", where nobody moves except those who have to. The guard who opened the gate for him either forgot that was going on, or just dropped the ball, because as soon as Robert went through the gate, shots were fired over his head. The guard told him, "Drop down," then when he did, more bullets went whizzing by. I'm not sure if he ever got to deliver the linens, but he sure was glad to stay alive a little longer.

 

[D'Animal]

Sounds like he needed to change his own linens.

 

[hudyhue]

Lol damn not the guys I want guarding me if the shot that many times and missed!

 

[35inchoverdrive]

ToyotaDon,

Thanks for stopping by the shop! I was glad to give you and your sons a tour. If any of you other guys are ever on this coast, feel free to stop by the shop.

 

[slickrock]

DIBS!!! I'll take one Donal.

 

[ToyotaDon]

DIBS!!! I'll take one Donal.

Come by anytime and pick one up.

We're home now, and that's a story in itself.

To keep things in order, I won't skip ahead. The next cool things we did was visit the Bass Pro Shop in Richmond with my brother-in-law. They have a huge aquarium/tank with fish that are found locally, in fact, all the decor is designed to fit with local topography (I think thats the right word).

In the LH center of that picture, you can see this guy peeking through the rocks.

He's nicely lit now, but one of the employees was saying when they first opened, this section of the stairway was less lit and became the source of many screams.

More of the local wildlife.

Here we are standing on a bridge that crosses the center of the store, but above our heads is a replica of the Natural Bridge that is one of the attractions of the Old Dominion state. The replica even includes the initials GW carved prominently into it. Wonder who put that there?

 

[ToyotaDon]

The next day, we headed up to Washington DC and got to spend some time at the Air & Space Museum. We were travelling with our 3 children and my wife's other cousin and her husband had their 2 small children, so the trip ended up less conducive to sightseeing and museum hopping. There were diaper breaks, bathroom breaks, and food breaks every few minutes, with a little of the above fit in between.

The Smithsonian Institute

The Capitol

The Washington Monument

People on Segways.

The steps of the Air and Space Museum (with yours truly and the kids).

 

[ToyotaDon]

We took in one IMAX 3D film, called Legends of Flight.




The only other cool thing from that day (besides riding the Metro Rail with everyone else leaving DC) was this tree frog that climbed up on our hosts' front door, trying to get at the bugs that came to the light.
Playing with Macro focus.

 

[ToyotaDon]

Last Saturday, we were at my youngest sister's house near Charlottsville, and my other sister & brother-in-law came with their 4-month old son. My brother-in-law brought his Walther P22, a box of ammo, and some targets, including a couple partially full paint cans.
My son hit the first one, with my BIL's help.

My younger son tried to hit the next one, but it ended up I was the one to do the deed.

 

[ToyotaDon]

Well, I better wrap this up with the story of how we got home.

First of all, I better put a couple of these in here:

Yes, it was all my fault. You see, I printed the boarding passes the night before, and I thought I remembered the departure time on Tuesday the 22nd, but I never looked at it on the paper.

We were scheduled to get to Fresno at 8:44 PM and I thought the departure was at 3:44 PM from Washington Dulles. We planned to be there by 2:00 which would have given us plenty of time, but we ended up stopping to get lunch, and use the restroom, so it wasn't until 2:45 that we walked into the airport.

My sister looked at the screen and said, "It's 305". I replied, "No, our flight number is 269 (see, I remembered that). Then she says, "No, the depature time is 3:05." That's when panic set in, we said quick goodbyes and headed down the escalators to security.

Remember my daughter's fear of escalators? Well, she faced her fears, aided by a little knowledge of where to step, and actually was excited about every escalator ride after that.

"Breezed" through security, then headed for the shuttle doors to get to the D terminal. Of course, the driver had to wait for the thing to totally fill, then make his way through the crowd to the front, and then drive us to the farthest reaches of the airport. We were all set, grabbed our bags, and hit the ground running.

There we were, wife in the lead, kids getting along the best they could with our help, and we screeched up to the gate exactly one minute after departure time. TOO LATE!!

Later we found out ticketed passengers have to be there at least ten minutes before departure, after that, those flying standby get to board.

I was off to wait in the customer service line, which turned out to be the "Express" desk, so then I had to go to the "Main Line" desk and wait again. I was nice to the lady, she was nice to me, but she said there wasn't much chance of getting all 5 of us on a plane to LAX anytime soon.

We waited another 2 hours to watch the next flight fill up, then the same for the one after that. Actually, that second flight had one empty seat, which the sixth person in line got, because everyone else was flying with companions.

By this time, it was almost 9:00 PM, so I headed off to the customer service desk again, asked nicely for confirmed seats on any flight the next day, and was given tickets for the flight exactly 24 hours after the one we were supposed to be on.

Fortunately, we know people in the DC area, and had one family pick us up in their 15-passenger Dodge van, and got to stay with another family who had bugged us to come visit them. I am also thankful for an understanding boss, who knows there was no point in getting upset about something that couldn't be changed.

So, the moral of the story is, always check your departure time, and if you plan to be there early, be there early.

 

[D'Animal]

I imagine that that is the last time you will ever have to check a departure time. I'll bet your wife will do it from now on. LOL