Washington, D. C. We're here. May 7, 2012

I left Ingersoll early this morning so Peggy and I could meet for lunch and we needed to be checked in by 2:30. It didn't take long for things to go wrong.  My airline boarding pass wouldn't print, because my name was on the ticket and my initial was on the passport.. So I got in line. Then the computers went down so I got out of line and we went to eat but the restaurants are on the other side of security, so I went back into line. I was about 50 people back from where I had been. The computers came back up and a roving agent said to try the machines again.  I did and it worked. So off we went through security and sat down and had a sandwich and a beer. I thoought the excitement was over but no just beginning. A short time later we heard there was a delay with the plane.  The plane had been held up and hadn't landed. I phoned the hotel to tell them we would be late. Finally we boarded but half an hour late.
No place to put the luggage near our seats, but lots of room and seats near the back. The attendant let us pick new seats near the luggage. Sat down to relax only to find a 45 minute delay because the plane had landed "hard" and had to be inspected. Air Canada passed out earbuds to everyone and turned on the entertainment. Once we got started things wenbt quickly - too quickly we didn't finish the movie so hopefully the same movies are showing when we go home.
As we flew in to Washington, we flew over the Pentagon and we could see the Washington Monument out the window. Very impressive to see a low rise city with lots of greenery. Even the downtown streets have trees set in spaces in the sidewalk.
We took a taxi to the hotel. Ended up it was more cost effective then two shuttle fares. The hotel staff was great and gave us a bunch of handouts for restauants, nearby stores, TV channels, wi-fi passwords, and a downtown street map with all the attractions marked. We checked in, took the bags up to the room, The room isn't huge but about the same siuze as in Paris. Bathroom is a good size and there is a small closet. We have a window on E street and air-conditioning.
We went out and checked out the immediate area. We found a souvenir store and decided to eat at the hotel instead of wandering around looking for a restaurant. It was almost eight when we arrived because of all the delays.
We had a couple of beer with dinner and went upstairs to bed. It was a full day.