The Innwashington

We are having a wonderful stay here in Western Pennsylvania! We decided to make the long 6-hr drive across the state all in one sitting on Friday night. We've booked three nights here at Candlewood Suites. And, in fact, due to a changed schedule, it's both possible and advantageous for us to stay here an additional two nights, so that gives us five nights here in this suite.<br>We stayed at a Candlewood the weekend ...

... it hard<br>to get around as there were so many small highways and freeways competing for space<br>and crossing each other to include the numerous bridges. Several one-way<br>streets only added to the confusion. A<br>number of the tourist attractions were closed for the season and the main parks<br>not only lacked color and cleanliness but were also under construction.<br><br>

... very crowded and we found it hard to get around as there were so many small highways and freeways competing for space and crossing each other to include the numerous bridges. Several one-way streets only added to the confusion. A number of the tourist attractions were closed for the season and the main parks not only lacked color and cleanliness but were also under construction.<br><br>

... It seemed very crowded and we found it hard to get around as there were so many small highways and freeways competing for space and crossing each other to include the numerous bridges. Several one-way streets only added to the confusion. A number of the tourist attractions were closed for the season and the main parks not only lacked color and cleanliness but were also under construction.

... to leave. Kevin, predictably, was sitting waiting for us, presumably bored with the outing for the day.<br><br>Back on the bus, and before I knew it, the taxi was waiting and we were on our way to the airport. We quickly said goodbye and I snapped a couple of RIDICULOUS ads for the PGH Sky Mall in the terminal shuttle "Forget the news! Go Shopping!"... It never fails to amaze me, how retarded people are.<br><br>Read the rest, to find out just how retarded I am in the next entry....<br>

... the subway were in their own little MP3 world but in Washington it seemed that every second person I passed seemed to be on their cell phones. We thought it might be that people in Washington had more friends than people in New York, or maybe not? (Maybe someone from Washington can comment?) We pretty much spent the entire next day walking between the Capitols major sights passing the Lincoln and War memorial, picnicking at "The Mall" or gigantic obelisk, the ...

... made the waiting go very quickly. The boys also enjoyed the tall tank-like bus vehicles that transported us from the main terminal to gate terminal. The flights were smooth, though Ratko had to sit next to a sick man, which gave him a cold 2 days later, but we were home so we didn't really matter. Also, 3 of our 4 bags didn't make our connecting flight in Denver, so we didn't get them until the next ...

... tour was pretty short, just 6 rooms: the library, the vermeil room, the red room, the blue room, the green room and the state dining room (which looked pretty small to seat 140 people). I asked an employee when was the last time they had used the green room, thinking he would say 1954 or something, but to our surprise he said, "Monday, for the NCAA college basketball champions. If we have time, we'd like to go back to take pictures of the outside, but who ...

... thinking about this I thought that my buddy R. should probably dislocate his finger soon because its the only way he'll ever score. (Sorry R., just kidding)<br><br><br>In other news, and B. has heard this already, I ran into another good old college chum in DC. It was C. McMoptop. He was, amazingly, leaving the George Washington U. metro stop at the same time as me. He, though, had two ladies with him, while I, of course was quite alone. I said, C., what the heck are you doing here ...

... he couldn't believe we were here, watching a game outside the White House. I was a bit confused, never having had to deal with such an outburst before, but luckily he calmed down quickly enough and things got back to normal. There were quite a lot of tourists milling around outside the grounds of the White House, which is the closest you can get to it without arranging a tour. We walked around the perimeter, and had some lunch in a sandwich bar just up the road. After lunch, we ...