Another Story

It was midnight and we were finally in a taxi heading to our hotel room from the train station. We'd been in DC for two hours already but I had only seen the inside of Union Station and SOS had seen little more than I had: the Urgent Care of the hospital attached to the train station. But that is a different story.

Miraculously all of our luggage had fit into the trunk of the taxi and even more miraculously, our sick baby had fallen asleep in his car seat.

The streets were near empty and the route to our hotel curved around a number of museums and buildings recognizable as classic DC. We asked our driver if he knew which museums we were passing, and although he didn't know, he summoned some late night energy to tell us more about the captivating locations along our route.

We rounded a corner and before us, dramatically lit against the dark night sky, was the Lincoln Memorial. SOS and I both ooed in appreciation and our driver jumped in to tell us what sight we were enjoying "that is the Jefferson Memorial, I think."

SOS and I looked at each other and cringed. Our taxi driver had been so confidant of where our hotel was that he had refused directions. We sincerely hoped he had better knowledge about area hotels than internationally recognized monuments.

Believe you me, when we pulled into the parking lot, we were both relieved.

And not just because it was the close of a day that had included missing a train, a mad dash to make another connection, having lunch leak all over my pants scenting the day like dill pickles, being required to repack our bag to make a weight restriction, not finding the required bus because of a construction detour, a five mile march on Ft. McHenry, and another missed train connection.

But that is another story.