Arlington VA June 23d

Well today was the most stressful of all our days of the vacation so far, and parts were the most funny too. We had the worst ride possible from our Hotel in New York to the airport to pick up our car. First of all the man could hardly speak English and I don't think he had any idea what the white dotted lines going down the middle of the road meant. He was all over the road, on both sides and even drove down the middle several times. We almost got in a couple of accidents, one of them really scary! We were driving really fast on the highway and he decides to change lanes without looking and about ran some car off the road. The guy honks and our driver just puts up his hand and yells back. Our side mirrors were almost knocked off the van several times. Poor Amy was almost in tears and I was laughing so hard I had tears, I have no idea why! Well we finally get our car and thankfully Amy drives us to Arlington. It was touch and go getting out of New York with all the traffic and thousands of exits and on ramps but we did it. We had difficulty finding reservations in this town because of all the conventions going on and everything was booked up. We finally found one (last night) and reserved it. When we arrived today we were both very sceptical of the hotel from the outside but knew that it was slim pickings right now. After getting into the room we both started laughing. First of all there were no ramps anywhere in the hotel so all our luggage had to be taken up several steps to even get to the elevators that were 100 years old and slow. Getting to our room we discovered it had swamp coolers and old pink tile in the bathrooms. It smelled really old and musty. We were hungry so we dropped our luggage off and left to find something to eat. While eating I could tell Amy was just not in a good mood and very concerned about our room so I suggested we go back and check out and she instantly cheered up. We loaded everything back up into our little jeep and heading to Washington DC to sight see and possibly get a room. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial and Korean War Memorial. We drove around close to the White House and all the surrounding buildings but it was starting to get dark so we thought we better start looking for a place to stay. Everything was booked in DC too!! We drove and drove and drove some more. Poor Amy was getting a major headache. We finally found a Marriott that was originally booked solid but had a cancellation for tonight so we grabed it!! While checking in I asked the man what town we were in because they don't believe in signs in the East. He tell me we are in Arlington!! I just started laughing, we didn't realize how big Arlington was. It is now about 10:30 and we are finally relaxing. We don't have reservations tomorrow either so I hope it goes a whole lot smoother!!