Sunday 21 January - Washington DC to Boston

Today marked a landmark day for Ryan Moore – the first time I’d seen snow actually fall. I’d seen in on the ground in Boston on New Years Eve, but had never seen it come from above. It wasn’t overly cold today – certainly it was colder on Saturday – but that seems to be the case when snow falls. For there to be snow, there needs to be cloud cover. The real cold days that we’ve experienced have all been days without a cloud in the sky, so I’m quite happy for it to be snowing most of the winter. As it has been put already, the Australian contingent were like kids in a toy store, or like Michael Jackson in a kindergarden – quite excited. Outside the National Air & Space Museum, kids waiting for a bus were putting together snowballs and having snowfights. The biggest kid or all, Libe Melville, joined in and hurled one or two at me too.

Myself & Libe didn’t do a lot of sightseeing today – after a late-ish wakeup, we took in the National Museums of Air & Space, and the American Indian (although the latter was done only briefly, due to flight schedules for myself and Becky).

Highlights of the Air & Space Museum:

• The Apollo 13 modules, which confirmed my suspicions that the crew members weren’t claustrophobic, because it was tiny.
• The World War exhibits – I’m happy to declare myself as fascinated by the war stories, particularly WWII
• The nearby American History museum is currently closed for renovations, however it had a temporary exhibit in the Air & Space Museum. This had the Seinfeld Puffy Shirt and Jackie Kennedy signature white dress (although I swear it must be Zan Melville’s older sister in the photo), amongst other things.

As has come to be expected now, the trip home was full of fun and games, best described by the following itinerary:

• 3pm – Left Museum to head to hotel via subway, pack up and walk to Rebecca & Becky’s hotel (The Quincy) to jump on shuttle
• 4pm – Left the Quincy
• 4:10pm – Drop Libe & Carly off at the Bus Terminal
• 4:50pm – Expected arrival at Dulles International Airport based on normal activities
• 5:30pm – Actual arrival at Dulles International Airport, due to heavy snowfalls on the roads out, and a ridiculous number of earlier accidents, that had been cleared since but still were causing delays. Immediately find out flight had been rescheduled to 7pm
• 6:30pm – Scheduled departure time
• 7:00pm – Rescheduled departure time
• 9:30pm – Boarded, followed soon by ‘de-icing’ of the plane (which involves a truck outside being used to spray something over it)
• 10:25pm – Plane leaves gate
• 10:38pm – Off the ground
• 11:45pm – Arrive Boston
• 1:20pm - Bed
• Never – Advised of delay, any reschedulings, reasons for delay, apologies from the airline, advised of the fact that our plane was boarding. That is the most disappointing part. Communication has been ordinary from these airlines to say the least, but it appears as though all of them do it so the public just expect it. There’s no doubt Australia’s airlines are just as good.
• Never – checked for ID! The luggage security checks were typically thorough at Dulles – but anyone could have walked onto that plane anyway.

At least they had live cable on the plane again, so we were able to continue viewing the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, after we saw 3/4’s of it in the terminal. Although there was disappointment on the plane when the signal had to be turned off for the inflight crew to perform the usual safety demonstrations, while a crucial 4th quarter play was in process (which resulted in a NE touchdown). The eventual winner was – Pete McCormick’s wallet (thanks to the Colts)