Day 7: Homecoming

Note that these entries are part of a series that I am posting after the fact. (Sorry about that: I did not have any time to find a free WiFi spot to even check my email.) Please use the search box in the page header to look for other daily entries about my inaugural travels and activities.

Ah, the final day. School has already started, and we have missed several days. Still, these seven days have been fun-filled and memorable. Today, we focus on packing our bags, and one last excursion into the city.

Our flight was not scheduled to depart until 5:30 pm, so Diana and I decided to hit up the Capitol Building, which had thus far eluded our many trips around the city. Upon our arrival, we passed the Visitor Center, and walked all the way around to the North side of the huge complex. There, we were greeted by security that asked us our purpose and destination. Unready to give any sort of response, I blurted out, “We want to take a picture of the dome, inside.” To that, the guard quickly responded to my strange inquiry that we would need to be on a guided tour. Alas, our day could not withstand that, nor could we. So, at that, we returned to our hotel and readied our bags.

The whole family, now larger, gathered up our many suitcases, carry-ons, laptop bags, et cetera, and started our trek back down Downtown D.C. to the Farragut West metro stop. In no time, and $1.35 later, we found ourselves at Reagan International Airport. We had some coffee at the usual Starbucks, and moseyed through security.

Our flight plans took us back through Denver, where we left my Dad, Allison, Cory, and Sean Louis. Diana and I continued our trip back to Reno, arriving at 10:30 pm Pacific Time. The second leg of the trip was rather full, and we managed to get seats in Business Class (those posh, comfortable seats with lots of leg room) in asking to sit together.

At that, I am posting the last of this series (rather delayed, I know) about my Inaugural trip. In retrospect, I believe that we encountered much less political than historical. We did have the run-in with the right-wing Pro-life protesters, and some of the family saw a few political notables like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, but for the most part, we just had fun as a family and visited all the great sites around the city. Seeing my uncle, which only happens every so often—as he is so busy—was a lot of fun, and I will be staying with him for a few days in a week when I fly back for more medical school interviews. So long.