Capital City

This week it's the fifth annual SpringOne conference, but this year it's in New Orleans in October rather than Florida in December. I didn't go last year - a combination of no holiday entitlement left and no money, plus the fact that I'd been for the previous three years - but with the change of location this year, I decided to go. We knew there was no way we could get a direct flight there from the UK, so we took the opportunity to do something we've been talking about for years - at least, since we started watching the West Wing - and spent the weekend in Washington DC. Turns out there was a flaw in our plan though, as none of the direct flights from DC to New Orleans was with anyone who partnered with our trans-Atlantic BA flight, so we ended up connecting in Dallas, but it was pretty painless, as connections go.


It was pouring down when we got to DC on Friday afternoon. In fact, just walking 5 or 6 blocks from a restaurant back to our hotel was enough to soak Rob's shoes and socks right through, so he resolved to find a pair of slightly more waterproof shoes on Saturday morning. In true man-on-a-shopping-mission style, he walked into the men's shoes department of Macy's, picked up the first pair he saw, tried them on, liked them and bought them. And put them on straight away, leaving his rain-soaked shoes at the store. He remarked that these new shoes were great because they struck a balance between smart and casual - they didn't look out of place with jeans but they were equally good with smart trousers, so he would probably wear them next week at the conference, instead of wearing the shoes I had packed for him. That was when I remembered I had forgotten to pack his more formal shoes…


Weather-wise, Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday. After Macy's, we got the Metro over to Capitol South and had a look around the Library of Congress, then we walked across the road to the Capitol Building and did the free tour. We walked up the Mall towards the Washington Monument but it started raining really heavily so we ducked into the Air & Space Museum to escape the rain for a while. Turned out everyone else had the same idea - it was packed. So we got the Metro up to a micro-brewery Rob had found and had a late lunch. We were pretty wet and cold by then - we had brought waterproof jackets with hoods etc, but once my jeans were wet through and my legs got cold I started feeling a bit fed up. Plus we were both quite jet-lagged so we made our way back to the hotel via the White House, got in our pyjamas, watched a movie, ordered milk & cookies from room service and went to bed at 9pm. Bliss.


Sunday was colder than Saturday, but it was dry, which made for a much better sightseeing experience. We started out at the Jefferson Memorial and walked to the Lincoln Memorial via the Washington Monument and World War II Memorial, then we walked across the bridge and into Arlington Cemetery. We got to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier just in time to watch the changing of the guard ceremony, and we also saw the Kennedy graves. Then we walked up to the Iwo Jima Memorial, jumped on the Metro at Rosslyn (remarking that we hadn't realised that the place where President Bartlet got shot was quite so close to Washington) and rode back to our hotel.


I loved the Jefferson Memorial. It was far more beautiful - and less crowded - than the Lincoln Memorial. I really liked Washington generally: it was quite European in its feel; it reminded me of somewhere like the Ringstrasse in Vienna. Well worth a visit.

Next stop: NOLA.