Washington DC travel help

[caja-dglh]

Washington DC travel help

I have been in DC during a snowstorm (Snowmageddon in fact). They are incredibly bad at driving in snow - unfathomable stuff like jamming the accelerator to the floor to start at lights, subsequently fish tailing into another car that was simply abandoned in the middle of the street.

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

It's a parable for how Washington approaches a lot of unfamiliar problems.

[Ginger Yellow]

Washington DC travel help

How is it unfamiliar, though. DC regularly gets heavy snowfall.

[matt j]

Washington DC travel help

The ability for the DC region to fuck up weather events is perhaps spectacularly underrated. Every winter is like another in a series of reruns of the year before.

[WOM]

Washington DC travel help

Do people typically switch to winter tires in that part of the US?

[caja-dglh]

Washington DC travel help

It isn't tires - I drove a Prius there on all-season's. It is being completely stupid to what snow is.

[G-Man]

Washington DC travel help

ursus arctos wrote:
dglh is right in that if you have any interest in Air and Space, that is likely the right museum to pick

When I was in DC, imp took me to the Air and Space Smithsonian. I don't really care much about planes and rockets and stuff like that, so obviously I wasn't going to have much fun there.

Boy, was I wrong! I loved that place. The original Kitty Hawk! The original all kinds of famous planes and space stuff. I was mesmerised without having an interest in aviation stuff. I can only imagine how great it is for people who are interested.

[G-Man]

Washington DC travel help

Oh, and as for transport to the perfectly named Dulles Airport, rather than a cab I took an airport shuttle. It was substantially cheaper.

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

G-Man wrote: Oh, and as for transport to the perfectly named Dulles Airport, rather than a cab I took an airport shuttle. It was substantially cheaper.

Cheers, although as someone else will be paying that's less of an issue. It's a work meeting; fly out Tuesday, meeting Wednesday and Thursday, fly back Friday night.

As an aside, I had no idea how much further Washington is away from London. I'd assumed it was about the same as New York, maybe half an hour more.

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

I've found that both North Americans and Europeans tend to underestimate distances like that because they don't realise how different the latitudes are.

New York, for example, is roughly the same latitude as Rome, and Washington is roughly the same as Lisbon.

Whereas London is roughly the same latitude as Calgary.

[San Bernardhinault]

Washington DC travel help

My experience of the immigration lines at Dulles Airport tell me that you should steel yourself for one of the most hideous experiences of your life when you arrive. And it's one of the rare times it's worth fighting to get off the plane a little earlier.

It's also about as convenient for downtown DC as Stansted is for the West End. It's a dreadful airport whose only redeeming features are the lovely Saarinen building and that it's close to Udvar-Hazy.

As for DC in the Snow, I was there in about 3 mm of snow last year and it wasn't quite as bad as I expected. But it did have the same air San Diego traffic has when it rains. Nobody knows what they're doing at all, but sometimes you're lucky that nobody's crashed yet so you can get home safely.

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

Well I did Dubai and Sydney last week (48 hours airborne, 32 hours on land) and Washington is at least as humid today as Sydney was.

Dulles was fine. Quiet flight, landed an hour early, through immigration in minutes. Not sure if I was supposed to declare the salt and vinegar Discos in my luggage.

Currently having a pint in a craft bar somewhere central. ID'd for the first time in 25 years. And Fallout 3 lied to me, The Mall is a lot fucking longer than I expected.

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

Hope you weren't planning to use the Metro tomorrow

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

Nope (walking distance from WBG). Why?

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

X-post from WTF? Thread

he entire Washington DC Metro system is going to be shut down for 29 hours starting tomorrow for an "emergency investigation of equipment" following a cable fire that resulted in serious delays this morning.

This evening's rush hour is going to be interesting.

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

Ahhh. No, mercifully I'm staying and working centrally.

Some kind of hockey event going on judging by the number of red jerseys. Cardinals?

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

The Capitals wear red at home and urge their fans to



They are the best team in the league this season and can clinch a playoff spot by drawing with Carolina tonight.

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

America

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

Nice. I think it might get a bit celebratory in here.

[San Bernardhinault]

Washington DC travel help

Crusoe wrote:

Dulles was fine. Quiet flight, landed an hour early, through immigration in minutes. Not sure if I was supposed to declare the salt and vinegar Discos in my luggage.

Maybe Dulles has finally changed.

The Discos question is one that perpetually bothers me. Clearly I never declare sealed, wrapped, processed food. It's not what they're after. But there's always a nagging part of me just slightly worried that hordes of USCIS agents are going to descend on me for sneaking a Double Decker into the country.

Despite this nagging fear, nobody has ever asked a question when putting my bags through the agricultural scanner, even when I've had apples and sandwiches and things that are very not-sealed sneaking across the border.

[ursus arctos]

Washington DC travel help

It's actually the Customs and Border Patrol agricultural specialists that would be after you.

They do tend to pay more attention when you check the "Have you been on a farm?" box (as we do every time we visit family in Slovenja)

[San Bernardhinault]

Washington DC travel help

I play fast-and-loose with that question, too. If I've been hiking in some farmland, I've "not been on a farm". If I've rented an airbnb barn on someone's farm I've "not been on a farm". Only if I've actually been in the cattle shed - which is very rare - do I tick that box.

[Crusoe]

Washington DC travel help

Exactly my feeling. I assumed they were worried about fresh produce or contaminants. But was still worried there'd be crisp-detecting beagles all over me.

(I don't think Dulles has changed, we were just lucky. My boss, who's been here a few times, said he was dreading customs and was amazed it was so unusually smooth.)