Text 23491, 60 rader
Skriven 2012-04-09 15:14:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Feb trip report 519
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There are various places I go for refuge. When heading out
of BWI, of course the Shipps' hospitality is the sensible
option; out of Dulles, there are hotels that have amazing
weekend rates (40-60 bucks for fancy-named places) that give
me elite credits for way cheap, are quiet, and get me to the
airport on time. On this occasion, the Westin Dulles offered
me a $50 deal that included breakfast and an executive level
room, whatever that entails. I arrived earlyish and was issued
a nice room overlooking a bare area, graded into terraces and
stuck with a number of sticklike baby trees - what may someday
be a fairly attractive park, but not in my lifetime. There was
nothing particularly executivish about the room, but it was
pleasant and clean and modern.

The shuttle to the Udvar-Hazy museum leaves at scheduled
intervals with pick-up I forget, 3 hours later, something
like that. I felt a little silly being the only person on
the minibus, and my $1 tip seemed a little puny, though the
driver was thankful enough (Asians are known for not tipping,
so any tip out of an Asian is fairly gratefully acknowledged.
Actually, 80% of the world doesn't tip, but the American
presence is changing that). Great museum, and I toured all the
stuff I'd missed on my last visit, when I took a superbly
informative tour done by a docent who had been a Blackbird
pilot and who was focused largely on the military side of things,
which was great except that I missed a lot of the commercial
aviation stuff, which is more relevant to me. So on this occasion
I went solo but hooked up briefly with various tours, of which
there are a lot, usually two or three wandering the museum at
once. Also went up to the observation tower, which was a bit of a
disappointment, as its position isn't the best in the world for
seeing the takeoffs and landings, and its educational displays
consist mostly of stuff that I knew 50 years ago. I had plenty to
see, though, for 3 hours. Pickup was within 1 minute of schedule
(I think there may have been one or two others riding back to
the hotel), and owing to the road arrangements, return to the
hotel is quicker than the outbound.

I decided to save a few bucks and not eat until next day, hoping
that a good night's sleep and the chocolate in my bag would keep
me from requiring dinner. The bed at the Westin is extremely
comfy. Duvets are okay if there are sheets beneath them, which
there are here. Lots of glass in the room, and it was a northeast
exposure in the wintertime, so I got up mighty early, in time to
take full advantage of the generous breakfast buffet, which was
surprisingly almost up to European standards - hot and cold
breakfast meats; hot and cold cereal; nice fruit in great variety,
including huge sweet blackberries, of which I had a whole bowl;
pastries of what you'd call good American standard - i.e., not
flaky real butter extravaganzas such as you can get in any
coffeeshop in Europe, but rather Pepperidge Farm or Sara Lee
quality, which is not bad. Scrambled eggs, hash browns. Several
kinds of liquid refreshment, of which I had decaf and OJ.

Bright sunny day. The hotel shuttle turns out to be reliable
and takes 10 minutes or so.

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