Saturday Night Becomes Sunday Morning: Heading Home

After the webcasts, I left the Convention Center for the last time. It seemed so empty with the convention-goers mostly cleared out and the staff cleaning up. I met my colleagues Diego Hernandez, Marilena Draganescu, and Daniela Wagner-Loera at the Red Lion, and we decided to walk to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I was hoping Jane Petring could join us, but unfortunately we kept missing each other, so she ended up having a very tasty meal from Subway, very near the hotels, while the four of us walked to Pastini Pastaria about a 20-minute walk, for a very nice dinner. Afterwards we picked up our stuff, which we had left at the Red Lion desk, and went across the street to the MAX station to wait for the train:

It is SO convenient! And once again we appreciated the fact that we had received passes for the MAX/streetcar/bus that were valid until today, so we rode free all the way to the airport, about thirty minutes. We checked our bags and settled in at the gate to wait. Others on the same red-eye to Chicago included Ray Smith (MEI), Christine Bauer-Ramazani (webhead) and her husband Reza, Jonah Moos (CALL-IS, my webcasting partner), and Jane. Unfortunately, when the plane landed in Chicago I did not get a chance to say goodbye to Christine and Jane before they headed off to their gates :-(.

We had a two-hour wait for our next flight to Washington, but that plane was only half full, so I was able to stretch out over three seats and sleep about an hour. (The PDX-ORD flight had been sold out--Jane almost couldn't get on it--and sleeping was nearly impossible, for me at least.) We got into DCA five minutes early, collected our luggage, said goodbye to Daniela (who had her car at the airport) and took the metro to our various destinations.

After our wet week, we were disappointed to land at DCA in a cold rain, and as soon as I got home, the rain changed to sleet, then what looked like hail, and finally to a wet, sloppy snow which went on for several hours. Come on, what's that about? It's supposed to be spring already! (The forecast for tomorrow is 68 degrees but I will believe it when I see, or rather feel, it.) 

Can you believe this???

I got home about 11 am EDT. It had been a long trip. I unpacked, showered, had lunch, and did three loads of laundry--and took a lovely nap.