Chris
We didn't have high hopes of a comfortable and relaxing flight to Washington, which was lucky. In the Air New Zealand Koru Lounge at Sydney Airport, which we were allowed access to thanks to our Virgin Australia membership, Sam and Ben enjoyed the many delights of a room designed especially for kids. This was a good start.
It all went downhill from there. Despite the fact that we were placed in a bassinet row, which is like a suite for parents, the spaciousness was only a luxury for around 15 minutes. Then the kids filled it...
After 14 hours of sleeplessness we arrived at LAX in Los Angeles. We had 90 minutes to make our connecting flight. After two hours we were still in Customs. Once we had escaped Customs and experienced another three-hour ordeal (discovering the incredibly deep lows of the American service ethic during an eventually successful attempt to have our tickets changed) we finally boarded a five-hour flight to Washington.
On arrival in DC we met our very lovely driver Franco and Sam was thrilled to discover a small American car in the Dulles International carpark ... see pic below.
And as always with long-haul travel, that's where the negatives ended and the positives began, upon arrival.
When Jen and I last stayed in DC, about 12 years ago, this was a very different city. It seemed more dangerous and less clean. It has been through a major cultural shift since Obama came into power, Franco told us. The streets are clean of both litter and crime. And the city really does have a liveliness and a glow that wasn't previously apparent.
We've been to the White House, of course. Our hotel is not far away...
Sam has become obsessed with squirrels, which I remember doing when I came to the USA as a youngster, with Dad (see Sam and one of his furry little friends, below)...
Ben has rugged up...
We have visited the stupendously ugly Watergate building - nothing good could ever happen between those walls...
And perhaps most importantly Jenny has sat at the feet of the great Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the star of her second amazing novel and the reason for this trip.
Sam the ladies' man preferred hanging out with Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor, who I always thought was a bit of a Queen Elizabeth look-a-like (and not in a good way) actually wasn't very interested in men - she, too, was a ladies' man - but we didn't tell that to Sam.
In the last two days we have had way too many Starbucks hot chocolates whilst listening to people talking politics - Sam enjoyed his first ever tall, skinny hot chocolate all to himself today! We need the sugar to keep our minds from becoming hazy, you see.
And I was asked for ID whilst buying wine, which was a bit of a thrill.
It's now 10pm, the wine has been consumed and both of our children are still awake. Such are the great joys of jet lag.
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