Alexandria: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I've been to Washington D.C. several times with my family, plus once with the Safety Patrol in the sixth grade, and once with Jeff, but never made it to Alexandria before. 

I went to attend a baby shower for our niece Lindsay. Jeff and Jace accompanied me on the road trip.

The Good:

Old Town Alexandria is charming: cobblestone streets, old buildings (among modern ones) shops, and restaurants. Our hotel was a block off the main drag of King Street. I did a lot of window shopping while walking Jace. I loved an oval dining room table with curved legs, but that's not in the cards for us right now.

The shower was fun. I didn't know many people, but everyone was friendly. The setting at The Chart House on the water was beautiful. 

Jace was well-behaved, except for a visit to a bookstore when he was borderline rambunctious. He was great at an outdoor dinner Friday night, though I have to admit, no other dogs were there. He only barked once at a dog on our walks. Jeff says he was great during the "Ugly" experience below.

We stopped in Annapolis to visit my cousin Deb on the way home. It was nice to see her again.

The Bad:

We hit a lot of traffic on the Inner Loop to Alexandria. I know it's to be expected traveling around Washington on a weekday, but it was still frustrating. A bigger issue was that Jeff didn't feel well during our visit. Unfortunately, that happened on our last visit to his family as well.

The Ugly:

Jeff called during the shower to tell me that there had been a fire on our floor in the hotel. He and Jace were outside the building waiting for the all-clear from the fire department. Someone had started the fire while doing laundry. I don't understand how. 

I don't have the uber app, so the Chart House called a cab for me that never showed. I waited for almost a half hour, panicking as the minutes passed. Eventually, my sister-in-law called an uber for me that arrived promptly.

In the meantime, Jeff was assigned another room, but people were already there. As I arrived, he had been given a second room (without other people.) The manager escorted me with a luggage cart to our previous room, apologizing for the wet hallway carpet. I told him I would take the luggage upstairs myself. I started to pack up our stuff in an organized way, but soon abandoned that to just get settled upstairs. I didn't see Jeff's computer at first, so that was nerve-wracking, but all worked out. 

I was hoping for an easy ride back, but no luck there. When we got home, we had Thai food delivered and vegged. 

We need to take more time when we go on getaways. Otherwise, it's not worth the drive time and fatigue hangover.