visitors at the gate

[OT from cottage renovations]

... looking much more chipper than one might think for a group who had just flown Fairbanks -> Anchorage -> Seattle -> Washington in consecutive segments with no time off for good behaviour. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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Rose, Grace, Surviving Sister

one of the pleasures of flying into  Ronald Reagan  National Airport, especially with an evening arrival, is the complete lackadaisicality of its baggage handling "service".  one's bags are never produced within 45 minutes of the flight's arrival though the distance from the aircraft is far less than in most other airports.  JFK's remark about Washington as "a city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency" has yet to be invalidated. 

it was a beautiful, balmy night; to make up for the hour (and then some) of terminal delay we undertook an impromptu late evening tour of the Lincoln Memorial, the new Korean War Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. 

it was well after midnight by the time we made it to the Grove, to be greeted by a frantical kitten and everything that makes this place what it is.  the sound of the trains floats in the windows and it's  good  surpassingly excellent to be home.