Tuesday May 6th 2025 - Work trip to DC and fun trip to Toronto - Day 1, Rochester to DC - urban walks

To say that Rochester’s airport is calm at 4:15 am on a Tuesday in May is kind of understating it.  I was able to walk directly up to the American Airlines ticketing line and speak to somebody about completing my check-in which, for whatever reason, I couldn’t complete online yesterday.  I was also able to score a first class upgrade for 44 dollars.  Checking a bag was 35 anyway and with first class that’s included so it’s really a 9 dollars upgrade.  If I get ANY extra sleep from my bigger seat it’s worth it.

Yesterday was not a relaxing day at all.  I started my workday early, trying to remember as many little fiddly things as I could wrap up before my travels.  I had a staff meeting at 11, a cat nail trim appointment at 2 pm and several household chores as well as packing to get done.  My dad is unfortunately having some problems with his laptop connecting to the internet which I was unable to solve.  It was a frustrating 94 minute call trying to figure it out just before Brian came home from work and we headed out for dinner on the way to drop me off at the hotel near the airport.

On the way to the hotel I swung by the airport, hoping to get checked in last night in case today was busy or I was running very short on time.  Startlingly, Rochester’s last American Airlines flight out during 2025’s pre-summer off-season departs before 6:30 pm and there was nobody at the ticket counters when we were there at 7:30.  There are times when Rochester feels much smaller and more isolated than it probably should.

I didn’t sleep WELL last night but I did sleep at least some.  Now it’s almost time to board my flight. More later…

My approach into Reagan was one of the most exciting 5 approaches I’ve ever had.  I managed to get a few great shots of light streaming out of the clouds a few minutes out from the airport and then below the clouds I saw (but didn’t capture) a breathtaking view of the reflecting pool and the White House as we made a final banking turn just before landing.  It was amazing.  Apparently the other side of the aisle got an equally perfect view of the Pentagon.  I’m glad I had my window open, most people just look at their phones until they feel the touchdown. 

When I landed at Reagan airport I got a text message from my manager that he was already on the ground at Dulles.  We essentially got on Metro at the same time and met up at Metro Center station, a few blocks from out hotel.  I had a much shorter ride but I was there only about 10 minutes before he was.  It seemed like a very auspicious start to the trip that we both came from vastly different places, on different airlines and to different airports and were able to meet up at a Metro station by about 8 am.  Even better, my manager got a fair amount of sleep on his red-eye flight from CA. 

After dropping our bags off at the hotel I looked up bagels in Google maps and we walked to the one I’d arbitrarily picked out which coincidentally was literally across the street from the convention center we’d be spending the next several days at.  After our bagel we tried to pop into the convention center to register but registration didn’t open until noon.  Since it was still pretty early and touristy things weren’t open yet, I suggested we get my very nerdy longest escalator mission over with.  So we took Metro up to Wheaton station to see and ride the longest escalator in the western hemisphere.  On the way up there we decided to make Georgetown University our next stop since neither of us had been there.

Getting to Georgetown was very handy from Wheaton since we needed to catch a shuttle bus from DuPont Circle and that’s on the same Red Line as Wheaton.  So we went to DuPont Circle and looked for the bus.  While we were in the circle we overheard one side of a heated very DC conversation about some politician and lots of comparisons on how they were treated compared to Governor Cuomo of New York.  My left ear was practically popping out of its socket I so wanted to know if we were near somebody who was important or at least well known!  Then we got on the circulator bus and the bus driver was idly switching between various satellite radio channels or podcasts or something and many of them were super political too. It was so DC, I just was very amused.  The bus took us up to Georgetown and made great time since it didn’t even remotely slow down for at LEAST 3 different stop signs on campus.  Whee.

Georgetown immediately felt like a calm genteel oasis that was very apart from ‘normal’ DC in character despite being in DC in geographic terms.  We walked through a few campus buildings and it was all very sedate and stuffy but fascinating.  Soon we headed out a different side of campus and walked down M street which had a charming old but hip feel to it.  By this time it was after 11:30 am so we headed back to the convention center, me by foot and bus, my manager by e-scooter.  Given that they made a point to have registration open for hours the day before the conference began I assumed it was at least somewhat of a process and we’d be very glad not to foolishly be in line with all the dummies on Wednesday morning.  So I was kind of floored when ‘registration’ literally meant typing my last name into a kiosk and then being handed a somewhat oversized conference name tag and a lanyard.  There was absolutely nothing else involved, no ID check, no survey or demographic information, just typing in my last name and confirming that it was me.  Oh well, at least it was done and we knew exactly where to go the next morning.

After registration we had an elegant Italian lunch and watched a light rain storm pass through before heading back to the hotel since I got a message saying my room was ready and we assumed my manager’s was surely close also.  After a few hours to rest and recharge we headed to a dinner we were invited to by some sales associates from the company whose conference we were there to attend.  The dinner was a handful of sales people, a few business partners and a handful of customers.  Overall I think it was just 10 or 12 people and a few of them didn’t even stay long.  There was no sales talk it was just social which was nice.  

Astonishingly, 1 of the 3 other people at my table turned out to be from Newport Vermont, right next door to where Brian grew up in a very remote part of Vermont.  That’s such a small and unknown part of Vermont that he was surprised when I mentioned ‘NorthEast Kingdom’ and when we zeroed in on Newport we had plenty of laughs at the improbability of bumping into somebody else who was from or had connections to that area.  

While I enjoyed the meal and social time, I was taken aback by the fact that most of the people in our little group had already been to a happy hour before the dinner and that after the dinner all of them except us 2 were going to a bar.  And there was a LOT of booze flowing during dinner.  I attended a sales conference put on by my own employer about 6 years ago and was flabbergasted by how much alcohol was consumed in the evenings there too.  Do most people spend the majority of their time just wishing they could get hammered but an overbearing spouse or limited funds or something keeps them from (over) indulging so when they are out of town they go crazy?  Since I had gotten up at 3:30 am, one social outing a 2 beers was more than enough for me and I slept very well that night.