Traveling Light

Our first experience with "traveling light" is, predictably, not too light. Lol. While we all did cooperate with the 2 outfits per person, the accoutrements seem to take up an incredible space. Blow dryer. Flat iron. Shampoo & conditioner. Camera. Laptop. Ipod. Phones. Chargers for camera, laptop, Ipod and phones. Tour books. Maps. Our trip notebook with index tabs for days of the week and pages within for activities on each day and printouts of which subway to take + directions to the appropriate subway station. Nintendo DS and 6 Tamagachis, plus charger for the DS. Magazines and cosmetics. Vitamins + Rx. All told, it took us one rolling suitcase, one cosmetic bag and 4 backpacks to travel light. Each of us has a personal backpack plus the laptop got its own padded laptop. As we traveled, each of was responsible for his own backpack and one other bag. Traveling light! This seems to be about as light as we can go.
Turned out to be a good thing that we had the entertainment along as our train was 4 hours late in arriving. Train ride was 6 hrs or so to DC. Each of us nestled down with his electronic babysitter of choice and bore out the ride.
The train itself was quite comfy. Nobody provides legroom like Amtrak (although I hear British Airways does, I have never tried em) and our traveling companions were, well, companionable. LO noticed a woman sitting alone on the dining car when we ate breakfast this morning and said, "Oh, don’t sit alone. Please join us. We’d be happy to have you." So the lady came over and we all chatted over breakfast.
The apartment exceeds our expectations in every way. It’s roomy and provides every comfort. LO and DH are watching Spiderman on the TV as I type this, and the DVD collection and music collection they have provided for us are spookily to our taste. Because I had mentioned that LO wanted to visit the Holocaust Museum, the LL thoughtfully left out guides to the Holocaust Museum.
This afternoon we walked about 1.5 miles to the Market area where a centuries-old building houses poultry vendors – bakers – flower peddlers, fishmongers and produce farmers. Everything fresh you might need can be found there : organic milk, cheese, fresh eggs, fruits and veggies of every sort.
We asked a local about where we might find granola and she directed us to an organic store just around the corner. We filled one backpack with the essentials and walked the 1.5 miles back home, where we all stretched out for a nap. DH, Mr. "I Never Take A Nap," snored til 8:10 when we finally awoke him. He had said he wanted to go out for dinner tonight, but, we felt it was a little late to start out on a quest for unknown restaurants. It would be 10pm before we ate. So, we ventured out again, this time for the local Safeway, about a mile each way. Hunted down a little sushi, a beer and headed home.
Now our bellies are full, mindless entertainment is on the TV, and we are taking our turns at the shower. Tomorrow we have passes for the Washington Monument in the morning and we explore the Mall the remainder of the day. Unfortunately, I failed to remember this laptop does not have a port for the MD card used by the digicam so I will have to post pics after our return home.
Well, my turn for the shower. Good night for now.