
Hmmm, well........ we got into Baltimore Tuesday evening after a 3 hour flight delay in Birmingham. We rented a car and got into DC after several wrong turns. Let's just say that the driver (not me!) and the GPS just weren't quite in sync. Anyway, we checked in at 10:25pm, and Zakir asked for a crib and a rollaway bed as we had requested earlier on. The first shock:
thirty-two dollars a day for parking, in a dungeon! I suppose that shows we should have done some research before we visited. We rolled our luggage through the narrow, dark hallways and entered the room we were given. As soon as we entered, Bilal let out a wail and started bawling "No crib here!!!" He woudn't get down off my lap. I called housekeeping 45 minutes after we checked in and they hadn't even received a call from the front desk regarding the crib. Another call to the front desk and manager, and still no progress. Anyway, we finally got the crib after midnight, just after Bilal was finally starting to fall asleep next to us. In comes the crib, with no sheets. The housekeeping staff member haughtily says, "Did you ask for sheets?" Well no, but we are about to put our child into a strange crib, we would have assumed the sheets would come with it! We didn't want to wait any longer so I just put a bedspread in the crib. After this whole mess Bilal finally fell asleep next to Zakir in bed, he just thrashed around awake in the little portable crib for half an hour before we picked him up. Moral of the story, we have learned what
not to do in DC:
1. Rent a car; navigation is difficult and parking costs a fortune.
2. Stay at the Marriott Wardman Hotel; the staff's not very helpful, and there isn't even wireless internet access in the rooms. I'm using my handy dandy Verizon mobile access to type this. We've had better experience at mid-range hotels such as the Hampton Inn, where we generally prefer to stay.
We did manage to move to a more centrally located hotel room the next night, but overall since we've come here the baby's life has been turned upside down. Poor sleep, poor appetite, and all the woes associated with travel when you're a toddler.
Wednesday we drove to Baltimore and visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and rode the Ducks of Baltimore, a tour on amphibious vehicles, which was quite nice. We ate crabcakes at Camden Place. Phillip's Seafood is supposed to have the best crabcakes in the world. Well, have to admit, they were pretty tasty.

Quack quack!
This morning we rode an open top double decker bus down to the Mall, and visited the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and World War II memorial. We saw the Capitol and the White House as we rode the bus. Thai food for a late lunch and we came back to the hotel room where Bilal went crazy, running around in circles in the room and Safa and Hamza hung around the lobby with friends who also came here from Birmingham.
Inside the Lincoln Memorial

Safa and Hamza, with the Capitol in the background

Riding the open top bus, it was fun in the beginning. I'm not posting an after picture of Bilal, for certain reasons, not to be disclosed, but let's just say we had run out of drinking water and it wasn't pretty
We'll be checking out some more of the local attractions tomorrow, and then in the evening there is a banquet for members of the AKU alumni association, so we're looking forward to meeting some friends. It will be interesting to see how they've changed after so many years.