Washington DC

Saturday 3 May 2008

I’m waiting for a chance to have a nice sleep in! This morning we had to meet down in the lobby at 7.30am to wait for a shuttle that comes around every 15-20 mins to take us to the airport for our 9.20am flight to Washington. No time for breakfast – what I thought were bagels at the Starbucks Coffee stand actually turned out to be doughnuts. Not my type of morning fare. But I did get a cappuccino. Unfortunately, no chocolate sprinkles, only cinnamon or nutmeg (on coffee??). So then I thought I’d get something at the airport. Wrong again! No such thing as good old toast but I could have bought any variety of burgers and fries . . . With that selection on offer, I decided to wait until we reached Washington. By the time we arrived, I thought I may as well wait for lunch. However, it took a little while to get out of the airport and the usual 35-40 minute taxi ride to Washington was extended by about 25 mins as we battled our way through some freeway lane closures and bumper to bumper, stand-still traffic. Maybe this was the start of my new diet. We finally arrived at the Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University around 1.30pm and I hastily made my way to the cafeteria for a very welcomed late lunch. The food was buffet style and great value at $8.08 for ‘all you can eat’. Lots of healthy choices and we finally saw TEA on offer. I’m sure we’ll be regular patrons over the next 5 days.

One interesting fact I hadn’t noted about Gallaudet University when I originally booked the accommodation on line, is that it is for deaf students. The receptionist at the check in wasn’t deaf and there were numerous conference participants milling around all merrily chatting away to each other. So we were in for a bit of a surprise when stopped one of the students to ask if we were headed the right way for the cafeteria. She indicated that she was deaf but we managed to communicate what we wanted, she responded, and off we went. When we got to there, another student came in behind us and asked if we wanted her to interpret for us as the cashier was also deaf. I finally started to twig that this was not just the odd occurrence and she explained the nature of the facility. It certainly made for a nice, quiet meal, which is unusual when there are so many young people en masse.

Apparently Gallaudet University is the only university in the world specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students, and was founded in 1864. One of their little “Did You Know?” quotes claims that “The football huddle originated at Gallaudet University when the football team found that opposing teams were reading their signed messages and intercepting the plays.”

The Kellogg Conference Hotel has all the mod cons except that it is set in amongst a wide expanse of campus buildings and lovely green lawns and gardens. Plenty of squirrels here as well. I wanted to take a photo of one that was on a tree trunk but it kept running around to the other side. It became like a game as I chased it around and around the tree, and I still didn’t get a shot! My room overlooks trees and a baseball pitch directly in front and to the side, an interesting old building with the distinctive Washington Monument obelisk rising above it in the background. Interestingly, there is a door ‘bell’ for the rooms, which is silent but the alcove light flickers off and on so that a person who can’t hear it would be aware that someone was at the door.

While I had a few boring but necessary personal things to attend to, Jill went exploring. Kellogg has a shuttle that takes people to various parts of Washington. We agreed to meet up at 7.00pm for dinner and when I finished what I needed to do, I started putting this report together. At 7.00pm I rang Jill’s room – no answer. I then went and knocked on the door – nothing. I went and asked at reception and the shuttle driver told me Jill had called to be picked up but when he got there, she couldn’t be found. Jill doesn’t carry a mobile phone so she had to find a public phone box to make that call. By 8.00pm I was getting really worried and about to call out the cavalry, when there was a knock at the door. Jill was back from the front, none the worse for wear, but full of the spirit of adventure. I’ll let her tell you what happened in “Jill’s Jottings.”

Tomorrow we’ll have a sight seeing day (after a good sleep in). We plan to buy a ticket for a hop on and off tourist bus that takes people around to all the things worth seeing and get off when we feel like it. We are also looking at taking a 50 minute riverboat tour on The Potomac River which should be fun. Washington – here we come!