Before little Alex was born, trips East, West and across the Atlantic were a lot more frequent and a lot less challenging. There was a time when I lived in Los Angeles, maintained a room in New York City and flew the coasts roundtrip weekly. Now it requires an tectonic shift in order negotiate such a move. If your the last flight into DC-Dulles after midnight, make sure you don't miss the people movers that take you from the outer terminals to the main terminal. We got stranded at 1am and had to call security for a special service. It took an hour. (I'm not sure what the airport does if there is a genuine emergency.) By the time we got to baggage claim, the luggage was locked. It turns out Dollar Rent-A-Car isn't open 24 hours despite it postings. Hertz will charge you three times as much, but the GPS won't necessarily include the address you have to get to. The toll lanes only accept coins (which, of course, we didn't have) and the hotel wouldn't let us check in because the room wasn't registered in the right name. Meanwhile, the roads coated with ice.....but all in a day of travels for jetsetter Alex, who took it all in stride.
As for advice? Try not to cry and next time, we'll try Baltimore in the spring time.
