Relevant History

Another crazy day trip to Washington

On Thursday I did another one of my crazed one-day trips to Washington: Jet Blue redeye from Oakland, spend the day doing stuff, have dinner, then zip back to Dulles and catch the flight home.

Jet Blue is a fascinating experience. It's a pretty good ride, in my view, but their genius is in their making flying essentially indistinguishable from sitting in your living room, flipping channels on the TV. For some reason I find the TV in the seatback in front of me absorbing in a way my TV at home rarely is.

A lovely morning at Dulles International Airport

This time I was giving a talk to a group at the National Academies. These aren't gigs that really pay anything, but the crowd is pretty extraordinary, so it's more an opportunity for professional networking and public service than anything.

Courtyard of the Keck Center, Washington DC

Of course, how much you manage to network depends on how social and awake you are, so I don't do quite as well as some of my always-friendly business development colleagues; but you never fail to meet some interesting people at these things.

The Keck Center is very nice, but since I didn't see a croquet pitch on-site, I have to rate the Beckman Center more highly.

The workshop was quite interesting, and I got a lot of raw material and ideas for my own work. (These National Academies reports represent an amazing amount of intellectual labor.) But by 5:00, I was ready to either fall asleep, or sit to a nice dinner of roasted coffee beans. Instead, I met a friend of mine who lives in the area, and we walked over to Union Station, and had dinner at the Thunder Grill, a Western-ish place.

Thunder Grill, Union Station, Washington DC

The bison burger is pretty good.

Cafe on the second floor of Union Station

After that, we had some coffee, then I headed out to Dulles.

Dulles in the dusk

Technorati Tags: Dulles International Airport, National Academy, travel, washington DC, work

Just enough time to walk around the Smithsonian

Luckily, my meetings on Wednesday were in a government building close to the Smithsonian, so after I wrapped up, I walked over to the Mall.

Congress, via flickr

The National Air and Space Museum was completely nuts: hundreds of people were waiting to get in.

via flickr

So I went over to the National Gallery, which was much less crowded.

In front of the National Gallery of Art, via flickr

I spent some time with the Rembrandts and some other Dutch Masters, then ducked down to the ground floor to an exhibit of 19th century photographs of Paris. (When I was working at Britannica, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago every couple days, and discovered that I got a lot more out of each visit if I just focused on one room, or a few pieces of art-- Impressionist crowd paintings, or Wright's decorative windows.)

Then I caught the Metro back out to western Viriginia, promptly fell asleep, missed the West Falls Church stop (where you get off to catch the Dulles Airport shuttle), and had to double back. Fortunately, my flight wasn't scheduled to leave for another three hours or so, so I was all right.

Technorati Tags: travel, washington DC

Dulles, morning and night

Thanks to JetBlue, I'm getting to know Dulles International Airport better than I ever did before. Unfortunately, I'm still tending to see it twice in the same day. Morning:

via flickr

The main terminal as the sun's coming up....

via flickr

Twelve hours later, I'm back!

via flickr

Still, despite the appeal of Washington, I find I prefer to do this and get back to my family, than stay overnight. Plus it's cheaper, of course.

Technorati Tags: airport, Dulles International Airport, travel, washington DC

Greetings from America's front lawn.. or something

I'm at the Smithsonian, taking advantage of the public wifi system. I'm actually out here on one of my patented Insane Travel Adventures: I took the redeye last night, had a bunch of very interesting meetings today, and am flying back tonight.

Since my day started at 7, I won't feel bad if I spend the rest of the afternoon at the National Air and Space Museum.

Doesn't look like any of my friends are around, so I'm probably just going to engage with the public culture for a while, then head back out to the airport and watch the last DVD of Firefly-- the one with the three never-aired episodes.

So I can't recall: is the Washington Mall America's front lawn, or its playground (that's Boca Raton, I think), or something else?

Technorati Tags: Smithsonian, travel, washington DC

Self-portrait at Dulles Airport

This morning around 6:30.

And while it looks like the picture isn't quite right, I actually felt that fuzzy.

[To the tune of Fleetwood Mac, "Go Your Own Way," from the album "The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (Disc 1)".]

Technorati Tags: travel, washington DC, work

Words every business traveler loves

At Caribou Coffee, 17th and L, NW:

[To the tune of Fleetwood Mac, "Rhiannon (Single Version)," from the album "The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac (Disc 1)".]

Technorati Tags: cafe, travel, washington DC, wireless, work

In DC

I'm here, and surprisingly awake for having had about two fitful hours' sleep on the plane. I hate sleeping on planes. It's better to just start drinking coffee at the earliest opportunity and work. And the in-flight movie was the new Poseidon disaster film, which basically consists of wet people screaming and trying to find the next door, vent, or shaft that will get them closer to freedom. It's rather like a videogame in that respect: it's all "find the next thing so you can get to the next level. Unfortunately, it manages both a movie about a disaster, and a disaster.

Showing disaster movies on airplaines seems like a bad move. But showing one involving water, at a time when you can't bring any liquids aboard other than your own precious bodily fluids, is a nicely ironic touch.

I'm in a Caribou Coffee on 17th and L, just up the street from National Geographic. The client I'm doing stuff with is just around the corner; another one from earlier this year is a block in the other direction.

I found the one table that has an electrical outlet right beside it, so I'm now recharging everything: iPod and Powerbook, and (thanks to a quadruple shot latte) myself.

[To the tune of Nina Simone, "I Shall Be Released," from the album "The Very Best of Nina Simone: Sugar in My Bowl (1967-1972)".]

Technorati Tags: travel, work, washington DC

How I spent my day

This sums up Tuesday:

Dulles International Airport, 6:45 a.m.

Dulles International Airport, 6:45 p.m.

[To the tune of The Allman Brothers Band, "Soulshine," from the album "Where It All Begins".]

Technorati Tags: airport, Dulles International Airport, travel, work

Greetings from Oakland International Airport

I'm in Oakland International, waiting for a Jet Blue redeye to Washington DC, where I'm doing a day-long meeting with a client, doing a five-hour workshop on the future of science, then heading out to Dulles and catching a 9 PM flight back to California. I'll be gone about 26 hours, I figure.

The combination of anxiety before an event (I always eat poorly and get nervous before doing something for a client, but am able to focus and be On when I have to), sleep deprivation (my son woke up a couple times in the middle of the night), flying out of an unfamiliar airport, and flying on an airline I've never flown on has let me feeling like I've fallen into someone else's life. I know the script, but I'm not this character. I made all the arrangements myself, and of course I'm right on target, but nothing about this trip feels right.

I don't think I've been to Oakland International Airport in about ten years, since I flew out to a History of Science Society conference in New orleans. That time, I actually did go to the wrong airport first: I drove some friends to SFO, thinking that I was flying out of there, too, then discovered as I was dropping them off-- I still had a couple hours before my flight, they were leaving immediately-- that, in fact, I needed to go to the other airport. A mad dash across the bay, some aggressive merging, and I made it to OAK fine. But the story flew ahead of me: when I saw one of my mentors in the hotel bar in New Orleans, the first thing he said was, "Alex! Is it true you went to the wrong airport?"

No wonder I never got an academic job.

I never fly out of Oakland because it feels about a hundred miles farther from home than SFO; in fact, it was 30 minutes door to door, and that was including time listen to the end of the Tears for Fears CD that was in my car stereo, and rearrange my bag and trow out a couple things. And while it feels less like a small airport and more like an overgrown bus station, that small size may be a virtue: you can easily walk to the terminal from long-term parking, unlike at SFO. If I need to keep flying to the East Coast, I might become familiar with the place.

Taking the redeye is partly an attempt to save money. But I'm just not the type to hang out in the hotel sports bar, knock back a couple margaritas, and talk to strangers about March Madness. I'd rather read stories to my kids at bedtime, then dash to the airport and spend the next 24 hours running on nerves and caffeine, than spend the night alone in one of those business traveler hotel rooms that could be anywhere in the world. I'd rather be a samurai and a good parent, and do it the hard way, than take it a little easier.

[To the tune of Al Green, "Rainin' In My Heart," from the album "I Can't Stop".]

Technorati Tags: airport, Oakland, travel, work

View from the cab

From my Tuesday 5 a.m. cab ride from the hotel to Penn Station.

Naturally, I managed to get a cabbie who said he was in his second night on the job.

But I made it to the train station anyway.

Technorati Tags: New York City, travel