On The Road Again

We had snow in southern Maine and New Hampshire, but I wouldn't call it a storm. It was certainly nothing to worry about and would have been almost unnoticeable if Maine had brought some snowplows out. The media always wants to make the weather sound horrible when it was no big deal at all. By the time we got out of New Hampshire, there was barely a trace of snow.

That doesn't look like a storm to me. Just snow. We have studded tires, so I wouldn't even slow down for that.

 

Probably lies. I just went through New York City and there was barely a hint of snow. None on the road. We're in New Jersey now and there's a dusting of snow on lawns and such, but the roads are clear.

 

I am not pleased so far. We're staying at a Clarion here in Arlington. We usually stay at the Virginian, near here, but decided to try another place this year. The room is nice enough, but what was supposed to be a full kitchen turned out to be a couple of stove-top burners and a microwave, but the worst thing is that it's so hot in here, I am tired but up at 5:00 am. Apparently, this is one of those places that thinks everyone wants their room to be 80 degrees in the winter. I can tolerate it during the day but, at night, I like to sleep under a blanket. There is a thermostat in the room but it's locked.

Also, we're paying a couple of hundred dollars a night for a full kitchen that we don't have, as I mentioned, but they don't even have any knives in the kitchen beyond a butter knife. Nor will they give us one. They must have had a lot of trouble with guests stabbing one another at the Clarion in Arlington because they don't supply steak knives or even knives that are capable of cutting cheese. Maybe that's the new Democrat majority in Virginia, I don't know, but I hope I don't get arrested for buying a steak knife tomorrow.

 

One thing about hotels is that since I haven't had regular television in more than a decade, I get to see what's actually on television as opposed to binge-watching television series that I just came across, but which were canceled years ago. From hotels, I learn fascinating things, such as that Joyce Meyer is not only alive yet, but she still has a show. Who could have known? In the end, I come away knowing that I'm not really missing anything important.

 

That's the place, and I do generally leave reviews on Trip Advisor. It is this hotel's policy not to stock sharp knives, which includes the sort needed to cut cheese or, for that matter, to open the wrapper on half the stuff bought at stores these days. It's not the policy of the Choice Hotels chain, of which the Clarion is part, however. Since the Virginian, also in Arlington, offers a full complement of knives, it's not a city policy, so it must be either the manager or the franchise owner of this particular hotel. We bought a couple of knives. I don't so much mind the lack of a real oven for practical reasons as much as the mere objection to a microwave and two stovetop burners being promoted as a full kitchen. It's not like we were planning on cooking a turkey, but the ability to broil something is nice to have. I hate microwaves. Next year, we'll probably go back to the Virginian, which did have a fully equipped kitchen, and was a larger space anyhow, for not a whole lot more.

 

We took the grandkids to the Newseum in Washington, DC today. On this trip each year, we go to Arlington Cemetery with the kids and their father, as their mother is buried there. Then we go out to eat. Afterward, their father goes home to Baltimore, while the kids spend a night with us and we go to a museum the next day.

Usually, the kids aren't particularly impressed. They'd have preferred we let them play in the park near the hotel, so it's more of an educational thing. They act bored most of the time, but occasionally display some interest in one thing or another. The Newseum wasn't a big hit with the kids, though. We had to go, though. It's closing after this month.

There was some interest in the 9-1-1 displays, and the 13-year-old spent a fair amount of time flipping through the old newspapers from all around the country. But, as for the Unibomber's actual cabin, a couple of homemade guns that he had made, the MAC-10 machine pistol used in a Capital attack, several sections of the Berlin wall, including a guard tower, they couldn't have cared less about any of that.

So far, we've taken them to the Museum of Natural History, the American Indian Museum, the Holocaust Museum, the Museum of the Bible, the Spy Museum, and on tours of several buildings that were less time-consuming.

Next year, it will probably just be our granddaughter since our grandson will be eighteen, and probably off to something else. Although he says he wants to go next year, he will be graduating from high school this year, so I'm not counting on it.

 

They are all in Washington, DC but blocks are very large in DC. We take Uber to wherever we're going because it's cheaper than the parking fees and less troublesome.

He could have input anytime but, so far, it hasn't been helpful. Were he to take the time to see what's available, we'd certainly consider it. He would opt to go to the Museum of Natural Sciences every year but I'm not interested in going to the same place every year when there are so many other choices.

 

On our way home, we're at the Somerset Lofts, an Ascend Hotel, in Somerset, New Jersey. It's a pretty nice place, not terribly expensive, and the staff couldn't be more pleasant. Surprising, particularly given that the manager is a Muslim, with the head coverings, is that, among the newspapers that are free to guests, is the Epoch Times, a conservative newspaper. They carry both the English and Chinese versions. Hotels usually have USA Today, clearly a liberal rag.

 

We're in New Hampshire, just south of the Maine border. We could make it home tonight if we wanted to, and if I were alone I probably would, but it would be late. So we're in Portsmouth.