The alarm rang out at the unearthly hour of 4:45am. Despite us having agreed we didn’t need to be up until 5am, our brief night’s sleep seemed to have passed in the blinking of an eye. Tiding, packing and rejigging of cases concluded at 11:20pm the night before. Lying there being told I needed to get up felt like we had totally missed our nights sleep. It’d taken so long to get to sleep in the first place, my brain had been going over lists of stuff I didn’t even know I needed to think about. I then began creating new lists of things to do or to check up on the next morning. Finally I had managed the mammoth task of silencing the busy voices in my head and gratefully fell asleep.
We checked out from the hotel all agreeing that it was a really good central location and a lovely big well furnished apartment. If we came back we’d probably all opt to stay in the same place again.
Waving goodbye to our now familiar surroundings, we were shocked at the sheer volume of traffic on the main road. Considering it was before 5:45am the number of cars was comparable to the A41 heading for Watford from Aylesbury at 7am on a weekday morning.
The journey to the airport was easy, taking us along familiar roads until we were pretty close to the airport. The return of the hire car was also smooth and uneventful, having topped the petrol up to the top of the tank and tidied the rubbish out in readiness the night before.
Inside the airport which again was incredibly busy, we were processed along the airport production line of bag check in, personal security checks and were then herded into a train. The train only waited for a few minutes before the doors closed and we were delivered by a driverless shuttle train to the departures area and boarding gates. True to form the departures area was lame compared to UK departure lounges. It only sported a tiny food area and a couple of shops selling a naff assortment of books, papers, confectionery and electronics. I still don’t understand why UK airports are so well stocked with shops and food outlets compared to other countries.
We found a bench to sit on and waited patiently for our flight. Matty couldn’t sit still and began to sniff out a place selling breakfast items. Discovering a place selling breakfast burritos, due to their size they quickly became his breakfast selection of choice.
We waited until just before 8am and boarded our flight. Not having heard a single call to tell us they had begun boarding we were surprised to discover we were one if the last groups of passengers to arrive. We quickly found our seats and stowed our luggage. After take off, despite it only being a 115 minute flight from Orlando to Washington we were surprised and delighted to discover they were serving complimentary drinks. When did you ever take short hall in UK or Europe and receive complimentary drinks?
The flight passed quickly and soon we were landing at Ronald Reagan airport Washington DC. Being an internal flight there was no arrival passport control which was strange but so welcome. It was so pleasant to be able to stroll off the plane unhindered and pick up your bags, which were promptly all on the baggage carousel. Luke was a hero and grabbed all out suitcases. Heading outside towards a waiting line of taxis, we were intercepted by a large minibus driver (that is both the driver and the minibus were large!), who asked if we wanted a hotel transfer and upon discovering where we were headed immediately suggested he could do it for 30 dollars. We took him up on his offer and were swiftly and efficiently transported to our hotel. He was really courteous and helped us load and unload our bags holding doors and so on. We were happy that we’d been lucky enough to have him find us.