USA Grand Tour 2016 - Day 1 DC

We managed to get some sleep on the plane.  Sarah was not impressed by the UA food.  We went past immigration without a hitch.

The fountain water in IAD Washington Dullas was absolutely horrible, but I filled my bottle anyway.

They just had a cold spell before we arrive, so it was cold and windy!

We stopped at the information booth, and the lady gave us pile of tourist information leaflets.  We followed the instruction to go to town on a bus, and luckily we did not have to wait for long.  The bus went past Arlington cemetery and the Pentagon, and Sarah just considered them seen.

When we got into town, we had slight problem getting on the Metro, unbeknownst to us, the Metro station L'Enfant closes two of its three entrance on weekends.  After we asked around, we made into the station.

We had to decide what kind of ticket to buy, and much to our surprises, there was an attendance.  The traditional paper ticket does not require a deposit, but the new Smart Trip has a $2 deposit, which is hard to refund, and confers a $1 discount on each journey.  Since we have estimated to use the Metro 5-6 times, it was worth the investment.

We finally got to Houston's condo, but I did not take down his flat number.  Luckily, we bumped into his neighbour and she knows them.  She showed us how to buzz in and we finally hit the first stop.

As expected, Houston and John had not seen Chase before and liked the bottle.

After a quick chit chat, we showered and headed out for food.  I told my DC friends to find us non-American food, we checked out the local high street option, and opted for Laotians food, but it was packed, then we went for Mexican tacos.  At Taqueria Habanero, everything was very cheap and everything is made to order.  John dislikes the lacks of ventilation and we all smell oily and smoky by the end of the night.  The Mexican Chorizo is very different than the Spanish Chorizo.  We also had our first Uber experience.  We broke up the Thornton Dark Easter Egg, the chocolate was good, but a bit disappointed there was no other chocolate inside. 

We settled in early.