{"id":5168,"date":"2017-05-31T12:25:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T18:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2017-06-01T07:50:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T13:50:08","slug":"washington-dc-courtesy-of-matts-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queenofsubtle.com\/rt\/washington-d-c-3\/washington-dc-courtesy-of-matts-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington DC, Courtesy of Matt’s Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt’s company holds an annual awards event in Washington D.C., and he had to go along to manage all their social media. That was a pretty good excuse for a trip to revisit our nation’s capitol, four years after our last visit.<\/p>\n

We dropped Roy off at his birdsitter’s and went to the airport. We had the usual 25-minute hop to Miami, grabbed an empanada from Half Moon<\/a> for lunch, and then got on our flight to Reagan National. When you’re flying to DC, accept no airport substitutions, because getting into town from Dulles or BWI sucks.<\/p>\n

Plus Reagan is just so<\/em> attractive. (It’s nicer on the inside.)<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a><\/p>\n

We bought week-long Metro passes for $36 and hopped on the train to Farragut West. Our hotel for the event, the Mayflower<\/a>, was a few blocks away. Oh, and it was overcast, in the mid-60s, and raining. That was a big change from Key West.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mayflower is a giant, fancy old hotel just south of Dupont Circle. Our room was very nice, but the lack of coffeemaker annoyed me to no end. Our plan was to work from the room on Wednesday before the event, and no coffee meant having to go out for it in the morning.<\/p>\n

We checked in, met a few of Matt’s coworkers (his department had totally turned over since the last time he was in Minneapolis, so that meant he was meeting them for the first time, too!), and then went to get dinner. We walked a half-mile or so in the rain to Founding Farmers<\/a>, where we found a line and an hour-plus wait. It was already fairly late, so we went to wander back in the general direction of our hotel to find a restaurant. We came across Irish Whiskey Public House<\/a>, which had a decent-looking bar menu, so we went with that. Afterwards, we headed across the street to Teddy and the Bully Bar<\/a>, a great little cocktail place, for a couple of drinks before bed. We headed back around 10, since we had to work in the morning.<\/p>\n

The next morning, we got up, put on real pants (this is a travail for people who work from home, you know), and walked over to Peet’s for coffee and scones. It turns out there was lobby coffee at the Mayflower, but Peet’s was stronger. I took the desk to work, and Matt took the bed. It was a fairly uncomfortable and crowded arrangement, but it was only for a day. The plan was for me to go work at Peet’s when he went to go do event-setup stuff around noon, but that ended up being delayed and we stayed in the room all day, except for a quick lunch walk to Shake Shack for lunch.<\/p>\n

At 3, he headed downstairs, and I finished up work and changed into fancy clothes. I don’t get a chance to wear a dress and heels very often anymore! I met more of Matt’s coworkers in the hallway by the ballrooms, where I was assigned to help out at the check-in table. They trained four of us on the check-in equipment – tablets and small label printers for making nametags, so it couldn’t have been easier – and we got to work. After about an hour, it was time to head to the main event. (Bob Dole was a guest speaker at the pre-reception party, and they rolled him past our table in his wheelchair on the way out. He waved and said thank you to all of us, which was very nice.)<\/p>\n

We were at the staff tables in the balcony for the awards ceremony, which started at 6:30. Mike Rowe was one of the speakers, so I took a bit of video for my sister, who’s a fan.<\/p>\n

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