Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
Washington, DC
Friday-Sunday, February 5-7, 2010

    One thing about an expedition is that the best-laid plans are easily foiled by the events of man and nature. This expedition was scheduled to begin with Friday in Washington, DC, and followed by an early Saturday morning departure from Dulles International Airport to Peru. Nature had other plans for us.

    Midday on Friday, the snow began to fall – the start of what was to be called the “Blizzard of 2010”. Snow continued to fall throughout the day, the night, and most of Saturday. In the modern world, it is rather easy to forecast a blizzard, unlike an earthquake, so Washington was prepared. That is, everyone got out of town “while the gitn’ wuz good”.

    Waking early Saturday morning, it was pretty obvious that our flight was not going to be leaving. By the afternoon, it was confirmed that we would not be leaving on Sunday, either. So now we had at least two more days to explore Washington at the expense of our visit to Peru.

    Walking outside of the hotel Saturday morning, it was an eerie scene. There was almost no one is sight and the only vehicles were police cruisers. As the day developed, a few people began to show – all with the job of trying to clear some of the massive amount of snow. It was clear that it was going to be many days before a fraction of the roads would be cleared.

    Someone learned via Facebook that a huge snowball fight was going to occur in Dupont Circle, so Jay Dickman and I grabbed our cameras and set out to capture the event. As we got closer to the circle, you could see lines and little groups of people converging on the site from all the roads leading into the circle. There were no cars and the sidewalks were mostly impassible, so the roads themselves became the trails.

    Hundreds of people showed up for the fight and divided into two groups – those staged within the fountain and those circling the fountain. The wet snow made for hard icy snowballs. I can attest to that, because to try and get pictures, I had to wade into the middle of the battle – both inside and outside of the central fountain. I was hit more times than I care to remember. It was painful to be hit anywhere, but direct shots to the ears really made them ring. The worst hit was a rock-hard snowball to the mouth. I got a mildly swollen lip from that one, but it cured itself after three or four hours.

    After leaving the scene of the great battle, I walked over to the White House and was able to snap a few pictures in the continuing snowstorm. I felt a little sorry for the many guards that had to stand out in the blizzard. We visitors were just nuts, but the guards had little choice. Of course, they were being paid to be there!

    Both the Saturday and Sunday impromptu programs included talks by our “faculty” of experts. Sunday’s lectures included a talk by Jim Rosenthal on the history of World Heritage Site and the international treaty that spanned their formation and recognition. Steve Chushman presented a talk entitled Circumnavigation Sagas, which was a history of man’s desire and need to explorer and travel from times dating before written history through the present. All the presentations were very good and enjoyable.

    I did not bring a tripod with me on this trip and I was having severe regrets about my decision. Normally, that would not be a problem – just go out to a camera store and buy one. Unfortunately, most of Washington was closed. I Googled for a “Best Buy near the Mayflower Hotel” and found one about 2.5 miles away. I took off and trekked through the snow and ice, guided by the GPS and Google maps on my iPhone. I didn’t really even know if the store was open, but I wanted the exercise, anyway. I found the store and it was open. I bought a tripod; not the ideal choice, but it should perform the function I need. If I get tired of carrying it or don’t want to haul it all the way home, I can toss it and not feel too bad. Once I had my prize, I had to trek the 2.5 miles back to the hotel.

    Sunday’s big event was a Super Bowl party arranged by the expedition organizers with the cooperation of the hotel. We took over the Grand Ballroom and the hotel set up a big-screen video projector. The affair was catered with the usual football munchies plus wine, beer, and soft drinks. Dinner, of course, was also available in the restaurant or as room service as part of the expedition package, but the hotel was very accommodating if you wanted “room service” delivered to the ballroom.

    Things are looking good for a departure on Monday morning. We will go through the preliminary procedures tonight as if it will happen, anyway. The final word will come at breakfast in the morning. One other benefit of the delay in Washington was that I was able to more fully recharge myself after spending all of January in the Antarctic and it also gave me time to process and post many of my Antarctic photos to my website.