Posting 10: First day in D.C

Doreen's car had a problem when we tried to start up on leaving the base visitor centre after organising my visitor pass. We pushed the car back to the house - luckily only a couple of blocks away and jump started it off their van. We took the car to the local repair place and they tested the battery and alternator which were both found to be fine. A fault in the ignition switch turned out to be the problem.

That afternoon, and once the car problems were resolved, we drove up the Washington-Baltimore parkway to Arundel Mills mall - a massive factory outlet mall place with loads of shops. After wandering around for a few hours, I left with only a cap. When you have that many good deals you soon get spoiled for choice and all the while in the back of my mind wondering whether I really could fit much else into an already full case - which is on the limit for domestic checked-in baggage. We also checked out Circuit City a large chain dealing with tvs, home theatre and computer stuff etc.

We drove home and had dinner, then I had a quick chat to KC and went to bed early - I'd had no sleep from the flight the previous night and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Tomorrow I was going to hit DC and the best thing for me was some solid restful sleep. I hit the sack at 9pm and went to sleep nearly instantly, to wake the following day at 8am. I felt much better - my blisters and feet are still sore from a few days back though - I know this is gonna become a problem in a city where there is so much to explore over a large area all within decent walking distance...