At a slower pace

I'm starting to feel edgy. Too much too fast. I have had a great time so far, but I'm needing a little down time. Maybe later this week I'll manage to convince the family that I'm not feeling so good, then I can go look in the second hand shops in the area, and maybe go to Burlington Coat Factory. Alone!
The weather today was miserable, a good day to do laundry. We dropped the in laws off at Grandmas, and headed out for the dreaded chore. I had given Mike the address found on google for the nearest laundromat. Once the info was loaded into TomTom we were off. Just us three, to spend the day together.

Speaking of TomTom, I highly recommend it. I could not imagine this trip without it. It has allowed us to negotiate everywhere we need to go. Just between our hotel and Grandmas place we must travel on 4 separate highways. This thing is a marriage saver. If we had been using a map book this entire time I would have flown home alone by now. Between Mike having no sense of direction and the in laws continually sharing their thoughts on the best way to go, I'd have gone crazy! Never travel with family in a major city without a GPS!

As we faithfully followed TomTom it looked like we were headed into an industrial area. Sure enough the laundromat had been torn down years ago to build shiny new things. Thanks google. So we entered the next closest location. I truly believe that there is a sick person out there adding fake addresses into google, just to mess with tourists. This address led us to an apartment building. But no laundromat. We stopped at the Marriott Hotel nearby. I was informed by the concierge (we don't have a concierge at our hotel by the way) that there was complimentary machines on the second floor. Dang my honesty!!!! We really should have posed as guests and just used the machines at the Marriott. Three times a charm right? Well if you consider finding a laundromat lucky, then yes.

We happened to find ourselves in the less than ritzy area of town. There was no Tiffany & Co. here. No Louis Vuitton. No Saks. Bordering the local 7-Eleven was the laundromat. Well beggars can't be choosers. So avoiding eye contact with the youth from the local detention centre on break from picking garbage we parked the minivan and entered the coin laundry. After depositing $6.00 in quarters for one wash we decided to head into the 7-Eleven for lunch. We really didn't want to walk to find a cafe. I've never done lunch at a convenience store before. It was quite an experience. Nothing like being with six inches of the Hope Diamond, but noteworthy none the less.

Back in the minivan we quietly ate our lunch of hot dogs, pizza, Jamaican patties and slushies. Honestly, the clothes couldn't dry fast enough. There was no place to sit inside to wait for clothes. No space to fold the laundry. In desperation, I asked about washroom facilities and was told that 'yes, we could use it, but the sink was broken and we'd have to wash in the nearby laundry sink'.

Feeling a little creeped out, and in need of normal civilization, we headed back to the safer area of Bethesda. We thought we'd indulge in a couple fantasies. I stopped in to visit the 'Coach' store. Diane was such an angel. It was as if she could sense that we were in a special place. She sat down in a chair and busied herself with a catalogue while I 'tried on' a few of my favorite selections. After ensuring that Mike had taken note of my favorites, we left to spend some time at the 'Apple' store. Not much to comment on there.

And so ends our quiet day, adventure at every turn and purses to dream about in my sleep. Life just doesn't get any better. Oh wait, yes it does, tonight I get the bed all to myself to make up for the other nights sleeping with Princess Bed Hog. I'm really looking forward to this, as our room only has 2 double beds. Good night y'all.