A political year begins.

This year began normal enough, same old routine plan a few trips go to work, etc etc. However chance conversations and chance meetings made it a slightly different year.

We planned to have family visit for a few weeks from oversees. My wife's brother and a female friend. My bother-in-law is not one for warm climates, so taking him to the Dominican was out, and he didn't like the sound of Florida either. In the Northeast that leaves few option for the month or March.

So, it was mutually agreed to go to Delaware in March! the upside, not too many tourist will be there, and the downside, well, the water is still quite cold, and most businesses are closed. Season has not begun quite yet.

One weekend day I am doing yard work or some such thing, and my neighbor drives by and stops to chat. So I mention we are heading to Delaware soon, and might pop over to Washington to see the Lincoln memorial and whatever other sites are there to be seen. I have never been to Washington, so it would be nice. He asked for my email, and I pass it along to him having no idea why, just being neighborly I guess.

Several days later I get an email from my Congress Critter, and along with that email is an invitation to tour the White House! I call the guy who sent the email and we work out all the details, he wants names SSN numbers, I tell him the guests are not US citizens so no SNN numbers no problem he says he needs passport numbers.

We pass a few emails back and forth and I receive a final email confirming our date and time for the tour. Naturally I see my neighbor again one day and thank him for the extension. He says no problem, he is well connected he was a consultant for many years for a local Congressman who well, didn't get re-elected due to some misbehavior on his part. He said it was his pleasure for helping him out from time to time with house issues he bought our friends house, and seemed nice so I didn't mind popping over and helping with minor issues. His garage door opener stopped working for instance and I knew the previous owners, they are still friends, so I knew the trick to get it working right again.

He said he was a Naval Commander retired, and now is enjoying retirement, but you can see through that guise. He clearly loves his politics and the roll he plays there. The Congressman he supported was Republican and he insists he is as well. However he off handedly mentions he is considering a fund raiser for Sen. Clinton later that year, and if I am interested he will extend an invite.

Anyway, we head to Delaware, and on the designated day we head on up to Washington. We had an ambitious plan for the day, but by the time we got to Washington we barely had time to get to The White House at our designated time. We rushed to get there then rushed to get to the right gate to check in, only to discover that the time frame is pretty flexible. At the gate I was amazed at what appeared to be lack of security. We gave our names and went into a tent to pass through a metal detector, and followed a path and we were suddenly in the White House. that was it. However I suppose that the appearance of light security is a sign of expert security and those who know how security is done right. Unlike visiting the Statue of Liberty, that is another story!

The tour was self paced and self guided, but in each room were staff whom you could ask most any question regarding the room. The tour was nice, short, but all the same very impressive to be in the White House. In the same building each and every President lived in. That in itself was aw inspiring. No camera's allowed unfortunately.

After the tour we easily found a nice pub type place to have a good lunch. As it was snowing, and the weather was clearly turning, we decided to see the Lincoln Memorial only and then head home. Well, never having been to Washington before, and not knowing where things were it was a challenge. My wife, son and I walked to where we thought the memorial was, passing the Vietnam Memorial on the way. That was aw inspiring as well, and we did make it to the Lincoln Memorial. by now it was blustery wintery snowing hard and cold. We could not find her brother and guest had no idea where they were, they had the car and the heat, and were not answering the cell phone.

So we stayed at the memorial until finally they called us. I walked to the car, then dropped them off so they could see the memorial and circled the square a few times not having luck parking but enjoying the warmth. By now it was getting late snow was heavy and we were downtown Washington on a weekday with heavy snow. I suspected that did not bode well to get out of town easily!

We all finally were together in the car, it was 3-4 ish and I could see the mass exodus begin for the end of the work day. However we drove past the Capitol building and could not resist a stop for a photo opportunity. We did get some great photos of the Capitol building with snow coming down. they look great, however, the commute nightmare began.

Getting out of Washington was no easy affair!

There was a little event getting to Washington as well. We had to head up through Delaware to get to the bridge to Washington, and the drive was longer than we expected. My brother-in-law being from Germany and wanting to drive, well, when we blew past the police car with the radar gun, it was a no brainer as they say that were going to be pulled over.

The officer was too funny. She asked for his Lic, and we told her it was German. Well, she came back to the car after a few min. and informed us how smart she was that she figured out all by herself it was a German Lic. we had to hold back laughing. Then, she asked if he knew how fast he was driving, to which he retorted, "maybe 85", she almost lost it then, and said well, we were clocked at 95 and even if we were doing 85, the limit was 55! then she did something odd, she looked over at me in the passenger seat and asked why I was not driving! I said then I would be getting the ticket! She did not respond very well to that remark, we were trying hard to lighten a tense situation, but she was not seeing the humor there.

My wife and the female friend were in the back seat glaring at us as well. It was getting hot in that car I can tell you. So, we offered our apologies and thanked her, but she was not done. She proceeded to explain more about the ticket as she then thought for some reason as people do sometimes that if she spoke slowly and over pronounced the words my German friend would better understand her! It was quite comical. His handle on the English language puts mine to shame. However the moment of almost complete loss of control came when she handed him the ticket and said it would be a $260 fine.

My brother-in-law not knowing the rules here in the US, pulled out his wallet and started counting cash and tried to hand it to her! I thought at that moment we were surely all going to jail with her. To her credit she gently pushed the hand he was holding out to her back and said no, he didn't understand he has to mail it in. She then very clearly and slowly explained as if to a child how to mail it in money order form etc etc. It was a long speech. Thus the reason we were rushing when we did arrive in Washington for the scheduled tour.