So not having blogged in a while I thought it was time to rectify the situation. The trip to Washington so lovingly described in my lasts post was incredible. Having been to the U.S. a few times before the excitement of the country has left me somewhat but this was my fathers first visit so he was like a child in a sweet shop. This infected me and I again became excited about an 8-hour flight across the Atlantic. The United Airways cabin crew were fantastic serving our every need mainly because the plane was empty. When I say empty I mean 20 passengers total. First class was half empty (no free upgrade though) and steerage was barren. This made for easy reclining though. So we arrived at the Omni Shoreham hotel and in the typical American hotel style was great. The room way typically huge and having signed up to the preferred guest programme we had free chocolate, newspapers and extra towels. The extra towels came in very handy for gross over indulgence. Drying each body area with a separate towel. Having arrived early and not showing any signs of jetlag we decided to head off to see if George was in but the Secret Service at the Whitehouse were less than willing to let us in. A day sightseeing on the Saturday was very pleasing as with it being early December the museums were practically empty. The Air and Space was as always very cool and the new National museum of the American Indian was interesting if a little sparse.

Sunday arrived and brought with it the very reason for being in The Washington Redskins Washington D.C. were playing theNew York Giants at the depressingly named FedEx Field . The Redskins used to play at the RFK stadium which is a much better name if you ask me. We took the wonderfully quick, clean and airy Metro to Landover and then tried to catch the bus to the stadium but this bus didn't give change especially when you were offering a $50 note. We took a cab instead. Arriving at the stadium is a lesson in organisation with hundred of police and volunteer marshals all over the place. The stadium holds over 90,000 people though so it needs something to keep it going. It takes 15 minutes to walk around the ground and about an hour to decide what to buy from the gift shop. Entering the ground you realise just how big the place is (as if a 15 minute walk around wasn't clue enough) and the 110-yard of pitch looks tiny. Our seats were perhaps 30 meters from the pitch and it still looked small. After a few bits of entertainment from the very flexible cheerleaders and the band the game began. The first drive for the Redskins ended in a touch down and began on their own 10-yard line. It took ten minutes of the play clock and was spectacular. The Redskins remained on top and the Giants only scored one touchdown from a kick off return. The whole experience was great from beginning to end and something I'd recommend even if you're not that interested in the sport.

The flight back was much the same as out and we arrived home on Tuesday more or less worn out and I slept most of Wednesday in-between repeats of Friends and very dull daytime TV.

Coming soon... Christmas