I woke up relatively early since I needed to get on the road to pick up Jackson in Richmond. Sarah’s dad and brought home Chick-Fil-a nuggets for breakfast which are something I’ve never had, and also never really pictured as a breakfast food. They ended up being pretty good and were much smaller than other chicken nuggets I’ve had. We sat around talking and eating for a bit before we said our goodbyes and I got on the road.
The drive to Richmond was relatively uneventful with only one real incident where a cement truck started merging into my lane and almost squished me between it and a concrete barrier. I got to the airport a few minutes before Jackson’s flight landed so I waited in the cell phone waiting lot for a bit before going and picking him up. Once I picked him up we headed into the city to see the capitol which is conveniently located just 15 minutes from the airport.
The Virginia capitol building and surrounding areas are quite nice, with both the old and new city halls being right behind it. The old city hall is a very grand and tall building, juxtaposed by the new and quite modern present-day city hall. We walked around a bit and took our photos in front of the capitol before heading back to the car past the governors mansion. We then got on the road towards DC, our destination for the day.
Google Maps was acting a bit weird on this drive and kept telling us to take toll roads that were closed. The toll roads in the DC area are reversible so they can go one way in the morning rush and the other way in the evening rush, but Google Maps doesn’t seem to have any understanding of this fact. Eventually Google Maps told us to take an offramp onto a different highway, which we did since it didn’t look like it was trying to route us onto a toll road. Unfortunately, it was routing us onto a toll road, along with everyone else it seemed! Tons of cars were turning down this road that dead-ended and forced you to turn around to get back on the main highway.
Despite the toll road nightmare, we were able to arrive in DC in the late afternoon and got super lucky with a parking spot almost directly out front of Jacksons friend Austin’s house. The parking spot was tight and I needed Austins help to tell me how much space I had on each side as I backed up, but we eventually managed to park without hitting any other cars. We hung out at home for a bit before heading out into the local shopping and dining area a few minutes walk away to get some ramen. The ramen was super good and wasn’t even that expensive, and came with small bits of fried chicken on the side which were super tasty.
After our meal we went back home and had a relaxing rest of our evening watching the hockey game (Carolina Hurricanes vs Florida Panthers, and the Panthers won) before heading to bed. Jackson and I were given Austin’s room, with me on the bed and Jackson on a big air mattress while Austin slept on the very comfortable couch in the living room.