Behind the Scenes: The Best Laid Plans


"Behind the Scenes" is a fun link up where we show those photos - but tell the real story behind them. The sneak peek behind the scenes, a look past the edges of the photo to the real life behind it. 

This is only my second link up with Crystal.  Click on over to see what it's all about and to read other great stories.


This is my handsome hubby Jason in front of the National Monument at approximately 4 am on a February morning.  We posted the photos of our early morning run on Facebook, of course.  But I never did tell the whole story.

We flew to Rhode Island (just the two of us, which is amazing... in our ten years of marriage, we realized we had never been on a plane together!!) to help his mom pack up her house and get ready for her move to Washington.  We spent a few days helping her and getting a taste of Rhode Island.  All I kept thinking was, "I could run this state."  Literally, from one end to the other.  It is so small! 

On our flight home we had an eight hour layover in DC starting at about 11:00 pm.  Kind of silly really, but I had grand plans!  I'd found a great deal on a hotel not too far from the airport, and I was dying to get Jason to the monuments for a run.  I've been to DC eight or nine times for work, and I am just getting comfortable with taking the metro around and running the mall.  In fact, I love it.  Every time I go now, I run the mall, say hi to my babe Abe, get teary, etc.  I really love DC.  I wanted to share that part of my travel life with Jason, since he only ever gets to hear me talk about it.  But I think I thought I knew DC better than I really did because my grand plans kept having to change as we went through the morning. 

To begin with, the metro doesn't start running until after we had to be halfway through our run.  Errr, oops!  So, I had to call a cab to drive us to the mall.  We were nervous and cold and kept wondering out loud if we should really try and squeeze in this run.  But, the cab showed up, and we went for it.  We were practically the only ones out.  Except the fox that ran in front of us just before the National Monument!  That was awesome!  

I was slower than usual, having eaten a really heavy dinner late the night before and being short on sleep.  Our quick mall jaunt took longer than I had planned.  So we raced down to the metro just in time to catch it back to where I thought our hotel was.  I guess I don't know DC as well as I thought I did.  Between the metro map and my Google maps, we (we, being Jason) figured out how to get over to the hotel.  Jason was done believing that I knew much of anything about DC by this point.  

By now it was almost 6 and our plane was leaving at 8 something.  To get to our hotel, we had to cross four lanes of traffic without a crosswalk sign (so illegal!).  Then Jason starts to scale down the side of an embankment and over a wall that was not meant for pedestrians to climb over.  I was mortified!  Even with no one around to see us!  I thought I was going to die or get a pedestrian ticket.  I was seriously trying to wait for all the lights and use the sidewalk to go all around and be legal.  Jason made me break the law so that we could get to the room in time to shower and change for the shuttle.  

We raced into our hotel, sweaty and probably hysterical.  As we ran to the elevator, I told the doorman we would be down for the next airport shuttle.  He looked a little puzzled.  We had twenty minutes.  The adrenaline rush from breaking so many pedestrian laws far outdid my endorphin fix from the run!  We showered and packed our suitcases, making it down just in time.  

I didn't relax until we checked our bags at the airport. 

It was, by far, the craziest layover I've ever had.   Maybe not a best first flying experience for a husband and wife, but definitely one that made a great memory.  The next time we run the mall, I'm going to plan just a tad better!

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