A few pics with me and the gang, in this Flickr set. More as I have time, or they upload their own.

The first one was the worst. Adi was supposed to leave last Monday at 8pm. We spent the first half day running around the city for some last minute shopping, unsuccessfully. Got home around 4pm and started calling cab companies to schedule a ride to JFK. He was stressed about his luggage size – having to carry a lot of stuff for other people – so he wanted to get there earlier just in case he’s over the limit and needs to take some stuff out. We left at 4:30, which was way before what I was suggesting.

We arrived at the airport at a little over 5. Got in line for check-in, noticing how few people were over at the KLM line. An attendant offered to help us and asked what time is our flight. We answered 8pm and she looked puzzled. “The only flight we have is at 10pm”.

I check my email (Adi forwarded me his reservation). It said 10pm. We were 5 hours early.

What followed was an in-depth examination of the insides of JFK’s Terminal 4 for about an hour and a half. We got some dinner at one point and when it got close to 7 Adi went past security. His gate was opening at 8:30, and from what I heard afterward, even the plane left 1 hour later than planned. Total wasted time: about 6 hours, which could have easily been avoided if one of us would have double-checked the time. Not to mention I had it in my calendar, phone, and even email, staring me in the face. Guess that’s what sleep deprivation will do to you.

Mihnea and Ilinca left last Wednesday. I had them check and double-check the time their flight was departing (11:30pm) and they insisted I don’t go with them to the airport. I called them a cab for 8:30pm and sent them off to Terminal 4, where KLM (the airline they all arrived with) was operating. We hugged and said goodbyes in front of my building and off they went.

Half an hour later I get a phone call from Mihnea. “Ummm… which is the terminal for Air France?”. Apparently, due to the fact that they were going to Paris for 4 days instead of back to Romania, they changed airlines. I looked it up (it’s 1 by the way) and send them to take the Air Train. 15 minutes later I get a text message saying they got there ok and they’re on their way to France.

Vlad left today, at 5:40pm. Surprisingly – if you know Vlad – he wasn’t late for the airport. And he got the airline and time of departure right, so everything went smoothly. We spent some time browsing magazines in the terminal and afterward he went to the security checkpoint. Should get home by tomorrow afternoon, local time.

Back at my home, the apartment feels too quiet. After 2 weeks of people shuffling around, TV, music, games, snores (oh god, the snores) now everything seems eerily silent. Which is why I’m blasting music while I write this and thinking about when to have my next Wii or Rock Band party. Soon.

The original plan was to leave at 8. The revised plan was to leave at 9. The updated, upgraded and enhanced plan was to leave at 10.

We left at 10:30.

Half an hour later, while crossing the Lincoln Tunnel, we got stuck because of an accident. For 45 minutes. We had to wait there inhaling fumes while tow trucks came and picked up 3 badly damaged cars. Add one stop for gas and food and the whole trip took us 6 hours, instead of the scheduled 4. Great start.

We parked in front of the Smithsonian at 4:30pm and headed into the Air and Space Museum. We barely had time to run from one end to the other before the curators kicked us out – the museum was closing at 5:30. Which sucked, since it was really, really interesting. Must plan a future visit there and a whole day to explore it.

Afterward we started strolling the National Mall and take tons of pictures like any self-respecting tourists. After checking out the Capitol – complete with duckies in the pond – I volunteered to drive the car all the way behind the Lincoln Memorial and wait for the rest there. Which turned out not to be such a good idea: after passing the memorial I found myself on a highway, crossing the Potomac and exiting the city at high speed; after returning and trying the other side I found myself in Arlington Cemetery. In the end I gave up and parked the car where it was before.

At the Lincoln Memorial there was a movie set and they were filming a scene – sadly, I can’t say I recognized any of the actors. There was police to keep the tourists on the sides of the steps and they were asking not to use flash photography.

On our way back to the car we ran into more policemen and we saw an official motorcade stopping at the Washington Monument. The officer at the base refused to let us go up the hill and didn’t answer any of our questions about who or what was going on. So we circled the area to get back to where I parked and saw on the other side some people going up. Me and Mihnea got curious and headed uphill, where we found 3 agents (Secret Service I assume) that politely told us that they need to frisk us if we were to go further. We managed to get pretty close to the monument, but on the other side of where the cars were. There was some press, a few tourists and a bunch of agents patrolling around. We got bored pretty quickly (not to mention chilly) and decided to head back. By the time we reunited with the others, the motorcade already left. Later we found out that our suspicions were correct and somebody important was there

After a few night shots at the White House, we left. My phone – which doubled as a GPS – gave out its remaining battery in the first hour, leaving us in the dark. Fortunately the road was pretty straightforward and we got back to NY without any problems. We were home at 2:30am.