Day One - Journey and Arrival

Hello all.

We're off to Washington DC today, the first stop on a three week holiday/tour with the London Gay Men's Chorus. After my usual custom, I'm going to be keeping a travel diary as I go, recording my thoughts and impressions. Can be quite dull, but sometimes people say nice things about what I write.

Anyway it was an early start today as I hate rushing to airports: it's way too stressful a way to start a holiday. I had enough stress yesterday over the packing - we're away for three weeks and doing four Chorus performances along the way, plus all the sightseeing, mostly in a tropical climate where every building has airconditioning, so I'm anticipating lots of changes of clothes.

I ended up bringing two cases, albeit the second one is only very small. That relieves me of the hassle of packing and re-packing to get the maximum possible into the space available.

So back to the trip: It was uneventful. United Airlines don't have electronic check-in, so we had to queue - but since we were there so early we didn't have to wait long. The flight got away a little late, but made up the time en route. The service was good but the movies were poor. We touched down at Dulles at 14:45 a little ahead of our scheduled time. The worst that followed was me having to wait 35 minutes in the immigration queue to be asked a few pro-forma questions about the purpose of my visit. Brett, being an American citizen and therefore not entitled to a long queue, whizzed through and had the luggage waiting for me when I'd finally had the required number of things stapled to my already badly perforated passport.

An airport bus took us directly to our hotel, the Hotel Rouge, along with Paul Tame (one of our Second Tenors) who had been on a flight half-an-hour ahead of ours. The hotel is a 'boutique' hotel, which seems to mean they've let a Changing Rooms designer loose with a large budget. No MDF here, but lots of funky furniture, red walls and leopardskin carpets. All tastefully moodlit in red. To be honest it feels like I'm staying in a brothel! (Maybe that's why the wardrobe is so small, they normally rent the rooms by the hour?)

But for all the 'unique' decor, the necessaries of a hotel are there and are good quality, so I can't complain.

After a brief lie down followed by a frenzy of unpacking, we headed down to the bar (red velvet, high-backed sofa-ettes, red halogen spotlights) and had a drink with Paul T who'd been exploring what to do in DC. After a snack and a quick cocktail (well it was Happy Hour) we headed out into the moist Washington evening (30 degrees and 69% humidity) to explore the Dupont Circle area.

As you come out the hotel, to your left you've got a view straight down the road to the collonade of the White House but we headed in the opposite direction. Apparantly the area around Dupont Circle is the 'gay area' in Washington and so it proved to be: Nice, open boulevards, lined with the melange of american architecture, pavement cafes, shops and bars and a very friendly crowd. After wandering around for an hour, we stopped into a bar that Brett knew from his time here and no sooner had we walked in than we ran into another Chorus member. Darryl Day (another Second Tenor) has been here a few days already with his boyfriend and was enjoying Happy Hour in JR's bar. We joined him for a few, but then Brett and I left to grab a bite to eat.

At a nearby brasserie we dined on quesadillas and, behold, no sooner had we sat down than Phillip Brecht (yes, another LGMC T2!) appeared beside us. He joined us for a beer while we ate and regaled us with the story of his journey. He left the UK before us and got in about five hours after we did. He'd flown US Air via Charlotte - where he'd had to wait 2:45hrs to clear immigration, missing his connection in the process. After hearing his tale of disaster piled upon disaster, I felt that suffering through a couple of B-Movies with United really hadn't been that bad after all.

After dinner we went our seperate ways: Phillip to find Paul T, with whom he is rooming, and us to the hotel to collapse into bed.

Most of the rest of the Chorus is flying-in tomorrow, after what sounds like a successful gig at the Cannizaro Arts Festival in Wimbledon today. I'm really looking forward to it. I suspect a long, fabulous party is about to begin...