Turning off the daylight-savings...on time!

Over the weekend we had our first guest spending the night at our place - well, first guest when N is around. Our guest was N's second cousin who was in NYC due to work reasons. It was his first visit abroad and he really was having a complete blast! So we had invited him over to join us for the weekend. The last time N and he saw each other was 6 years ago! He couldn't make it to our wedding even though he was in Bangalore, but now is visiting us here! ;) cool, no. Initially he was to arrive by bus but he missed it and then booked a flight to head down. He caught the delta connection flight over from NYC to Ronald Reagan national airport. He told us he was leaving NYC at 4.10pm and reaching at 5.55pm. We all thought it was weird that it would take two hours to make it here! What the planes are going slower these days!? hmmm...

Seeing that he had managed to miss the bus, N just wanted to confirm the timings of the plane. So just as we were getting ready to head out to do some shopping before going to the airport, he called the arrivals line to check. We found that the flight had left on time and was to arrive at 5.18pm! Oh dear... that was so much earlier and so there was no time for shopping but go straight to the airport. It was 5pm then! We reached the airport by 5.30pm and cousin was nowhere to be found. Then we took a look at monitors to find that arrival time was 5.55pm. Strange we thought. So we waited by the gate, and we waited. Suddenly on my left there comes this young man looking at us as if he knew us and asked N if he was in fact N. Sure enough there was his cousin! What did he do jump out of the plane before it landed?!

We were all confused. Cousin had landed at 4.55pm and was having pizza at the restaurant by the gate. He was watching the two of us for ten minutes thinking "wah, Indians are here as well!" And then he realized it was N & wife waiting! he he he...

It slowly hit us that no the flights are not flying slower, but the airline has forgotten to set its clock back by an hour! And because of that cousin again almost had missed his flight but luckily he was at the airport nearly two hours before departure time which turned out to be one hour! And because Delta connection had not updated its clocks there was no announcements made, but the flight was ready to leave on time!

wow...what an experience. I had heard on the NEWS how this daylight savings change has potential to cost lives and money. But since this is my first experience with it, I couldn't imagine how this could be possible. Until now.

National Monument

On Sunday, we headed to the Mall, where we got tickets (free) to go up the Washington National Monument. Some of the pictures are here. It was amazing to see how much the leaves have fallen within two and half weeks! But what caught my eyes were spots of trees with bright red leaves. They were beautiful! These pictures are through the thick windows above and not too clear!



The other cool thing was on the way down in the elevator, they slow down a bit to show the many memorial stones that were used in building the memorial. Memorial stones recognized the many entities and individuals from around the country & the world who donated funds to help build the monument. The cool thing was that elevator windows turn from solid white to transparent glass! It was cool!! ;)

After then we headed to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. It was cool. We barely got through the lobby area! Cousin spent a lot of time in the gift shop! Definitely a place to go back to and spend a day!! It has a planetarium. A place I truly enjoy!