New York- Phi- Baltimore -Washington DC- Arlington

31/5/2010(Mon) New York- Phi- Baltimore -Washington DC- Arlington
1/6/2010(Tues) Still in DC, left the tour in the afternoon at The Mall(raining)
2/6/2010(Wed) Leave Washington DC

31/5/2010 New York- Phi- Baltimore -Washington DC- Arlington

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania state

Pennsylvania is a state in the eastern United States. It is known for its Revolutionary War-era historical sites like Valley Forge, its large cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, its farming regions, some occupied by the Amish, and a (once)-strong industrial history. With equally large swaths of cities and towns as fields and mountains, Pennsylvania is a rich and varied state, as well as a worthy travel destination. Pennsylvania is bordered by the states of New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio. The main cities are the aforementioned Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with other smaller cities such as Allentown, Erie, Reading, Bethlehem, and Scranton.

Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania state, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, on the southern fringe of the mid-Atlantic region, is the fourth-largest urban area in the United States and the country's sixth-largest city. Often referred to as "Philly," the city's metropolitan area encompasses twelve counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.



Independence Hall, Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa-Su 9AM-6PM. The centerpiece of the park and arguably its most important building. Originally known as the Pennsylvania State House, this is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, and where the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, among other momentous historical events. Visitors to the park are encouraged to take a tour of the interior of the building, which is furnished with period pieces. Timed tour tickets must be reserved in advance online or at the Visitor's Center in order to enter. Tickets reserved online have a $1.50 processing fee, but are free at the Visitor's Center. Admission is free.



Liberty Bell Center, Market Street, between 5th and 6th Streets,. M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa-Su 9AM-6PM. The Liberty Bell once rang out public announcements from above the Pennsylvania state house (now Independence Hall). It became a public symbol of freedom when it toured the country after the Civil War to help mend political and social divisions. Returning to Philadelphia in 1915, it is now housed in the Liberty Bell Center where visitors can get an up close look at the 2000-pound bell and its mysterious crack. Admission is free.

National Constitution Center, 525 Arch Street,. M-F 9:30AM-5PM, Sa 9:30AM-6PM, Su Noon-5PM. This brand-spanking new museum, which opened its doors in 2003, bills itself as the most interactive history museum in America. A visit to the museum begins with a performance of "Freedom Rising," a multimedia presentation about the major themes and origin of the Constitution. Afterwards, visitors can experience the democratic process first hand and see exhibits like the 42 life-size bronze statues of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Fun for all ages. Upcoming special events and exhibits are posted on the Center's website. Tickets to the museum are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $8 for children ages 4-12. Active military personnel and children under 4 enter free.

Baltimore, Maryland State

Maryland on the Mid-Atlantic, nicknamed America in Miniature, has a little bit of everything: both sea and mountain, urban and rural, historic and modern. It ranges from some of the nation's most densely populated areas around Washington, D.C., to bucolic rural areas in the east around the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore, and in the Appalachian Mountains in the west. Baltimore is the state's biggest city, with literal boatloads of tourist attractions around its Inner Harbor; Annapolis, with its historical maritime charm, is its capital.

Batimore(39 miles /51 km from Washington DC., about 1 hr)
Baltimore is a popular tourist destination in Maryland, in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America, near Washington, D.C. It is perhaps most famously known as the city where Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics for the Star Spangled Banner, and today has become a major center for tourism and travel. It lies on the juncture of the Chesapeake Bay. With continuous nightlife, temperate climate, and plenty of hospitality, any time of the year is a great time to visit. It is better to visit from Washington DC, as it will be shorter than from NY.




View Larger Map

The Baltimore Harbor is the busy center to the city, a major tourist attraction, a must-see, often featuring live music by jazz groups and crooners and plenty of eating and shopping. While locals scorn the Inner Harbor as a pre-fabricated tourist mecca devoid of true Baltimore culture, visitors should see the harbor, and especially should visit some of its excellent museums and other attractions. Highlights range from the Historic Ships in Baltimore (including the USS Constellation), the kid-mesmerizing Maryland Science Center, to the crowded and enormous National Aquarium, to the radically eccentric American Visionary Arts Museum.

The tourist district of the Inner Harbor is a great destination, where you will have a great time. But it is oddly a historic in one of America's most historic cities. The most prominent historical attraction is Fort McHenry across the harbor at the tip of Locust Point. It gained an iconic status in American revolutionary history by successfully defending the Baltimore harbor from the British naval bombardment in the War of 1812, at which time Sir Francis Scott Key was inspired by the tattered but still waving American flag on the fort to write the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.

The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and iconic landmark of the City of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The harbor itself is actually the end of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River and includes any water west of a line drawn between the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Rusty Scupper restaurant. The term "Inner Harbor" is used not just for the water but for the surrounding area of the city, with approximate street boundaries of President Street to the east, Lombard Street to the north, Greene Street to the west, and both Camden Street and Conway Street to the south. The harbor is within walking distance of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium and has a water taxi that connects the Inner Harbor to Fells Point, Canton, and Fort McHenry.

http://www.baltimore.to/baltimore.html



Pratt Street Power Plant, also known as the Pier Four Power Plant, The Power Plant, or Pratt Street Station, is a historic power plant located at Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Pratt Street Power Plant was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

The Power Plant's tenants have included the first ESPN Zone in the country (opened July 11, 1998; closed June 2010), Hard Rock Cafe (opened July 4, 1997), Barnes & Noble, Gold's Gym (closed early 2010), and loft offices. Maryland Art Place, a contemporary art gallery for Maryland artists, is located in the northwest corner. The popular concert venue Rams Head Live! is also located in the area. It lends its name to the nearby Power Plant Live! nightlife complex. Hard Rock Cafe guitar on the stacks of the Power Plant, can prominently be seen from Inner Harbor area.

Power Plant Live! is a collection of bars, clubs, and other businesses in the Inner Harbor section of downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It was developed by the Cordish Company and opened in phases during 2001, 2002, and 2003. The entertainment complex gets its name from the nearby "Power Plant" building, which was also developed by Cordish. The Power Plant is a mixed-use project developed in the late 1990s in a power station, originally built in 1900. The $30 million project includes loft offices on the upper floors. The attraction provides a new nightlife and entertainment district for downtown Baltimore and is located along Market Place at the site of the failed 1980s Brokerage retail complex, adjacent to the Port Discovery children's museum (in the old Baltimore Fishmarket). Power Plant Live! includes restaurants, bars, comedy clubs, dance clubs, dueling pianos, and other concepts as well as the popular concert venue Rams Head Live!

The area is served by the Baltimore Metro Subway's Shot Tower/Market Place station.

http://www.powerplantlive.com/noflash.html

The National Aquarium in Baltimore is a public aquarium located at 501 E Pratt St. in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was opened in 1981 and was constructed during Baltimore's urban renewal period. The aquarium has an annual attendance of 1.6 million to see its collection of 16,500 specimens of 660 different species. Particular attractions include the dolphin display, rooftop rainforest, and central ray pool, and multiple-story shark tank. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is widely considered to be one of the best in the United States, if not the world. Coastal Living named it the #1 aquarium in the U.S. in 2006.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore (angular building, rear right, and 2005 extension to its left) lies near historic ships in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, including USS Torsk and Lightship Chesapeake.

Harborplace is a festival marketplace in Baltimore, Maryland, that opened in 1980 as a centerpiece of the revival of downtown Baltimore. As its name suggests, it is located on the Inner Harbor.

Harborplace is composed of 2 two-story pavilions, the Pratt Street Pavilion and the Light Street Pavilion. The third part of the Harborplace complex, located across Pratt Street from the Harbor, is a four-story glass-enclosed building known as The Gallery at Harborplace, which opened in 1987 and which is attached to Baltimore's Renaissance Hotel. Each of these buildings contains dozens of stores and restaurants. Many of the stores sell merchandise specific to Baltimore or the state of Maryland, such as blue crab food products, Baltimore Orioles and Ravens merchandise, Edgar Allan Poe products, and University of Maryland Terrapins clothing. Local merchants are complemented by national retailers and restaurants, such as The Cheesecake Factory, Johnny Rockets, Five Guys, Ann Taylor, Sunglass Hut, Banana Republic, Gap, Swatch, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, bebe, Fire & Ice, Starbucks, Brooks Brothers, Urban Outfitters, Uno Chicago Grill, and Swarovski.
http://www.harborplace.com/

The Maryland Science Center, located in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, opened to the public in 1976. It includes three levels of exhibits, a planetarium, and an observatory. It was one of the original structures that drove the revitalization of the Baltimore Inner Harbor from its industrial roots to a thriving downtown destination. In 1987, an IMAX theater was added, but the museum continued to show its age as the end of the 20th century approached. In 2004, a large addition to the property was opened, and the modernized hands-on exhibits now include more than two dozen dinosaur skeletons. Subjects that the center displays include physical science, space, Earth science, the human body, and blue crabs that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

http://www.marylandsciencecenter.org/

Located on the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, the Baltimore World Trade Center is the world's tallest equilateral five-sided building (the five-sided JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston, Texas is taller, but has unequal sides). It was designed by the firm of the famous architect I.M. Pei, with the principal architects being Henry Cobb and Pershing Wong.[1] The building was completed in 1977 at a cost of $22 million.

The building was positioned so that a corner points out towards the waters of the Inner Harbor, suggesting the prow of a ship. Perched at the Harbor's edge, the building appears to rise out of the water when viewed from certain vantage points. Giant floodlights in the base of each of the Center's five recessed corners can dramatically illuminate the building at night from the ground up, with oversized parabolic mirrors at the top of the five corners then reflecting the light outward in brilliant V-shaped beams. The "beacon" effect was loosely inspired by lighthouses found along the Chesapeake Bay. This signature lighting scheme can be seen in the Baltimore skyline from significant distance under most weather conditions, but it is greatly diminished when one or more of the floodlights are burned out, obstructed, or imprecisely aligned with the companion mirror(s). Additionally, the floodlights must all be fully powered and the mirrors must be cleaned to remain equally reflective. The floodlights are turned off at approximately 11:00 PM.

The Baltimore World Trade Center has an observation deck, called "Top of the World," that is open to the public during daytime hours. During the summer, the Center sponsors "Saturday Sunsets at the Top" featuring live music by local jazz artists. The landmark tower also houses the headquarters of the Maryland Port Administration as well as hosting office space to numerous companies and several state agencies. I.M.Pei's World Trade Center (1977) is the tallest equilateral pentagonal building in the world at 405 feet (123.4 m) tall.

The Baltimore Maritime Museum (BMM) is a maritime museum located in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland in the United States.

The museum's collection includes three historic museum ships and one lighthouse:

USCGC Taney (WHEC-37), a Coast Guard cutter
USS Torsk (SS-423), a WWII-era submarine
Chesapeake, a lightship
Seven Foot Knoll Light, a screw-pile lighthouse
All are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The three ships are also National Historic Landmarks.

http://www.historicships.org/

The tour bus stopped near the Inner Harbor, giving sufficient time to go around and managed to see most of the buildings in Inner Harbor areas. I have no time to wonder in the downtown, even I wished I can. Baltimore is a beautiful city which should be a good place to spend few days.

Washington DC

Washington, D.C. — the capital of the United States, with the country's most important museums and monuments nestled in the center of a diverse and vibrant city. Washington, D.C., is known to locals as simply D.C. or the District, The full title Washington, D.C., and the official name, District of Columbia, are rarely used by non-bureaucrats unless the speaker is trying to clearly distinguish the city from the state.
The city is located on the north bank of the Potomac River and is bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the other sides

http://www.dc.gov/
http:://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.

Washington DC & Washington State

Washington DC is located on the north bank of the Potomac River and is bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the other sides.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the federal territory until an act of Congress in 1871 established a single, unified municipal government for the whole District. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.

Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the forty-second state in 1889. The United States Census Bureau estimated the state's population was 6,664,195 in 2009.

Nearly 60% of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry, and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of deep rain forests in the west, mountain ranges in the center, northeast and far southeast, and eastern semi-deserts given over to intensive agriculture.

Washington was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States, and is the only U.S. state named after a president. Washington is commonly called Washington State or occasionally the State of Washington to distinguish it from the U.S. capital (and because its proper name is the State of Washington). But most commonly Washington refer to the state, the capital of USA is called Washington DC.



The National Mall(Lincoln Memorial, Potomac River, Smithsinian Institution, Washington Monument)

National Mall is a National Park and the monumental green space at the heart of the city, the heart of the national psyche, and the heart of civic America. It stretches two miles just south of the White House, from the U.S. Capitol Building in the east to the Lincoln Memorial and Potomac River on the west. The park is home to the Smithsonian, a huge collection of the nation's best (and free) museums, as well as most the country's most famous memorials and monuments. It is the number one destination for visitors in the city, and one of the biggest destinations in the country.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Washington%2C_D.C./National_Mall

Boat Ride at Potomac River
When we arrived in Washington DC, the first visit was to have boat ride at Potomac River. There are Japanese cherry trees at the bank of the river, the The Tidal Basin. But The Cherry Blossom Festival was over , when the trees bloom in the Spring, we are not able to see Japanese cherry blossom. The time is transition period of changing from Spring to Summer, flowering season has ended. Moreover the river view is not that spectacular, nothing special.

The boat ride is a let down, the boat is crowded, and there is no seat for our tour members. The boat was crowded with members of few tour groups. I wonder if the boat is overweight?. This is the first time I faced with the experience in USA, where the security concern is taken lightly by tour guide and boat operator. It is not free ride but a US$20(if my memory is correct) charge per adult. I do not expected this happen in USA. I feel like being cheated......

The Smithsonian Institution

Most museums open every day 10AM-5:30PM. The Smithsonian is a series of government supported museums lining the National Mall and elsewhere. You could easily spend a month or more visiting all the specialized museums. But if you are in a rush, most people find the Museum of Air and Space and the Museum of Natural History to be the best. Closely rivaling these two, the new Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of American History (re-opening in 2008) are extremely popular. The Smithsonian's information center (8:30AM-5:30PM) is located in "The Castle", a distinctive red sandstone building directly on the National Mall. All Smithsonian Museums are free for visiting. We visited The Museum of Air and Space, spending most of our time in this museum.

Korean War Veterans Memorial,. This memorial is a little hidden in the woods, and perhaps that's appropriate for the memorial to the one major war of the twentieth century (in which over 600,000 allied troops died) that did not leave such a huge impression in the American mind—the Forgotten War. It's easily one of the city's most powerful, though. The focus of the monument is the nineteen very realistic steel statues of American soldiers moving across the landscape (nineteen, because they total 38—referring to the 38th parallel—when reflected in the water). The lighting at night leaves an especially disconcerting, ghostly impression. The best time to visit might be after a winter snow storm, which will help you remember the worst hardship of the war—the snowy marches through the cruel Siberian winds.

We missed Vietnam Veterans Memorial & National World War II Memorial; as the day is getting late, and need to rush to Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial
The most powerful event to occur on the Mall in recent memory was the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech at the steps of Lincoln Memorial. Most of the D.C. memorials, especially those for U.S. leaders, are meant to awe and impress in a very direct manner. None more so than this impressive monument in a commanding location at the end of the Mall. Modeled after the Greek Temple of Zeus, Lincoln sits with a commanding presence overlooking the reflecting pool, straight across the Mall to the Washington Monument and beyond it the Capitol Building. Few monuments in the world can match the simple power of the Lincoln Memorial at night.

When come out from Lincoln Memorial, looking forward, it provide a spectacular view of Washington Monument.

The tour bus need to rush for our dinner, and hotel to night is at Arlington,at the neighboring Virginia State.

Hotel at Arlington, Virginia state

Arlington is an urban county in Virginia. Arlington is located directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is 4.3 miles which take 12 min by car. The most famous war memorial in the city, Arlington Cemetery is not actually in the city—it is just across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial, across the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Arlington. At the northern tip of the cemetery is the marvelous Iwo Jima Memorial; at the southern tip, the Pentagon.

We did not stopped in any tourist attractions in Arlington, but the tour guide show us the place from the bus. No opportunity to take photo.

Arlington National Cemetery
"To cover more ground—the cemetery is 200 acres—hop on a Tourmobile bus, which stops at the main sights"—Andrea Sachs. Tomb of the unknown soldier; more than 100 graveside services each week; JFK gravesite eternal flame; Arlington House; near the Iwo Jima Memorial; final resting sites of astronauts, explorers, Presidents, and military personnel. Arlington, VA.
www.arlingtoncemetery.org

Pentagon. Just across the Potomac River from downtown DC. Metro: Pentagon. While lingering is not recommended for security reasons, you should know it is the largest office building in the world, and covers 4 zip codes. (Army, Navy, Air Force and Department of Defense.)

The hotel is Sheraton Hotel, Arlington. No breakfast is provided for the tour group members. This is a good hotel. I will recommend any visitor to DC, to stay in this hotel. The hotel even have shuttle to subway and airport.

1/6/2010(Tuesday) Washington DC- 2nd day

White House(north of The National Mall)

Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Tours: Tu-Th 7:30AM-11AM, F 7:30AM-noon, sa 7:30AM-1PM. Free.
Built starting in 1792, and first residence for the nation's second president, John Adams, the White House has been the residence and office for each presidency since. The building's chief architect, James Hoban, an Irishman, left a nationalistic mark on the U.S., modeling the President's home after Ireland's National Parliament building in Dublin. While Hoban's vision has survived the past 200+ years, including the 1814 fire set by invading British forces, the interior has hardly been static. As it is, after all, the president's house, each president has taken the liberty of various redecoratings, expansions, and additions—the entire East Wing, for example, was added only during the Coolidge Administration. The last major renovation occurred under Truman, but much of the antiques, artwork, and decorating styles you'll see today come courtesy of the First Wife of renowned taste, Jackie Kennedy.
President Jefferson opened the White House to the public, and it has remained so during peacetime (with varying restrictions) ever since. Following the attacks of September 11th, tours have been available only for U.S. citizens in groups of ten or more, and these must be requested up to six months in advance through your member of Congress. Note that the standard tours focus on the social/residential part of the White House—the East Wing, rather than the working West Wing. You can see the front door from Lafayette Square on the north side, and the back (the more famous curved facade) from the Ellipse on the south side. Political demonstrations typically take place at the front, though larger ones have been known to encircle the fence. Reservations must be made at least one month prior to the date you wish to visit. It's worth visiting if only to see the exterior.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Washington%2C_D.C./West_End

The Capitol Building and the White House offer front-row views to history being made. Visitors to the White House must reserve tickets through their Senator or Congressman. Foreign nationals must reserve tickets through their embassy, usually six months in advance. Visits to the Capitol Building now can be booked online free of charge (http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/) or taken on a walk-in basis - tickets are usually available, especially during off-peak season. These tickets, however, can only be used for visit to the historical part of the U.S. Capitol, while visits to the wings where the Senate and the House are located should also be booked through your Congressmen. Tickets including walk-ins can be picked up at the Visitor Center located at the foot of the Capitol Hill (the entrance is at the back of the Capitol building, right across the Library of Congress). The tour of the Capitol Building will allow you to see the interior of the building which is decorated like a palace with paintings and reliefs on the ceiling. For those that do not have the time or inclination to join an organized tour, keep in mind that you can still go to the outside of both the Capitol and White House, and take photos in front of them. You will be kept at a distance from the buildings by security, but this is not much of an issue as you will probably want to step back to take a picture anyway. If you're lucky, you may see protesters in front of the White House and see American Democracy in action.

When we visited the white house there are police patrol car and it is raining. A heavy rain followed when on the visit to the Capital Building, most of the tour members are not able to take a good picture.

Detour form the tour schedule - good bye to tour group
We need to get off from the tour bus, as we are not following the tour group back to New York. Thanks God, when the bus stopped for us to unload our luggage, the heavy rain suddenly stopped. We are able to call for a taxi(for US$12)to hotel, without getting wet. Since this will be our last journey in East Coast, the heavy luggage will be problem if the rain is heavy.

Capital Skyline Hotel
Our hotel is at Capital Skyline Hotel, located at 10 "1" Street SW. The hotel did not provide water or water heater; you need to go to the basement to get ice from the ice machine or buy soft drink from the vendor machine. However breakfast is provided. The location of the hotel near Capitol Hall is an advantage, it is walking distance to the National Mall. Shuttle service also provide to downtown and airport. But beware of the charge per luggage for the shuttle service to airport.

The National Mall Revisit
After check-in to hotel, we walk to The Mall again to continue our visit to Capitol Hall where we failed to visit early when it rains. We are lucky than the other tour group members, we have chance to visit the building after the rain, because we stay back in DC. We really have a lot of walking at the area.

Capitol Hill( east of Capitol Building, the Supreme Court steps, or the Library of Congress, RFK Stadium)
Capital Hill is a venerable neighborhood just east of the Capitol building, best known as the main residence in the city for two of the three branches of the federal government—the legislative and the judicial—are located here, It is a beautiful historic neighborhood of eighteenth and nineteenth century rowhouses in a wide range of architectural styles, and a wandering stroll from the Capitol to Barracks Row along residential side streets is a nice way to take in this quintessentially Washingtonian neighborhood and for the staffers who run the place. Rare is the visitor who skips a visit to the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court steps, or the Library of Congress, but time permitting you should make an effort to head further east to see this beautiful neighborhood, and to have a nice meal on Barracks Row while listening to the politicos chatter away. Even further east is the area's other big attraction, RFK Stadium.

The call to restore The National Mall


By using guided tour, again I did not really know the Washington DC; I missed Georgetown which initially I planned to visit if I am on my own. But of consolation is that when we stay back for additional night at DC, we are able to have good coverage of the National Mall at night.

2/6/2010(Wednesday) Washington DC - Los Angeles

The hotel has free shuttle to the downtown and airport, but the time did not fix our planned time to airport. We intend to take the taxi to the bus stand, where there is direct line to the airport. The taxi initially want to charge fee on the luggage e.g fee per bag charge, in additional to per passenger charge, we refuse to take the taxi. Finally the taxi driver give way and charge only per passenger only. the taxi fare to the bus stand is US$15. Please bear in mind there is tax and tips for taxi fare. The distance is actually walking distance away.

Metrobus, bus service geared towards locals and is a bit confusing since there is no central terminal, and most stops do not show the route map, but nonetheless, Metrobus will take you places hard to reach via Metro or the Circulator, and can be a really convenient, comfortable way to travel if you know which bus to take. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority service to Dulles is the "express" 5A Metrobus route. The 5A express bus makes two to three stops on its way from the airport to downtown Washington, depending on the time of day: stops include the Herndon–Monroe transfer station in Herndon and the Rosslyn Metro station in Arlington. The Metrobus bus fare to the Washington Dulles International Airport from the bus stop is cheap. The driver is very helpful despite we are having luggage.

Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) is a public airport located 26 miles (41.6 km) west of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Dulles, Virginia. The airport is named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

We go early to the airport as we will be waiting at LAX airport for the arrival of daughter from Penang. We will meet her at the LAX airport on 3/6/2010.