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Washington, DC Adventures

Posted by Stuart at 06:16 PM on May 03, 2006

The last three days have been spent in travel to and from Washington, DC, and hanging out with friends there. My main reason for going to DC was to try to get the 60-day tourist visa at the Thai Embassy that other expats had told me about. Sure enough, I was able to get a 60-day, single entry tourist visa to Thailand. The embassy warned me that if I didn't have a return ticket from Bangkok, then the Thai Immigration staff might give me a hard time. I have never been asked to prove that I had a return ticket before, so hopefully they won't ask this time as well. (Since I basically live in Thailand, I don't have a return ticket!)

I also took the opportunity to hang out with a few friends in the area. I stayed with Clayton, who was nice enough to let me crash at his place in Capitol Hill. (Or else he was just paying me back for his stay over in Bangkok a few months ago.) I also had a chance to have dinner with Kenley and to see his new home in Columbia Heights. I had never been to this area of DC before, so it was a new experience for me.

Last night I had dinner with another high school friend that I haven't seen in forever - Eric. I also got to meet his adorable 3 year old daughter for the first time. Eric and his wife Lacy (but mostly Eric) cooked us a fantastic dinner of teriyaki steak with portobello mushrooms. After dinner Eric and I had a chance to sit out in his back yard and talk. It was as if the 20 years since high school never happened, as we talked about some of the same things we used to talk about. After meeting with him and meeting with Kenley, I realized that even after all of the experiences we've had over the past few years, we are still the same people inside. Betsy and I talked about some of what we considered to be radical changes that have happened, but they were relatively minor changes because our core personality and beliefs haven't changed. We are who we are, and we will always be who we are.

After I picked up my Visa this morning, I had lunch with Tom, an old friend I met over the Internet years and years ago. (I'm not actually sure when we first met, but it's definitely been a long time.) It was good to catch up with him and to have a chance to make fun of his ridiculously huge Hummer in person.

This afternoon I drove my rental car from DC to New York, picked up my parents at LaGuardia, and headed back to our hotel in Flushing. We had dinner near the hotel at a fantastic Thai & Malaysian restaurant called Green Papaya on Prince Street in Flushing. After three steak dinners in the past four days, Thai and Malaysian food was a nice change.

So, I am not sure what we have planned for the next few days, but basically I'll just be hanging out with my Mom and Dad in the Big City. Should be fun!