My trip started at midnight on Friday night.  In order to get a good deal on plane tickets, I drove to Indianapolis for my early morning flight.  The drive was uneventful and I arrived exactly when I thought I would.  I spent some time waiting with other early arrivals at the Southwest ticket counter until they opened.  Hardly any line though, and none at security either.

The flight itself was pretty nice.  I forgot how great Southwest is compared to some of the other airlines.  The flight attendants and pilot had a great sense of humor. The flight was almost empty...I felt silly for checking my little bag.

Michi came to pick me up at the airport so we got to chit chat for the first time in years.  She sounds pretty happy in DC.  She dropped me off at the green line metro station and I took the train the rest of the way.  The cherry blossom festival parade was that morning so traffic on the streets was crazy.

I got into town just before 10am, so I decided to drop my bags off at the hostel where we were staying before hiking to the parade, but I somehow wandered into the convention center and got turned around, so by the time I actually headed to the parade it was almost 11.  I probably still could have made it to the parade, but I walked straight into the Japanses street festival and got completely distracted!

I felt like I'd really walked into Japan.  People in kimono and traditional vendors/shows and all!  It was like an anime con, but better!  I immediately spent all my souvenir money on funky t-shirts and a model for Grant.  Then I had to carry it all around...so smart of me.

Ashley arrived at the hostel by bus from New York and I had definitely missed the parade by then, so I hiked back to the hostel and we hung out in the lobby and chatted until Karen arrived (by train from Reagan airport), then we all chatted until our room was ready.  We hiked back to the matsuri for a bit, but it was cold and windy so none of us really wanted to be outside much.  We ended up visiting the Museum of Natural History where we looked at pretty rocks and flowers.