Early Morning Flights

Early morning flights are cheap for a reason.

We got up this morning at 3:30. In the morning! Evan was pretty groggy, but we all got up, ate, and dressed just in time for our cab to roll up at 4:15. It’s pretty quiet in Winnipeg at 4:15 am.

The airport check in and security line was lengthy, but uneventful. We boarded our plane around 6 and arrived in Minneapolis at 7:50. We had about half an hour to grab breakfast and Starbucks before boarding our next plane. Our flight to Ronald Reagan International Airport (in Arlington, VA) was about two hours long.

When we arrived in Arlington, the pilot asked us to close all the windows and open all the air vents to keep the plane cool... because it was 36c outside! Yikes. We deplaned, grabbed our bag and headed to the metro. We are staying in Arlington, so we only had to ride the metro for a few stops.

Luckily our hotel room was ready when we arrived, so we checked in and unpacked a bit. We needed a bit of lunch, so we stopped in at The Little Beet and had bowls (Brad and I shared a poke bowl and Evan created his own). Then it was back on the metro to L’Enfant Plaza to pick up our Hop On Hop Off bus passes for tomorrow. It was getting late into the afternoon and we had to get to Columbia Heights to get in line for Bad Saint, a highly reviewed, no reservations, 20 seat Filipino restaurant.

We waited (in the shade, luckily) for awhile and sure enough a lengthy line formed. We had read about this service where you pay someone to stand in line for you and sure enough, we saw it in action! The guy behind us in line was actually being paid to wait there for these two guys who showed up just before the restaurant opened! I don’t know if it’s insanity or pure genius...

Nonetheless, we got in when Bad Saint opened at 5. It was family style sharing and so we ordered four dishes. The first dish to come out was the soft shell crab with a rich, earthy sauce. The next plate was beef short ribs that had been cooked in curry and it was served with flash fried beans that had been chilled. Our third dish was crazy! It was trumpet mushrooms with a duck egg and garlic oil. You mixed it all together while it sizzled and added a sour vinegar. It was a funky mix of sweet, sour, and fermented. I’ve never had anything like it! Our last dish was a pancit made of mung beans and squid ink. It was much lighter tasting than it sounds. Needless to say, we were stuffed, but they still brought us rice flour brownies to finish. Brad and I also had mango sour beers with our meal, which was nice to cut out the heat of the dishes.

After dinner, we took the metro to our home station and then walked to Safeway to grab some breakfast food. We have been awake for 18 hours at this point and are going to bed very soon. It was a sweaty, but enjoyable first day in DC!Read more