The morning started off looking unfavourable for our plan to walk our luggage to the subway for our trip to the National Car Rental depot at JFK - overcast sky and the forecast of 80% chance of rain. But after farewelling the Aitken family we headed off from the hotel to the subway station some two long blocks away without any rain falling. Made it to the station and down the stairs to the platform where we were to catch a train to 7th Ave to change for Sutphin Blvd at Jamaica. Oops! There was only a C train and you guessed it it doesn't stop at 7th Ave and to compound the issue we weren't carrying any subway maps. De-trained at 50th Street and Philip approached the ticket lady at the platform entrance who recognised that he was from Australia when he repeated her instructions regarding taking an "A" train! Had to go one station further and cross the platform to catch a Howard Beach train which also connects with the JFK Air Train. Journey was longer than it would have been to get to the Sutphin Blvd station but we did it. Crossed over to the Air Train station to find that the escalators and elevators were out of service and so it was cart all the luggage up the dead escalator. A nice MTA employee assisted Alison as she tried to woman-handle two large suitcases up.
Onto the Air Tain and off at Federal Circle Station and straight down to the National Car Rental depot. Philip suggested that we might need a larger vehicle than the Chevrolet Impala that we had booked to fit our luggage. The man on the desk asked if we would like to upsize to an SUV and Alison mentioned that we had a Ford Edge last time we had used National so we ended up with a bells and whistles Ford Explorer for $15 extra per day as return customers. It is a "little" bigger and wider than the Ford Escape we drove to Chicago but Philip has coped today in wet conditions and with some narrow lanes - lots of roadwork along the main road to Washington.
Drive was fast with only showers and no slowing down until close to Washington - ended up missing a correct exit so did some detours which took us into the central part of Washington and along the Potomac behind the Jefferson Memorial. Safely reached our destination and renogiated the rate we had been originally quoted and then had time to drop of our luggage and phone friends here in Alexandria who had invited us for Sunday night dinner. Out to the car in rain, entered our destination into the Navman and headed off. Finally found their street but could not work out where their house was - the navigator would not accept that there was a 200 in the street. Phoned Patrick who gave us easy to follow instructions and lo and behold we were parked behind their car in a very narrow one way street within minutes.
Enjoyed a lovely dinner and great conversation with Patrick and Hester and also time with their daughter Hattie (Alison felt really special when Hattie agreed that Alison could read her bedtime story). Alison did a great job of kookaburra impersonations as part of one of the stories that she read! We were listening on the nursery monitor at the dining room table. We also enjoyed patting Patrick and Hester's dog Leo and Maddi a pug whom they are minding at the moment. Had great conversation around the table about the political and education systems in our two countries.
Set "Chuck" the navigator for our return journey and fortunately the rain was not too heavy so we made it safely back to our abode at the Comfort Inn where we are now settled for the night.
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