It really feels like as we grow older, time accelerates. Both my work and my immediate family require immense attention, often leaving me little time to spend with others that I love, like my parents. When an opportunity arose for a quick trip to Washington, DC, I decided to take my Father along, which turned out to be a joyful time together…though not without airline drama.
Father-Son Trip To Washington, DC On United + Delta
Let me take this moment to offer a few words on my Father, since I will be off tomorrow on Father’s Day. As the years pass, I growing increasingly thankful for my Dad. All my life he has modeled character traits of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. He truly is the most patient man that I know and he is a man of enviable simplicity, neglecting his own wants in order to lavish blessing on others. He is content in every situation and always looking to serve rather than to be served. How thankful I am to have had a loving father who invested in my life; always approachable and always willing to help.
I was traveling to Washington, DC for the Freddie Awards and for a reader meet-up and thought that this would be the prefect trip for him to join me on: not too long, but to one of his favorite places in the country. My Dad is not really into international travel or travel at all: he had not been on an airplane since 2019 and the travel he and my Mother did embark on were all within California.
But we both love Washington, DC and had the wonderful opportunity to stay with very dear friends for a couple nights in the Virginia suburbs, who are also such lovely people I wish I could spend more time with. What a fabulous time.
We planned to be away four nights, with the trip bookended with stays at Hyatt properties, however we ran into an unusual delay on the way back. While we flew United Airlines to Washington Dulles, I chose Delta Air Lines for the return so that we could fly nonstop from Washington National to Los Angeles on a Delta 757-200, an aircraft I have never flown on Delta before.
These aging 757s are becoming maintenance nightmares and it turned out the right engine would not start…eventually leading to an 18-hour mechanical delay and extra night away. I’ll detail all that as the trip report unfolds, but needless to say I found it ironic that in choosing Delta–known perhaps most of all for its operational reliability–we got stranded in DCA overnight.
Here’s what you can expect for this trip report:
- United Airlines 757-300 First Class Review Los Angeles – Houston
- United Airlines 737 MAX 8 First Class Review Houston – Washington
- Hyatt Regency Washington Dulles
- Park Hyatt Washington DC
- Dinner At Blue Duck Tavern – Washington, DC
- I’m Not A Fan Of The “New” Washington National Airport
- My 18-Hour Mechanical Delay On Delta Air Lines
- Hyatt Regency Crystal City At Reagan National Airport
- Delta Air Lines 757-200 Business Class (Delta One) Washington – Los Angeles
Thanks for reading and to all the fathers who read this blog, Happy Father’s Day!
