If you travel South from Arlington, VA and continue past Alexandria you will come across the home and also the tomb of George Washington and his wife. It’s a lovely plot of land that is now a protected area on the Potomac River. There is a nice museum here which details the history and you can take a tour inside the house itself.
A building close to the manor house that was used as a greenhouse
George Washington was an avid gardener so there are lovely gardens to walk though as well as a barn that he built and a few nice trails through the forest. Close by the barn you can also view his tomb and the tomb of his wife.
The boat launch onto the Potomac River
During pre-COVID times you could take a boat trip from DC and you would end up at the ferry dock seen here. This would be a very scenic trip. The plan is to resume service in 2021 but whether that happens remains to be seen. Still, you can walk the path along the river and take the short walk down the pier.
Aladdin – a camel
The story is that one Christmas George Washington had a camel delivered from Alexandria. We only know this because of one short journal entry showing that he paid for the camel. Nothing else is known about it. However, each year around Christmas time the bring Aladdin, as he is called, back. If you visit in December you will see him.
A barn that Washington built to separate the wheat from the chaff
George Washington built this 2 story barn (the original is gone, this is a recreation) in an attempt to process wheat from his farm. The horses would trott along the top floor of the barn and the separated wheat would fall into the lower part of the barn.
It’s been a crazy year. I usually rack up about 50,000 miles of flying each year – some of it being business travel, mostly to conferences, and some of it being leisure travel. I’m usually on at least 2 different continents each year and I spend a significant time inside an aircraft.
That ended abruptly in February. I remember the last flight. I was in Savannah, GA visiting a client after attending a conference in Atlanta. There was talk about COVID-19 but it seems to be a long way away from where I was. Upon entering the United States a week before I was only asked if I had recently traveled to China. Other than that it was pretty normal stuff, a little chit chat with the immigration agent as to why I was flying to Atlanta and that was it. I’d done this all before.
Once I returned back home, Canada – the world – went into lockdown. Everybody switched from working on site to working remotely. My day to day clients are now seem via video link or conference call. My home office is now my office. And this would seem to be the way for the foreseeable future.
So – getting slightly stir crazy I began to contemplate somewhere that I could travel to. Perhaps not as easily and freely as I was used to, but as least somewhere new. I decided on Mexico (via Washington DC) which is how I ended up back in YYZ today. I wanted to write a bit about the flight experience and how it differs these days from the pre-COVID days.
The Ottawa International Airport (YOW) arrivals area. Check in desks on the upper level. Suffice to say I did not need to show up that early
I had booked a 10AM flight out of Ottawa since there are now limited connections I did not want to cut things too close in YYZ. I arrived at YOW just before 08:30 to be greeted by a very empty airport. The line at Tim Horton’s on the third level (the only one open) just had employees standing in line. It made it very quick to get through security and to the gate.
A new Airbus A220-300 arriving from YYZ on a mild December morning parking at gate 17.
Suffice to say that since I booked this flight there have been a lot of changes and cancellations. Eventually it was decided that this flight would be operated by an Airbus A220. I really like this as I have been trying to fly this aircraft for a while now. It’s very quiet and quite roomy (at least in business class). The inflight entertainment is much better than the old systems that they use on the E90 / E75 and is much more like the B787.
Face coverings are required on all flight within Canada as per Transport Canada regulations
I hardly ever take a selfie when flying but this felt like a unique situation as I have not been on an aircraft in so long. Face coverings are required at all time unless eating or drinking. The flight was fairly empty – 15 people sat in economy and 5 people sat in business. Since there were so few people it was socially distanced. However, this is not the policy for Air Canada, so you could be sat next to other people on your flight.
COVID-19 safe food
One of the treats to the business class cabin is that they serve food. Pre-COVID Air Canada served quite a nice breakfast on a plate with real cutlery and a nice coffee mug. When the pandemic first started they switch to serving nothing except a bottle of water on short haul routes. Now we have something in between. These are pre-packaged meals and for this reason they are considered safer than somebody preparing your food in the forward galley.
So I feel obliged to start with this. Before we even start talking about houseboats, this is one of the first things I saw from the water.
I am not convinced this cow is cleaned after being washed in this water
Houseboats have become very popular in Kerala and there is somewhat of a backlash against them that is starting to grow. The reason for that is they dump all their waste into the waters. So these pristine backwaters are no longer pristine. They are filled with a certain about of oil and diesel and (at least I assume) whatever you flush down the toilet. So I though this scene was quite humorous. I’ve never washed a cow before – but I think it may be better to use clean water.
Day Boat
One option that some people consider is taking a day boat. This will give you the same views of the backwater during the day time and they cause less pollution to the environment. I was also told that they cost a lot less (which makes sense) but since I had purchases a package in Kerala I cannot tell you what my houseboat actually cost by itself.
A day cruise. This one is a small boat. There are also much larger ones.
Overnight cruise
Now I did find the overnight cruise to be very relaxing. I am certain that this is the most relaxing experience I have had in India so far. You board the boat around noon or 1pm and they said around for about an hour and then they dock somewhere to serve you lunch. After that they cruise around until close to sunset and then they dock the boat.
The boat is not allowed to sail overnight and fishermen lay their nets and they don’t want passing watercraft to drive through them.
You sleep on the boat. It was fairly comfortable, but quite basic. It had A/C but it did not work that well. Even so there was a nice breeze from a fan and I slept well.
