Reagan National Airport

Cherry Blossom Fest at Dulles and National Airports

Festivals, ,

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway in Washington, D.C.

DC CHERRY TREES

The National Park Service horticulturists have been monitoring the blossoms of the Yoshino cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin for peak bud opening and they say right about now is a good time to pay a visit.

It’s also a good time to visit Washington’s Dulles or Reagan National Airports.

DC PINK NATIONAL AIRPORT

They are featuring Cherry Blossom-themed cocktails, food, banners and displays, including cherry blossom shirts and handbags, cherry blossom pink martinis, donuts with cherry blossom pink frosting and cherry blossom nail designs.

Need more pink? Reagan National Airport has pink lighting shining through the glass block walls in the stairwells in the parking garages and banners out front.

More ways to celebrate the presidential inauguration – at the airport

Art, ,

DCA Exhibit

If you’re headed to Washington D.C. this weekend – or anytime between now and February 28, 2013, you can see an art exhibit commemorating the presidential inauguration at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

“Hail to the Chiefs: Portraits of United States Presidents and First Ladies,” was created by Morgan Monceaux, who used oil and acrylic paints, markers and recycled objects including campaign buttons, ribbons, jewelry and other materials to create portraits of George and Martha Washington, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, William and Hillary Clinton and many other U.S. Presidents and first ladies.

Below is Monceaux’s portrait of Abraham Lincoln – and here’s a link to information about this collection and the artist.

DCA LINCOLN

Fresh art at Dulles and Reagan National Airports

Art, ,

If you’re traveling through an airport in the Washington, D.C. area soon, here are two new art exhibits to seek out.

Through April 30, 2013 at Dulles International Airport, the “America!” exhibit focuses on panoramic landscape scenes from around the nation taken by members of the American Society of Photographers. Look for it in the connecting walkway between the AeroTrain C-Gates and the C Concourse.

And through April 30, 2013 in Reagan National Airport’s Terminal A you’ll see an exhibit called “Art + Craft: Celebrating the Creativity of Latin America.”

Free Wifi now at Dulles and Washington National Airports

free Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, , , ,

On Monday, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority rolled out complimentary wireless internet service at Reagan National and Dulles International Airports.

Until now, if you didn’t have a subscription with a major wireless carrier or hotspot provider, you’d have to pay for access to the service. All those pay services are still available, but now a complimentary option shows up on the wireless networks list.

The service is so new that on Monday afternoon, during my layover at Dulles, there were no signs posted alerting travelers to the free service. Nor was there anything on the front page of either of the airport websites.

Once I figured out that you actually have to scroll through the ‘Terms and Conditions’ notice before clicking ‘agree,’ I was able to log onto the service quite easily.  No pop-up ads show up yet, but airport officials say that may happen n the future.

Bottom line: a great new amenity at two major US airports.  Yay!

 

Free WiFI at DCA and IAD

 

 

 

 

Apology not accepted???

Profiling,

I’ve been reading the follow-up news reports about the group of Muslim travelers (all but one of them a U.S. citizen) who were taken off a flight going from Reagan National Airport to Orlando the other day because another passenger misinterpreted some “verbal comments.”

air-tran-plane

Air Tran Airways has apologized and offered a token compensation to the family but there’s something really unsettling about the way this family was treated. ( Here’s a link to Air Tran’s press release about the apology.)  Joe Sharkey put his finger smack dab on the issue in his High Anxiety blog today.