Shortest Trip Ever to D.C./Baltimore

I went to Maryland last week for one whole night. I spent many, many hours on airplanes and trains and about eight at a dull business meeting.
I had one evening for free time. I used it to meet up with some blogging friends in person.  We had dinner at a restaurant that had the best brussels sprouts in the world.  I was pretty skeptical about even ordering brussels sprouts. I told my friend that I had no idea how our hunter/gatherer ancestors ever recognized brussels sprouts as food, forgetting that she happens to be a medical anthropologist who knew many worse "foods" consumed by hunter/gatherers. So I tried the brussels sprouts and they were amazing. 

My daughter asked me to send her a picture from my trip.  It was so foggy that day that I couldn't capture anything with my phone camera but this stupid picture of the inside of my hotel room.  Outdoor photos came out all white. If any of you have ever seen the U.S. Capital Building, just picture what it looked like the last time you saw it, add a bunch of fog to your mental picture, and you'll be looking at what I saw. It still looks the same as every other time I have seen it.

I love the big, fluffy beds and the pretty lobbies at these fancy conference hotels but otherwise, I find this kind of hotel a bit exasperating.  I would never stay at one of these hotels for personal travel.  I don't understand why hotels with such higher-than-average room prices find it necessary to nickle and dime guests for every little thing. Outrageous fees for local phone calls and continental breakfasts and wi-fi annoy me.  That stuff is all included in the much lower price of a night's stay at an economy hotel.