With W Hotel’s Valentine’s Day Package, couples can enjoy two complimentary drinks at the POV Roof Terrace. Photograph courtesy of W Hotel.

DC

Date Night in DC at Savory Suites Hotel

Guests receive a box of gourmet truffles from Artfully Chocolate, a $20 gift card to the Arlington shop, a bottle of bubbly, complimentary garage parking, and wi-fi access. Available through December 31. Rates from $164 on Valentine’s Day.

The Valentine’s Suite Deal Package at St. Gregory Hotel

This package includes a romantic dinner for two at M Street Bar & Grill, a complimentary bottle of Champagne, and junior suite accommodations. Available February 11 to 14. Rates from $179.

Sweet Spark Romance Package at W Hotel

Couples receive a colorful box of Dominique Ansel “mini-me” meringues, a bottle of Champagne, an in-room movie, and late checkout. Flavors of the “mini-me” collection, created exclusively for W Hotel, include Vietnamese hot cinnamon and cherry; white truffle, white rose, and lychee; and pink Champagne. Available February 9 to 20. Rates from $299 on Valentine’s Day.

For some beachgoers, crossing this is scarier than a shark. Photograph courtesy of Flickr user Gary Hymes

For most Washingtonians, the biggest worry about driving to the beach is Bay Bridge traffic. But Terri Robinson has gotten to know a different type of beachgoer—one who is paralyzed with fear by the sight of the bridge’s sweeping twin spans.

A driver for Kent Island Express, Robinson has shuttled thousands of drivers over the four-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which whisks cars 186 feet into the air as they cross the Chesapeake to get to and from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The bridge was named one of the ten scariest in the world by Travel & Leisure magazine.

Photograph courtesy of Megabus.

Stephania Melo, a 24-year-old Ecuadorian who lives in Quito, has visited family members in DC on a few occasions recently, and each time she has taken a Bolt Bus down from her original stateside destination, New York City, where she also has family. On those trips, the bus had always dropped her off at the same location: the old convention-center parking lot at Tenth and H streets, Northwest. But a few weeks ago, after construction finally got under way on the massive CityCenterDC development, her bus deposited passengers on the curb at F Street and New Jersey Avenue, Northwest, a location unfamiliar to Melo—not to mention to her aunt, who was expecting to pick up her niece at CityCenter.

“My aunt was picking us up and was waiting for us for an hour,” Melo says while waiting at Bolt Bus’s new departure location for a bus back to New York. Because Melo doesn’t own a cell phone, she borrowed a stranger’s and eventually connected with her aunt.

Pickup and drop-off locations for Bolt Bus and its principal competitor, Megabus, have changed several times since they both began serving Washington in 2008. The two lines first shared a stop at 11th Street, Northwest, near G Street, then moved over to G Street, Northwest, between Ninth and Tenth streets, and now to the CityCenter lot. To confuse matters more, Bolt Bus, along with DC2NY and Washington Deluxe, began to offer additional service from Union Station in January 2010. Then this February, with construction beginning on CityCenter, Bolt Bus and Megabus had to move yet again. The former divided its service between the F Street and Union Station locations, while the latter moved to a lot at North Capitol and K streets.

The next time Melo returns to DC, she’s likely to find herself disembarking at yet another new location, because Bolt Bus eliminated its F Street stop. As of last week, the company now operates only out of the parking garage at Union Station. Megabus, meanwhile, remains at the North Capitol lot, though Dale Moser, president of Megabus operator Coach USA, confirms that his company is “in discussions to relocate to the bus parking deck of Union Station,” adding that he hopes to do so “within the next few months.”

Image courtesy of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Another week, another incident involving air-traffic control. This time, the First Lady was involved, when the airplane she was traveling in along with Jill Biden came dangerously close to a 200-ton cargo jet at Andrews Air Force Base. The landing was aborted, and the incident, believed to be the fault of a controller, is being investigated. This is the latest in a series of mishaps involving air-traffic control, starting in March when two planes were forced to land themselves at Reagan National Airport after a controller reportedly fell asleep. Experts are denying that these events are symptomatic of a larger problem, saying instead that while they’re alarming, the risk of actual catastrophe has been minimal.

The time may come when you'll have to pay to get in to the Natural History Museum. Photo courtesy Flickr user JSmith Photo.

What does Washington have in common with Elmo and All Things Considered? It feels as though every five minutes someone’s trying to take our funding away. This week, the debate returns (again) to the funding of our beloved federal museums, which the Bowles-Simpson commission decided back in December might be an overpriced luxury. With President Obama taking steps towards austerity, the Smithsonian’s future is once again a matter of contention. Would you pay a $7.50 admission fee to visit local museums? Let us know in the comments below.

Hotels have found one way to save money (beyond charging $10 for bottles of water): Tracking devices have been rolled out in three US hotels that actually keep tabs on hotel linens, from dressing gowns to pillowcases. So those 300-count Egyptian cotton sheets you’ve been resting on? They could be fitted with a microchip to help managers keep on top of inventory—and of course, deter sticky-fingered guests.

We have two upgraded hotel deals for you this week. Affinia Hotels recently launched its For the Love of the Game package in New York City for $216 a night. The deal, intended for sports fans everywhere, includes an upgraded accommodation to a one-bedroom suite, a $10 Metrocard, a $10 Modell’s gift card, late check out, and either a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine. The package is valid for stays through the end of the year at one of five New York locations; to book or for more information, see this link.

Photograph courtesy of Lake Pointe Inn.

First things first: Just because the government might be shut down doesn’t mean your weekend has to be. Yes, a federal hiatus will be bad for tourists planning to visit our city this weekend, and yes, national parks could very well be closed. But on the brighter side, with work schedules so up in the air, it could end up being a great time to get away for a day or two, and we have a few ideas below to get you started.

We heard a few months ago that the government was doing away with the old color-coded system for terror alerts (when it’s orange for more than five years, people tend to stop paying attention). But are Facebook and Twitter alerts really the best replacement? As this Associated Press story explains, one system in the works will operate with only two levels of warnings, publicized through social-networking sites, and they’ll expire on certain dates, “like a gallon of milk.”

Looking for a quick getaway? One of our favorite B&Bs, the Lake Pointe Inn in McHenry, Maryland, is offering a special “tax break” deal nights booked Sunday through Thursday in April. A double-occupancy room is available for $185 per night, a 30-percent saving on the regular rate (and just right for an unexpected furlough day). Activities include kayaking, bike rides, and golf, and architecture buffs can visit two Frank Lloyd Wright-designed houses nearby: Fallingwater and Kentucky Knob. Visit the Lake Pointe Inn’s Web site for reservations or more information.