Yesterday I played some hookey and spent the day at Sandy Point State Park with my mom and sis. It was a perfect day – sunny, though slightly chilly — great beach sitting weather without getting roasted. We were practically the only people out there, save a few other dog walkers and another family, so we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We packed some blankets and a picnic of fruit, veggies, and chips and just relaxed, looked for beach glass, and watched the cars and trucks endlessly cross the bay bridge. We spotted a beautiful heron trying to catch fish at the edge of the surf, a few big black buzzard-looking birds (stalking cloesly behind the heron), plenty of seagulls, and a giant ship passing under the bridge span with the words Wallenius Wilmhelsen painted on the side. I made some beach art out of the white oyster shells that were littered all over the sand… hopefully someone came it across it after we left.
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Jill, the ever-intrepid photographer with her new camera, took a million photos, paparazzi-style. I hope she feels honored to have made it on Justaexposed. Here are a two of her shots:
In the afternoon, on our way home, we stopped by Freedom Bakery in Severna Park for some cupcakes and cookies to take home with us…. Perfectly indulgent way to cap off a lovely day. Can we do it again tomorrow? And every day after that?
I took Bowser over to the puppy park today at 12th/D/Tennessee Ave NE. It sucks that it is so far away that I have to drive over there, but such is life. Hopefully NoMa will get more parks sometime soon so we can just walk on over to playtime. Anyways, we made friends with this cute brown lab for a split second, and then the rest of the time we hogged the tennis ball to ourselves. Just look at the focus on that little face. MY TENNIS BALL. WEEEeeeeee!
Today we went for a walk in the woods with Ty, Val, and Tiki dog. Bowser enjoyed running way ahead of everyone and not listening to us say “COME.” His punishment was a few seconds of sitting up on this tree stump in timeout. It was pretty mild for a January day. We saw lots of holly trees and 3 deers.
The family visits continued!! This past weekend Jami and Kari flew out from Iowa (and mom and dad drove down from DE) to spend a long weekend with us in DC. On Thursday evening we enjoyed a Moroccan meal at Souk – somehow they managed to squeeze all 11 (Maine + Iowa) of us at one big table. The best part about dining on small plates with that many people is you can get a taste of nearly everything on the menu. Pepper hummus, baba ganoush, baklava… MMMMmmmm!
On Saturday afternoon, we spent some time being lazy and playing bocce ball in Lincoln Park. Bowser was the only one of us working really hard at moving all the balls around after they stopped rolling, but those are the rules – even though he was pretty lopsided towards chasing all the red balls, no arguing over whatever the dog does! He was like a team of his own. When we weren’t playing bocce, we took turns lounging in the grass (and lining up the ridiculous amounts of phones/cameras/technology we had with us for a simple trip to the park).
That night, we took our 6-person bike gang down to the Capitol and then across the National Mall to see some monuments at night. Jami and Kari took their very first CaBi rides and it was pretty sweet to see everything by moonlight. We stopped at the Capitol briefly, then rode past all the Folklife Festival tents on the Mall, then around the circle of the Washington Monument, passed by the WW2 memorial, rode along the under-construction reflecting pool, stopped to see Mr. Lincoln, where we were somehow more fascinated with the light coming from the kiosk at the base, and then finally walked along the Vietnam Memorial wall. The return trip was nice too – cruising along Pennsylvania Ave in the center bike lanes around 11pm — when the temperature in July in DC is finally tolerable — it’s always a pretty exhilarating feeling. No matter how long we live in DC, I will never get tired of seeing the city at night. It’s pretty amazing.
Sunday was pretty much the perfect day. Shopping at Eastern Market in the morning, pedicures in the afternoon, and sushi boat for late lunch/early dinner. Does it get any better than spending time with family doing those things?! I think Kari definitely enjoyed her first sushi experience and was pretty much a chopstick master by the time we finished. We came home and watched the DVR-ed women’s World Cup Soccer game — still can’t believe that header that tied us up with Brazil!!! Dinner was grilled corn with Old Bay and BBQ chicken followed by a vicious game of Asshole in which Jami was president the entire time . not fair!
It was sad to see them leave this morning. These visits always fly by so fast. Can’t wait until the next one…
The blog posts have gotten a little bit sparser these past few weeks, as the craziness of life has taken over. What is it about the end of summer that makes people feel the need to buckle down and get back to work?
At any rate, I thought this “oldie but goodie” picture (taken in Rock Creek Park in 2006) was appropriate for the way I’m feeling these days. Can’t slow down. Lots to do and little time to do it in. And it feels like the holidays will be upon us in no time, too. Does it make me sound old talking about how fast time goes by?
Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm November day that felt like it was somehow leftover from the first week of September. I went hiking out at Great Falls (on the Virginia side) along with my friends Riles and Alison, as well as Bowser and Alison’s dog Winston. There was lots of tromping through the woods, into leaves and puddles, as well as plenty of homemade trail mix and Riles’ backpack (very important for carrying the trail mix). Bowser and his little legs did surprisingly well, walk-running the entire hike and still not being tired at then end of it.
It always amazes me that, even while living in the city, it only takes a 30 minute drive and a quick walk to be in the middle of nature, and what feels like the middle of nowhere.
Taken on Saturday, October 24th, the worldwide International Day of Climate Change . In our neck of the woods, that included a gathering in Malcolm X Park followed by a mass bike ride to the White House. There were over 5200 similar events around the world. Check out the rest of the photo set here .
Not much to write about this morning, especially after one of the worst sports weekends in DC area history, at least that I can remember… So here’s a photo I pulled from the archives, taken 3 years ago in March, of the old stone bridge on Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. We used to run in that direction, over the bridge, more frequently when we lived at our old apartment, but it’s been awhile now. When we would go by, I always expected an old troll to be sitting under it, eating little children or whatever it is that trolls do. Now that the leaves are starting to change, it would be a good time to go back and see it.
This morning was one of those mornings where I really wish I was strapped with more camera fire power than my blackberry camera phone. But alas I was out doing a training bike ride and that is not the most conducive activity to lugging around a DSLR. The waters over the Washington Channel and the lawns of the East Potomac Park Golf Course had a very strange effervescent mist wafting along their surface. Combining this with the soft light of the morning and the reflecting lights from the SW Waterfront in the Channel brought about a very eeire scene.
The photo above I snapped on my way out of Hains Point when I noticed that the Channel was running extremely high, so high that it had flooded the banks along a large portion of the river walk that wraps the island (or is it a peninsula?). These benches are often utilized by older gentlemen getting in a morning fish/read/smoke and enjoying the sunrise. Clearly that was not an option today. Not sure what would be causing the high water levels, maybe a remnant of the weekend deluge.
