giant bird bath June 16th, 2009
We took a nice little evening sit in Meridian Hill Park the other night and watched some giant birds take a bath right in the center of the fountain waterfall. Seemed as good a place as any…
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Dumbarton Oaks May 20th, 2009
We’ve written about it before, Dumbarton Oaks, our favorite garden in the city. We visited this past weekend, again 
, with my parents. The rose garden was in full bloom. Good time of year to go!
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Tags: DC, flowers, parks
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eat me April 16th, 2009
What a crazy little mushroom, just hanging out in Rock Creek Park. It definitely looks poisonous, but I am not much of a fungus expert, so I’ll probably never know. An orange mushroom Flickr search lands some really cool pictures though.
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Tags: DC, Exteriors, NoMA, nature, parks
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Drummers November 14th, 2008
On Sundays there is often a drum circle in Meridian Hill Park , so we went to check it out last weekend. We were probably on the late side–it was close to 5:00 in the evening– so by the time we arrived there were just these two guys tapping away. It seemed like the old guy was teaching the younger guy as if it was his first time there. I sat and listened for a little bit while Matt took this shot. It was definitely a good background beat for fall in the park, but we gotta go back later to catch a bigger group of drummers…
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Tags: DC, Exteriors, People, music, parks
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Chucktown by water October 6th, 2008
DC this is not, but we got back from our little jaunt down to Charleston, SC over a week ago and I had still not posted any of the pictures from this lovely city. This shot is from a little sail boat cruise that we decided to take on our Saturday evening. It was a “two-hour tour” but thankfully we did not get shipwrecked like Gilligan and crew of the S.S. Minnow.
All things considered, Charleston would not be a bad place to get “shipwrecked” and have to stay for a while. The historic core was beautiful and had more restaurants and bars than you could shake a stick at. Tremendous efforts had clearly been made to maintain the size, scale, and character of the development, redevelopment, and growth in and about the downtown area. This is great from a preservationist point of view but I felt that the area could really be re-energized by some new development and more progressive architecture. Part of the charm of old European cities (much, much older than Charleston) is the way that the fabric of the city has been able to absorb new ideas and adapt to tasteful changes in architectural styles and forms. This enriches the built environment in these regions and allows you to see them as living, growing, changing cities instead of ones that locked in to a certain time period and refuse to see beyond their own immediate horizon. Judging by the number of permits that I saw in the windows for the most minor changes to the exteriors of the buildings I suspect that it would take a paradigm shift in the thinking of the Charleston Board of Architectural Review to see new development of this character.
As you get away from the historic area (which as far as I could tell only inhabited by tourists and which “locals” generally avoided) and closer to the University of Charleston the town started to feel a bit more real. Throngs of people were out on King St. doing general life things, shopping, getting groceries, going to class, working out, etc, etc. Marion Square had a lively farmers market that made the market downtown feel like a cheap flea market full of worthless chotskies and overpriced sweetgrass baskets. Marion Square also supplied Charleston with a much needed open piece of green for residents and passer-bys to congregate in and partake in the oh-so-important activity of people watching. The historic area had Waterfront park which was equipped with a few “wading” fountains and offered visitors some beautiful views but lacked a central focus and was too spread out to ever seem very populated. It was a pleasant enough place to go and read if you could snag one of the swinging benches but the location and design of the park kept it somewhat isolated from any of the “action” happening in the city surrounding.
The scale and speed of Charleston was ideal for seeing on a nice beach cruiser style bicycle. We rented a couple of these from our hotel and perused the town. As the city itself is not very large this allowed us to get a nice quick lay of the land within a couple hour time frame. At the end of the day we enjoyed our time in Charleston very much and while the city seems to have a bunch of things to work on it I would be hard pressed to name a more “pleasant” town with seeming genuinely nicer people. That being said I think I would start to get a bit claustrophobic if I was to spend an extended amount of time here, at this point in my life anyway….maybe I’ll work on getting that vacation home down there…
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Tags: Olympus XA-2, XA2, bicycle, fountains, parks
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a grenade. awesome. October 1st, 2008
My commute was rather long this morning, and I just found out why. There was a grenade found in Rock Creek Park, just off 16th Street. Obviously this picture has nothing to do with it, because I couldn’t get anywhere close to the scene… and also it’s not that autumn-y here yet. But anyways, where does a grenade in the park come from???
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Tags: DC, Exteriors, cars, commute, nature, parks, roads
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It’s Fall September 23rd, 2008
It’s a chilly morning, and the first one where I truly wished that I was wearing a sweater when I walked out the door… Try not to hurt your eyes looking at this picture.
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Tags: DC, Exteriors, Textures, nature, parks
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Water Damage September 5th, 2008
Ok, I know it might be bad luck to post this old photo from the so-called “deluge” of 2006 in Rock Creek Park. But, with Tropical Storm Hanna coming up the east coast this weekend, I couldn’t help but remember how powerful water damage can be… The DC area is expected to get up to 5″ of heavy rain and winds tomorrow. Luckily, our apartment is stocked with lots of wine and food, so now we’ll just have to hope the power stays on. Otherwise, it’ll turn into operation:eat all the food in the fridge a la my freshman year at UMD when a hurricane came through that knocked out the electricity for 3 days.
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Tags: DC, Exteriors, Rock Creek Park, parks, weather
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kenilworth aquatic gardens September 1st, 2008
Feeling the urge to do something “naturey” with our long weekend Lori and I bravely headed into NE DC to visit the Kenilworth Aquatic Park and Gardens. I save bravely because, no way around it, you have to pass right through a fairly decrepit looking housing project to get to the parks gate and deal with about the most confusing traffic detour in the world to get to said project. Once parked and out of the car it was very much worth the minor headache. The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is set on the Southern/Eastern banks of the Anacostia river across from the much larger National Arboretum. As the name indicates the park consists of a large swamp/marsh area with a boardwalk that reaches out into it and a series of smaller ponds which you can walk around (no fences or rails either, almost fell in trying to take a photo). It was worth the trip to see the giant lilly pads. These things were a good 6′ across. Crazy big.
I’m thinking next spring we will try to come back and visit again.
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Tags: DC, flowers, lensbaby, nature, parks
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Dupont Circle… July 16th, 2008
… in all its glory! Everyone in DC knows that the best part about Dupont Circe is the people watching that you can do there. And the overhearing. Any time of day is good for sitting and watching the world walk, saunter, scurry, or pedal on by — the young, trendy, old, gay, straight, homeless, hipster, healthy (see above), hearty, professional, and.. i’m running out of adjectives now… sometimes combinations of them all.
Being the archy-nerds that we are, Matt and I always discuss what it is about Dupont Circle that makes it such a successful park and public gathering space. Successful here being defined as a place that is always crowded and full of activity (maybe not so successful in terms of clean, free of rodents, and other such barometers…)
My answer is that Dupont Circle offers something for everyone. It provides tiers, or levels, of separate-yet-conjoined areas for activity to take place. Working from the center out, you have:
the fountain. – The center and most important area, highly visible, and it creates sound and visual interest when the water is flowing. The people who go here are the ones who want to be seen. They are the flaunters, the A-types. This applies to people on the immediate fountain ledge but most especially to those I’ve seen in the actual fountain water. Dogs too.
the fountain steps. – Slightly lower than the fountain area, still a prominent place to be, this is usually where the couples or dog owners are sitting.
the paved area. – Mostly a component of circulation. You have all types here. Bikers pass through quickly, but the walkers usually take their time. These are the people who want to be seen too, but not in the spotlight and not for an extended period of time. (Unless, however, you are a street performer, then you stay here because this is the best place for you to entertain.)
benches, row 1. – The best place to do the looking. This is where people eat and watch and rest.
grass strip. – The place for loungers and loafers, mellow people, and people with blankets. You rarely ever see business professionals sitting in the grass, but you do see first-date picnickers and hippies, and resting bikers.
benches, row 2. – Hmmm, are you really in Dupont Circle anymore? Yes… but this is the outside looking in. The majority of the homeless people congregate here. Some of these benches are currently in a state of disrepair… but it’s still a great place to sit if you don’t want to be in the middle of it all… more of an area for overall observation.
So that’s what makes it a success- all those areas and where they overlap. It’s got a comfort zone for anyone and everyone. And that is your partial Dupont Circle analysis for your Wednesday!