Christmas in DC

 

A couple of highlights of Christmas in Obamaland are the Capitol Christmas Tree, which I had a little fun with camera-wise, and a fabulous model train display at the US Botanical Garden—a layout any kid would just die for at home.  The dark lighting was a challenge for my smartphone camera, but you get the idea.  Ice skating at a new rink in Georgetown had Kris almost leaping over the barrier to give it a try.  Dry air made for some interesting contrails overhead.  The taxi driver wasn't so sure at first when we jammed out Christmas tree in her trunk, but 'twas the holidays, whatch gonna do?

Smithsonian Air and Space

I’ve been to the Air and Space museum more than a dozen times by now, but since my dad passed away, I had wanted to return and take another look at the cubby-hole airplane workshop display behind the Lockheed Vega that Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic.  The sign above the cubby hole reads “Don’s Air Service.”  My dad called his airplane service business “Don’s Flying Machines.”  I’d hoped to get him out to DC one day to see the display for himself, as well as the rest of the museum, including the annex at Dulles Airport, but no such luck.  He spent his life building boats and restoring airplanes and certainly would have gotten a big kick out of all the famous flyers hanging from the ceilings.

In Philadelphia (PA)

From Delaware, we tracked over to Philly to meet my brother for a day of touristy exploring, spending the bulk of our time at the Reading Terminal Market, downtown near city hall, and at the Italian Market.

Mount Delaware, A.K.A. Ebright Azimuth (DE)

In early December, 2012, we ascended our first high point of an eastern state at a place called Ebright Azimuth in northern Delaware.  Miraculously, we found the summit on our first try and completed the perilous ascent in a brisk wind without ropes or supplemental oxygen.  I forgot my ice axe and crampons, etriers, pitons, even my altitude pills, so we had to brave the final steps to the nearly level, 448-foot high summit plateau with no protection against a serious fall.  Fortunately, gravity was in our favor since everything around us was totally and awesomely flat.  The fall line was so steep it was a dot (sorry, climber joke).  I suppose they could also call this Flattop Mountain, which seems to be my thing in 2012 (in Alaska and Colorado), but the top of this “mountain” is pretty much the entire state of Delaware.  The view tower nearby was much too intimidating to attempt in our exhausted, shaken condition, so we hopped back in the car instead and drove over to a local bakery for coffee and a pastry.  In any event, we bagged our high point and will see now if we can work up the courage to try another, perhaps a winter ascent of Rhode Island’s 811-foot tall behemoth, Jerimoth Hill.  Incidentally, we’ve also waddled up to the highest point in DC, 414-foot high Reno Reservoir—or as close as the fence will let you get.  But alas, the District is not yet a state, so we only get a quarter-point for that one.

Summit Ridge, uncanny resemblance to a sidewalk.

Fun with pixels

It seems I enjoy messing around with photos more than before and have accidentally managed to catch some intriguing shots here and there.  Intriguing to me anyway.

Ferndale (WA) to Myton (UT)

 

In November, we made one more swing across the country to spend Thanksgiving with our respective families.  I put in a couple of days with friends on the new trail at Larrabee State Park, building a flashy new stairway up a steep rock slope.  The house needed some insulating, so that got checked off the list as well.  And with Kris and her folks, we ramble-zambled out to Point Whitehorn for a pre-dinner workout on Thanksgiving Day.  I’m sure we burned off the equivalent of a jello cube in the process, perhaps even a dollop of mashed potato.  At mom’s in teeny-tiny Myton, Utah, the family celebrates Thanksgiving on Sunday, so that all our spouses can spend Turkey Day with their families.  It also means we get to play more pinochle and the big gathering every year gives us enough bodies for a family tournament.  Against all odds, even Kris agreed to play a couple of hands.  My brother and I plotted a hike next summer up Kings Peak, Utah’s highest summit, tentatively in July.