DC Miscellaneous

A few more unsorted images from our meanderings around the city:

The domed ceiling at the old 6th and I synagogue.



Holy Rood Cemetery near Glover Park, est. 1832.

A nice dinner spot on Wisconsin Ave.

Sidewalk oddity outside the same eatery.

In Georgetown.

The incredible shrinking wife.

Duke Ellington School of the Arts. 

Stone church in Georgetown.

Our biggest snowstorm of 2012-13, almost two inches.

Rock Creek Ramble

We took a walkabout along Rock Creek for my birthday in early February and found this little rocky avenue not far from home.  Not sure how we missed it before.  Short but fun, though not exactly strenuous.  We hit another stretch of the main trail near the zoo and discovered it closes at night which forced us through the parkway tunnel on a so-called sidewalk.  Worth a snapshot anyway.

 

 

Inaugurating a President

Obama voter and a clear danger to society.

 

About half the free world must have come to DC in January to witness the Obama 2.0 inauguration and partake in the many related functions that kept the city buzzing for a week, night after night into the wee hours.  We joined the enormous throng at the Washington Mall for the swearing in on the morning of January 21, but we were so far away from the podium it was invisible.  We stood shoulder to shoulder with our compatriots more or less in front of the Smithsonian Castle and close to the CNN booth, which put us, along with Anderson Cooper and friends, approximately 0.9 mile from the action.

Toward the Capitol, the tiny little specks of ant-like people in the distance, including the Obamas, were enlarged into recognizable video images on jumbotrons that had been placed to one side of the Mall.  Thus we could pretend to be in the thick of it while staring at the screens and glancing over a sea of waving flags to the Capitol dome.  It was actually pretty awesome.  But now we know why people come to the Mall with blankets at four in the morning to secure a better viewing spot.

Obama is somewhere below the dome-shaped object in the distance.

A. Cooper is the white-haired guy in the middle.

Smithsonian Castle.

 

 After the ceremony, the plan called for marching over to the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue to find a good spot for the afternoon parade.  Unfortunately, a million of our dearest friends had the same idea.  Because of all the security fences and barriers it took over two hours just to get to the start of the lines through security.  We stood in line, 20 abreast, for another hour and a half.  And just as we were tantalizingly close to the gate, they inexplicably closed it, allowing no one else in.  So we missed the parade.  Again, now we know why people head down to Pennsylvania Avenue at four in the morning to get a good spot on the curb.  Apparently, you gotta choose whether you want to see the swearing-in or the parade.  Can’t have ‘em both.  Next time I think I’ll go for the parade.  One consolation, though, was Kris, the celebrity spotter, spotting Oprah’s friend, Gayle King, who just happened to be wandering up the middle of a side street smiling to her fans.

A parade looking for a parade.

This is not seal fur.

The line to get through security.

All things inaugural were not lost, however.  Some brilliant, or rather accidental, maneuvering on my part had scored us a pair of tickets that night to the inaugural ball—yes, The Inaugural Ball.  We raced home from the excitement of our parade line to slip into our tuxes and gowns, then caught the bus over to Dupont Circle to flag down a taxi, which takes some doing when 35,000 people are headed to the same place you are.  It was icy cold and breezy by then, but since seal fur overcoats don’t often match well with tuxes and gowns, many of us ballgoers froze our petooties off getting into the convention center.  Fortunately, it was warm inside the cavernous center and not too crowded yet. 

We headed for the wine and beer line to loosen up a little, then to the startling array of hors d'oeuvres, which spanned the full spectrum from pretzels to mini cheese crackers, which is pretty much why we were startled.  A cogent display of tough economic times.  Non-stop, high-end musical entertainment filled the hours leading up the main affair.  I especially enjoyed the performances by Mana, Fun! and Stevie Wonder.  When the First Couple finally emerged center stage, the crowd melted like butter as they danced passionately to the intoxicating voice of Jennifer Hudson.  And yes, we were close enough to actually recognize their faces this time, so the historic day ended on a high note.  Kris looked ravishing, by the way, in her midnight-blue dress, while I waddled around like a penguin in reasonably spiffy duds.  We were soon off to Chinatown and a late dinner at an Irish Pub having witnessed a bit of free-world history.

Back to the W&OD (VA)

View from the new bike bridge over the Beltway.

The W&OD Trail beckoned again in January, since I’d still only pedaled the first six miles of its 45-mile length.  The railtrail begins near the Four Mile Trail in Shirlington VA, and extends westward through a number of communities, ending in Purcellville VA.  I chose a 15-mile section from the Custis Trail out past Vienna as my main adventure for the day.  Starting from home, the roundtrip distance was about 40 miles.  I snapped a shot of the caboose at Vienna and a mural nearby, but was so enamored with the bike bridge over the infamous Beltway, I forgot to shoot other pics of the trail.  But what a bridge.  Completed in June 2011, it spans an amazing 17 lanes of traffic.

War Memorials

My brother, Don, of the Philly area, drove down to DC in early January to spend a couple days so we could watch the NFL playoffs together. He also informed me that he had not yet made it to the Vietnam memorial. Being a vet of the war himself and having served with a Marine Corps helicopter squadron there in the late ‘60s, it was high time we made a visit to the wall.
 

On arrival we found a park ranger offering a talk to visitors, focusing on the attitudes at home and the generally poor treatment of returning soldiers.  My brother confirmed for the listeners some of the unhappy facts delivered by the ranger.  Don was thinking of a helicopter pilot he knew, Nickerson, who never came back.  He went to the wall to find his name among the 58,000-plus inscribed on the black granite monolith.  A tattered index book pointed him to the appropriate wall section and soon enough he’d found the man’s name.

After a long pause and a slow walk along the wall, we ambled over to the Korean Memorial nearby and I learned about some of the ‘50s war paraphernalia these larger-than-life figures were carrying on their backs.  Both memorials are quite stunning and well worth a stop no matter how brief your visit to ye olde capital city of America.

 

Winter pedaling

 

Kris went west during the holidays to honor the passing of her grandfather, Papa Frank, and to spend time with family.  So what’s a lonely boy to do?  Go for a bike ride, of course, which happened to be a 20-mile “Arlington loop” redux.  The ride is a good one with only a few short hills and comprised of various segments of four great urban bike trails: the Mount Vernon, Four Mile Run, Washington and Old Dominion (or W&OD for short), and Custis Trails.  Here are a couple quick shots with more to follow.

The Hiker

This monument near the Arlington Cemetery, called “The Hiker,” caught my eye, of course—being of the hiker ilk myself.  A little research reveals that the sculpture was designed by Theo Kitson of Massachusetts and is her best known work.  The Hiker commemorates the soldiers of the Spanish-American War, Phillipine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion, all of the late 1890s.  At least 50 were made and can be found eyeing the horizon from Texas to Maine, with a few outliers on the west coast.  Remove the rifle and, heck, this could be me, right down to the lace-up gaitors.  It’s interesting that the soldiers referred to themselves as hikers.