Categories
Family Museum Travel

A Newseum with a View

Newseum Girls
The Newseum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave which puts it three blocks from the Capital Building. With a sixth floor balcony there are some great photo opportunities as you’ll see below in pictures.

A really good museum will grab your attention. Being short on time at a museum will really sharpen your focus. I fell victim to both and consequently don’t have many photos to show for our visit. The pictures below will at least show the family in context.

For years I’ve intended to visit the Newseum and the one previous time I tried, I found it closed in Arlington and not scheduled to reopen for two years in D.C. I was out of luck … till today.

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Categories
Animal Travel

Shooting Eyes at the National Zoo

Eagle Eye
As with people, when you shoot animals I’ve been told to focus on the eyes. Going for a sharp crisp image of the eye wasn’t easy in-doors but outdoors there was plenty of light.

It was a day between Christmas and New Year, the sky was free of clouds, and the temperature rose to almost 60 degrees. I got the idea to go exercise my new zoom lens and visit the National Zoo. It seems like most everyone and their relatives had the same idea. The place was packed!

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Categories
River

Snakeden Restoration

Snakeden Restoration In Process
When we mess with the natural flows within a watershed we sometimes have to go repair the damage. Snakeden Creek is such a site and I’m proud that Reston cares enough to make things right.

We live on Lake Audubon in Reston and the creek which feeds it has been undergoing restoration for months. As construction makes its way to the mouth of the creek, it’s fun to watch the progress. What you’ll see in these pictures are two stages of process. Once the work is done and nature grows back, it’s a wonderful outcome. Much of the damage done by development will have been repaired, the creek will become healthy, and sediment will no longer fill our lake.

The following seven picture were taken from the vantage points indicated below. In the top three you can see some completed work with a little of the vegetation coming back. The last four are work-in-progress where you can see the damaged banks of the creek and can assess how big a construction job the effort restoration is.

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Categories
Look Back Train Travel

A Look Back: Paris

Head Crushing Pyramid
Where I.M. Pei has left his mark, I want to visit. Pyramids and the Louvre went together in his mind. Apparently this woman wanted the same. Paris had so many sites to see! I must return!

My first trip to France was from London via the Chunnel.

Good stuff, though my hostel left much to be desired.

Click here for a look back on my visit.

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Categories
Hike Mountain Travel

Old “Cloudy” Rag

Cloudy Old Rag
In winter, when the rock scramble is less travelled, moss has accumulated and the rock is wet, it’s really slippery up there. Today’s hike was an exercise in caution ... but there was still lots of sliding going on.

Today I climbed Old Rag again. It was supposed to be sunny. It was not!

Took my hiking GPS and here are a few insights:

  • Initial Elevation: 600 ft
  • First Peak Elevation: 2800 ft
  • Second Peak Elevation: 3300 ft
  • Total Hiking Distance 7.8 miles
  • Temperature Range: 36 – 43 degrees

Oh, and look at what I found in the middle of nowhere …

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Categories
Hike

Reston Blue Trail


Lake Anne Bridge
With 55 miles of walking paths there is a lot to see on foot in Reston. Today I walked one of several paths which are mapped and marked and promoted here by at Reston.org.

I’ll be blatant: there are few places which offer better living than Reston, VA. Since its inception Reston has been well planned and well managed and, as one of the first modern planned communities, it’s an historic place. Today I took a walk down the Blue Trail, a 3.5 mile stretch walking path.

What a day!

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