Took a day trip to Great Falls for Labor Day: Maryland side, with trips down the Olmsted Island walk and Section B of the Billy Goat Trail. That latter part was a mistake: I’d forgotten how far a walk down the C&O towpath it was to get to the Billy Goat Trail, and just how much rock scrambling was involved — more than I remember from last time, when I may have taken a slightly different route due to flooding. (Less on Sec B than on Sec A, but still too much to do with a baby in a carrier.) Gonna wait till Ezra’s older to go back there.
Washington DC did not see a total solar eclipse, but there was at least one small part of it in the path of totality on August 21st — in Nebraska.
These four sandstone columns were once part of the Department of the Treasury, until they were detached in 1908 and moved to Pioneers Park, Lincoln, Nebraska in 1916. It was to this artifact of historic Washington that I traveled, to watch the moon slide in front of the sun and shroud the area in darkness, above me a ring of silvery coronal fire piercing through darkened clouds.
I had read that the experience of totality produced a kind of primal fear in some viewers, an irrational sense of ominous doom; or in others, a sense of expanded cosmic awareness of the universe. I didn’t feel any of that, but I did get goose bumps of awe. (It’s entirely possible that I just live in a constant state of ominous doom and cosmic awareness.) Mostly I just stared at that silvery ring, mumbling to myself, “There’s the shadow, ooooh prominences, wooow” while letting the camera trigger run through exposure cycles.
Post-totality I also met Thomas, who didn’t just watch the eclipse, he was the eclipse. We talked a bunch about space and forklifts and Nebraska and DC, and he gave me a ride back to my parking spot.
This was a same-day round trip and sadly there wasn’t time to drive into Lincoln and see the sights before going to the airport. Instead I hiked around Pioneers Park a bit to see the Prairie and Nature Centers. There was an injured barn owl at the Nature Center who had gotten used to waking at daytime hours to interact with guests. Apparently she had fallen asleep during totality, thinking it was night, and was still sleeping when I got there.
It was a 22 hour journey, much of it spent aboard planes, in airports, or driving a rental Nissan Rogue around the Lincoln area, all for a minute and a half of cloudy celestial twilight above four grimy sandstone columns. It was worth the trip.
Next total solar eclipse on Earth will be 2 July 2019 over Chile and Argentina, and next total solar eclipse to cross North America will be 8 April 2024; so make your plans now, I guess?
I’m on a plane to Lincoln, Nebraska, looking out the window at a sun soon to be obscured by the moon.
I hadn’t originally planned to travel for the Great American Eclipse of 2017, figuring it would be enough to glance at the partial eclipse from DC today; but then I read the stories:
With all this I decided to give eclipse-chasing a try, and burned some airline reward miles on a same-day round trip to Lincoln, NE, with a car rental to get farther south and deeper into the shadow of totality. I’m torn between viewing the eclipse from Pioneers Park, which has four pillars that connect the eclipse site back to DC, or the Homestead National Monument, which will provide a full minute more of totality — precious seconds where an eclipse is involved — but as a NASA broadcast site and major venue event, will probably be more crowded. It’ll depend on the clouds more than anything else.
More recent milestones for our son at 13-14 months of age: his dedication at First Baptist DC with Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell. (As Baptists we don’t baptize babies but we do have a dedication ceremony where the infant is presented to the congregation with prayers.)
Also his first times visiting a Smithsonian museum (Natural History) and the National Zoo, standard must-visits for any DC-area resident.
Another milestone: his first time in a swimming pool, the shallow kiddie wading pool to start. (I’ll spare you the photos of me in trunks for this one.)
We visited Toronto for a long weekend, with a day trip to Niagara Falls on the side. This was our first time to Toronto, my first time to Niagara, and Ezra’s first international trip and plane ride.
We took a walk around Jones Point Park last weekend, once the southern tip of the District of Columbia’s boundaries when it still included Alexandria, VA. Ezra came along of course.
By the old lighthouse there still sits the District’s southernmost boundary marker stone, below ground level and darkly viewable under a glass shield.
Underside of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge also made for some interesting views, along with the archaeological display of a wooden rudder found on the Potomac River bed.
Jones Point is along the Mount Vernon Trail between DC and George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. There are decent facilities if you need a nice place to bring kids near Old Town Alexandria.
Two significant anniversaries as of this month: Amy and I have been married 10 years, and our son Ezra is 1 year old! Every day of the last decade and the last year, my wife and son have been visible signs to me of the good Lord’s grace and love.
Ten years ago, one year ago, and last weekend:
(That was Ezra’s first trip to National Harbor. He got happier when he learned how sunglasses work.)
Some late afternoon photos of the forest near home, casually shot with my GoPro on the walk home from Metro. The wide-angle view adds a moody looming distortion effect, curved tree trunks appearing to subtly frame the scene.
