Clouds, buildings, river, flags. Stormy weather passing over us.
(Clouds over Rosslyn uploaded by brownpau.)
Harbour Fountain renovated
Nice, they’re done renovating the fountain at Washington Harbour. The planter islands are nice.
(Harbour Fountain renovated uploaded by brownpau.)
Departing, Arriving: Two Train Clips
Above left: view from the train as we leave Metropark, New Jersey. You can see my reflection in the window. Above right: Walking down the platform and recording from the hip after getting off the train at Union Station in Washington, DC.
NJ Weekend: Lots of Deer Edition
Amy and I were up in NJ for the weekend, visiting her grandma and hanging around the deep McMansion-infested wilds of the New Jersey suburban landscape. We also went to church (same church we were married in), and I ate a massive Reuben at Galloping Hill Grill, and a “Bife a Portuguesa,” (grilled steak topped with ham and fried egg) at Valença Restaurant in Elizabeth. Both were huge. My stomach no feel so good now.
Here are a few photos, including a flock (herd? pride? pod?) of deer we spotted right outside Grandma’s home:
You know what time our train pulled into DC after delays? Almost 4AM.
Morning Canal Video
Passing by the C&O on my way to work; clips of the Georgetowner boat and Locks 3 and 4. My shadow makes a brief appearance. Previous video entry from aboard the C&O Canal Boat.
Pope Passes Penn Ave
Birthday Boy Benedict XVI is in town, on the first papal visit to the United States Washington, DC since John Paul II came in 1979. Barricades lined Pennsylvania Ave in Foggy Bottom this morning, where the Popemobile would pass after a welcome at the White House:
Myself, I haven’t seen a Pope since the last time I was Roman Catholic: World Youth Day 1995. I considered taking lunch off to try and see Benedict, but busy meeting schedules intervened, so I decided to try the next best thing: fetching images from public DC traffic webcams on the internet and turning them into a Popemobile time lapse video!
Traffic camera images courtesy Trafficland, fetched every ten seconds with wget and assembled in Windows Movie Maker. I kept wget running for a bit longer after the Pope passed because I was away from the computer, so you can see a lot of the post-Papal scene as well — police personnel congregating, crowd dissipating, barricade segments being moved around, traffic flow starting up again, that kind of thing. I decided to keep it in for those who might be interested.
(If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy SuperPope!)
Sunday Jaunt: LOC, USBG, Liaison
Amy and I were planning to go visit the newly opened LOC Experience after church on Sunday, but found that LOC is only open Monday to Saturday, so we went over to the Botanic Gardens instead. Some photos from that jaunt:
Also of note, “Holiday Inn on the Hill” seems to have become “The Liaison,” now an Affinia property. I can’t help but think “Liaison” is a somewhat dubious hotel name more worthy of Eliot Spitzer’s Mayflower exploits than of a tourist-friendly DC lodging, but hey, it is right by the Capitol; maybe the name’s more appropriate than I would think.
Metro
Metro train to Franconia/Springfield arriving at Farragut West station on the Orange and Blue lines. This was taken Sunday afternoon while we were waiting for a train on our side to take us to Capitol South. If you listen closely you can hear me say to Amy, “It’s a video, for Flickr.”
National Geographic Frogs
A few fuzzy snaps from the Frogs exhibit at the National Geographic Explorers Hall:
Memorial to Sakhi Gulestan
Back in my first days in DC, while it was still cold, I spotted an old bearded Afghan man with crutches selling wool caps outside the Dupont Circle North Metro escalator. I bought a cap from him to keep my head warm, and would buy at least one more from him later that year. The old man and his family were a fixture in that location, selling hats and scarves and umbrellas and sunglasses. I never knew their names, but as I frequently bought and lost these loose weather accessories, I was grateful for their vending stall, so conveniently located along my route to work.
His name was Sakhi Gulestan, and while he was a poor man materially, he was rich in spirit. Here’s a City Paper article on his life and death. (Note: There’s an annoying slideshow with audio narration autoplaying on load, so the first thing you’ll want to do is scroll to the bottom and turn it off so you can read.)