Viewing entries tagged
Washington DC Photos

This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

4 Comments

This Week Off The Road - January 26th - February 2nd

Hello Everyone! If you’re reading this on Wednesday night, Happy Groundhog Day to you. One of my college friends was from Punxsutawney, PA so I always think of him today. Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog) did, in fact, see his shadow today, and in so doing he has predicted six more weeks of winter. That can only mean one thing – it’s definitely time for me to head south. This Sunday is the day, if all goes according to plan. I’ve spent this week packing, finishing up what I can of my projects while I’m here at home, and spending as much time as I could with friends and family. It’s always bittersweet to leave and as much as I’m looking forward to all of the adventures ahead, it’s always tough to say goodbye. To help pick myself up, I have contacted a few people who I will be seeing in the beginning of the week, and I definitely hope to be in New Orleans by the following weekend with plenty of friends to catch up with there as well. On a completely unrelated note, our football team here in Washington has a new name, the Washington Commanders, and I wish them well in the coming years. May their moral compass be a little truer than it has been in recent years.

Packing up my van is always quite a project as there is a place for everything and everything needs to be securely in its place. Every time I am home I unpack completely so I can get in and clean the inside out really well and then repack everything with some adjustments where I believe better efficiency can be achieved. I feel as though this time it’s packed particularly well and even though I’ve got pretty much everything loaded up, there’s still plenty of room. I’m thrilled it’s not jam packed and I think everything is going to work out really well with the way it’s loaded. And I’m still days away from taking off which is even better so that I can make adjustments before I hit the road. Omicron has given me a little extra time here in DC and I’ve tried to use it wisely. Meanwhile it’s been particularly cold and icy in the south so maybe it will all work out for the best in the end.

I have made two adjustments to my media strategy this week and I’m feeling good about both of them. As I have been writing about for several weeks, I’ve been (slowly) building my photography storefront on a separate site which I will integrate into this site as much as I can. While it’s still not where I want it to be and has very few photos on it, I’m thrilled with how it is coming and am happy to offer you all a sneak peek. While you can’t connect to it from anywhere on my site just yet, have a look here and let me know what you think. As always if there is any particular photo you would like me to add, please let me know and I will do so ASAP. Secondly, I’ve officially launched my TikTok channel this week, something I’ve been talking about for over a year now but finally went ahead with. TikTok is a neat form of social media which I’ve enjoyed myself for a while now and which is completely driven by video content but in shorter form than YouTube. If you’re on TikTok, you can find me @miles2gobeforeisleep.

I have gotten out a bit this week even though it’s been so busy. Last Thursday my folks and I headed out into the city for a nice adventure. We headed through Georgetown and the Navy Yard to see what’s new in those neighborhoods and then paid a nice long visit to Congressional Cemetery, one of D.C.’s most famous cemeteries and one which was simply too hot to appreciate when we last visited last May.

4 Comments

D.C. Chronicles - Final Update From Home!

Comment

D.C. Chronicles - Final Update From Home!

Hello Everyone. It’s wonderful to be writing to you all today. The weather is warming up here in Washington, and I’m getting everything ready for my departure which is rapidly approaching and now just under two weeks away. This will be the last of my updates from home as by next week I hope to be writing about the journey ahead, for which I am very excited. I’ve talked to some of my Michigan friends and gotten some great recommendations (and some from you guys as well), and can’t wait for a summer full of hiking, photography, small towns, state parks and the beautiful lighthouses that run up and down the coasts of the Great Lakes. It sounds divine right about now and as temperatures creep up to 90 here in DC, it’s about time for me to head for a cooler climate anyway. It’s certainly been a busy few weeks here at home, but a good couple of weeks as well.

We celebrated Eastern Orthodox Easter on May 2nd according to the old calendar. We had a wonderful surprise with a last-minute visit from my brother who took the train down from New Hampshire to be with us. We watched the midnight church service online as we did last year and had a wonderful meal together as well. Although we missed having my niece and nephew here, it was nice to have my brother join us.

That weekend we also went to Revolutionary War Days at Mount Vernon in Virginia. It was a very busy, but also very well done Revolutionary War reenactment on the fields near George Washington’s home. In addition to all the marching and shooting, there was food and music and stunning views out over the Potomac River and we had a really good time.

Later that week, my folks celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. I cooked them up a nice meal featuring fresh trout and scallops and my stepfather got a delicious cake from a bakery down in Virginia and we had champagne and a nice evening. The next day we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Mexican food, music and a fun game of Mexican Train (dominoes). The following Sunday was Mother’s Day and I cooked us up a delightful Sunday brunch for the occasion. It was definitely a week full of cooking for me, but I really enjoyed it and we had some delicious meals for sure.

For Mother’s Day I got my mom a night out of the city which we all enjoyed last week. We packed up the car and headed out to Lost River State Park in West Virginia where I got us a really nice old log cabin for the night. On the way there we stopped at the Hunter’s Head Tavern out in Upperville, Virginia, a delightful farm-to-table English-style country pub. When we got to the park we checked out Lighthorse Harry Lee’s old cabin near the old spring, and then settled in for a few beers around an afternoon campfire

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 52

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 52

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the last weekly installment of D.C. Chronicles as Episode 52 will bring us to a full year discussing life at home for me here in Washington D.C. in the midst of the worldwide pandemic. If you’ve been following closely, you know that this is actually a bonus week since I did do one installment of This Week on the Road in the midst of it all when we went to visit my brother in New Hampshire. It’s been a year of ups and downs, highs and lows, but we’ve gotten through it together. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to those of you who’ve stuck by me through all of this. I hope that in the next couple of months I can get back to the journey this was supposed to be all about and I sincerely hope you’ll come along for the ride.

It seems like a fitting week to end on as by this time next week I should have my second vaccine dose in my arm and be ready to turn my attention full-time to getting myself and my van ready for a June 1st departure. Most of the people in my inner circle of family and friends have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine and I know it will be available for everyone who hasn’t very soon. On the other side of things, I lost a very old friend of mine this week to complications due to Covid. He wasn’t a close friend, but someone I had worked with at summer camp over 20 years ago who I stayed in contact with via Facebook. When I got the devastating news of his death (he was only 53), I sure was happy I had made an extra effort to go to his 50th birthday party and catch up in person after many years. I hate that this happened, and so close to the finish line, but it has definitely reminded me that life is precious and to live it while we can and to make the effort to attend people’s special moments whenever possible. In the future, when I look back on this past year, it will be impossible not to remember that this pandemic took the lives of my Aunt Jayne and my old friend Mike (who we all knew as “Mud”). May all of those we lost this year rest in peace.

While I can and will mourn the lives claimed by the pandemic, I will also look back at this year with a great deal of fondness. I got to spend the year with my mom and stepdad, celebrating what we could, when we could and as often as we could. I know that Washington D.C. is not where my destiny is and it will soon be time for me to go, but we’ve made the most of it and I’ll never regret the time I’ve gotten to spend with them. I’m especially glad I was here to help them with my mom’s recovery from her recent hip replacement. I know they would have gotten through it without me, but it was still good to be able to lend a hand. My mom got me out of the house 2 months into the pandemic when I was losing my mind and we took a quick trip to Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. That trip inspired an in-depth exploration of the eastern theater of the Civil War, a look at Washington’s oldest homes, and winding trips down Maryland’s scenic byways. We’ve always been able to go on trips together and explore and chat and have a good time and it’s been wonderful to do that as often as we have this year. I will miss our weekly adventures together. This past week we journeyed out to Point of Rocks, a small rail-town in Maryland. It has a beautiful Gothic-style train station, sits on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and saw some action during the Civil War. It was fun to walk around the area (slowly on her new hip), and have so much background knowledge to the things we saw and read.

Of course, as you know, the most wonderful part of the last year was spending so much time with young Mason. We’ve been together pretty much every weekday for the last 9 months, and we make quite the team. I’ve taught him a lot this year, and he’s taught me at least as much in return. He starts each day with a fresh slate and seems to live completely in each and every moment. He’s not regretful of the past or scared of the future, he lives for today. He’s insatiably curious about everything we come across in our daily adventures, and hardly ever complained as we ventured out in heat and cold and snow. He loves books…

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 51

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 51

Hello Everyone. It’s been a year now. A year this past Monday to be exact. A year at home here in Washington D.C. That wasn’t the plan, but life is what happens when you’re making other plans, right? I don’t regret coming home and it’s actually been a great year, all things considered. It’s been a year of exploring the region with my mom and learning a lot of things I never knew about my own hometown. A year of Friday night parties in the basement, movie nights and watching the seasons change. I’ve spent 8 months of that year watching Mason grow from 2 to 3 and laugh and learn and fall down and get back up. I’ve also been able to watch the young man I tutor build his academic confidence and helped in some small way to move him toward his goals. It’s been a year of rethinking and retooling my plans going forward and deciding to put my own personal happiness above any other measure of success (more on my plans coming soon). It hasn’t all been great, though. My personal health, both physical and mental, has suffered through all of this. My van sat unused for many months because of a broken brake line, but has gotten a lot of love and attention since. My podcast has gone dark for over a year now, but I hope to revive it in about two months. Looking back at the end of the year, though, this time will only be somewhere between 1-2% of my life – just a flash in the grand scheme of things, another chapter of many from a very blessed life. Also at the end of this year I’m very aware of just how fortunate I am to have had what I’ve had this year. It’s certainly been a strange year to try and run a travel blog. I’ve travelled when and where I could and tried to share those trips with you here, but it certainly wasn’t what it would have been without the pandemic. I certainly appreciate you all for sticking with me through all of this and while next week will mark the end of this series, soon thereafter I will start fresh with new features and plans for my upcoming departure. Pandemics and politics will disappear from this space and be replaced with beautiful photos and interesting history. I can’t wait.

This week Mason and I welcomed the bumblebees back into our lives. We’ve been talking about them since they left us last October, looking forward to the day when they returned. These last few weeks it’s been “almost” and “not yet”, but on Friday we walked out into a beautiful sunny morning and there were a half-dozen bees right there in the front yard of his new house. That same day we saw a butterfly, a spider and some water-bugs as well, all very good indicators that spring is upon us. He’s learning the names of some of the flowers that are coming out, too, and I’m happy I have a great consultant (my mom) to make sure I get them straight myself. He’s starting to make some associations, too, which are pretty cool – he called buttercups “cups butter” and dandelions simply “lions” (which they resemble when he pointed that out). We were able to get into the water that day, too, and we both had so much fun watching the fish, throwing rocks and enjoying the sun. The day before, Mason got his first time-out from me though. He hit me in the face in a less-than-accidental way which I couldn’t overlook, so I sat him in the corner facing the wall for 5 minutes. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen and broke my heart, but I think that it’s a lesson he has to learn. We talked about it afterwards and hugged it out, though. Growing up sure is tough.

This week, we’ve returned to his old house for a while so their new house can get some necessary work done before they can move in for good. It’s been good to be back in the old neighborhood, see our old friends the stone animal lawn ornaments, and visit our old haunts now heading into spring. Today he was back in the water, splashing around and throwing rocks and as happy as a clam.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom here in Washington, which is always one of my favorite times of year to be here. While the ones everyone wants to see are downtown near the monuments, there are wonderful cherry blossoms all over the city. They make me feel happy. In addition, the magnolia in our front yard has bloomed magnificently this year. Some years the cold and wind will keep it from a full bloom, but this year everything came together just right.

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 50

2 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 50

Hello Everyone. I’m officially halfway to being fully vaccinated! I’m very happy and excited about that and it certainly has been the highlight of my week. I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday at the Washington Convention Center, and it was smooth and easy and I already have my second dose scheduled in just three weeks. I feel very relieved at this having happened and just a week shy of my one-year anniversary of being home here in Washington. I was happy to read today that one in four Americans have now gotten at least one dose of a vaccine and was overjoyed that this long year will soon be behind us to some degree. Beyond that, Mason’s parents sold their old house this week, Mason and I continued on our adventures in Barnaby Woods and spring is most definitely in the air here in Washington.

This week, Mason’s parents and I began discussing the inevitable end of our adventures together. He’ll be 3 in less than two months, and with my pending departure from the city it will soon be time for us to go our own ways. As happy and excited as I am to be back on my own and back on the road, it won’t be easy to leave him. Spending the last eight months with him has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. Challenging, yes, but rewarding beyond my wildest imagination. On Monday, he and I were down by Rock Creek and he pointed and said “Uncle Mike! Ducks!”. I asked him what kind of ducks they were and he told me they were mallards and that the daddy had a green head and the mommy had a brown head. It was a pretty awesome moment and caused me to reflect on how much he’s learned and how much we’ve experienced together this year. We have only had our books and the park as inspiration, but I think we’ve done pretty well together. Just today, we were sitting on the front porch swing at his new house and he pointed to a wind chime I hadn’t seen before and showed me there was a deer on it. He then showed me the antlers and it made me smile because I know a lot of adults who don’t know the difference between horns and antlers, and he does. He can also tell the difference between a dog track and a cat track, between a cherry blossom and a magnolia and between a red-headed and a pileated woodpecker. We’ve watched the changing of the seasons together. And while I’ve taught him many things about nature, he’s taught me a lot about construction and big trucks and reminded me how magical the world can be when you’re experiencing it for the first time and your eyes are only 3 feet above the ground. Somewhere in there he’s learned to count, learned his ABCs, and how to use a toilet. All-in-all, I’d call it a year to hang our hat on.

For the last few weeks, whenever Mason hears his parents walking around the house, he looks me dead in the eyes and says “I hear cheetahs”. It’s the funniest thing and makes me laugh every time. His parents have set up a sandbox for him in their backyard which is definitely a winner. He loves shoveling sand from one place to another and then dumping it out. He also has his own slide and swing set back there which we’ve been making good use of. This week he’s started using one of my catch-phrases “how wonderful” which comes out as “how won-de-duh” but still makes me laugh and I think it’s a great expression for anyone. I’ve also been reading him some Disney books this week which my parents read to me as a kid and the images bring back a lot of memories from my own childhood. We’ve carved out a special nook in the attic to read on rainy days and it’s been amazing.

The weather has been pretty great this past week here in Washington. The cherry blossoms have started to bloom in this part of the city, though they are still in their buds downtown by the memorials. My mother’s magnolia in the front yard is about a week away from full bloom. Her forsythias are out and the daffodils are doing well too. Spring is such a wonderful and hopeful time, this year more than most. I’ve spent as much time as I could outside this week, enjoying sunny days, later sunsets and the fresh air the season brings.

I’ve also been spending some time this week making real plans for my June departure, with Michigan set in my sights as my first destination…

2 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 49

4 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 49

Hello Everyone. In less than a week I have an appointment to get my first shot of the Covid vaccine. I am very happy and very excited, as this is the best news I’ve gotten in a while for myself (it was always more important that my folks got it and now that my mom and stepdad and my dad’s partner are fully vaccinated and my dad has his first shot, I’m happy for me). Beyond that, Shadow Catcher got new brakes this week so my van is edging closer to being “departure ready” as well. Mason and his parents have moved into their new house and he and I have spent the week exploring their new neighborhood. My mom’s hip replacement is healing well and she’s moving around a lot better. And in other awesome news, my very good friend Jorge and his wife have welcomed a beautiful bouncing baby girl this week. All told, it’s been a pretty good week here in Washington.

With my vaccine news and my van’s last big repair (hopefully), my plans for an early June departure may actually come to fruition. That probably means it’s time for this particular weekly update to come to an end. I plan to continue it for the next three weeks to bring a full year of DC Chronicles to a close. After that I’m going to spend a few weeks doing some revamping of my website and social media platforms to try and prepare for Departure 3.0. When I began this adventure back in 2017, my plan was to share my life with the world as I traveled the country and lived in my van. Unfortunately the reality at that time was that I was in a pretty dark place mentally, being in the midst of a long and painful breakup with someone I wrongfully believed was my soulmate. I couldn’t share my feelings or thoughts because they were all about her and that wasn’t what this journey was supposed to be. So I leaned away from me and leaned into taking photos and sharing my trip on a very impersonal level, which was all I was capable of at the time. Over the past year, I haven’t traveled much at all and I’ve been able to open up more about me and my life here in the midst of a global pandemic (such as it was), and I’ve really enjoyed that and the interactions with you all that have come with it.

As I get ready to leave for the third time, I expect a much more personal interaction to come from this blog. I want to show you my van, how it works, what my days and nights are like, where I go and what I experience. I’ve retooled some of my operation so I can work from my van and be able to utilize my time and resources better. I’m also in a far better mental state to be able to do so. In short, I guess I’m hoping to bring the personal side of DC Chronicles together with the travel/photography side of This Week on the Road and add a little more on the vanlife in the process. I think this time it’s all going to actually work out the way I had hoped it would in the first place! I also plan on starting my podcast again which takes a look at the history and culture of the states that I visit and is something I’ve really enjoyed. Much more to come on all of this in the next 10 weeks, but that’s a brief preview of what to expect. I’m super-excited about the whole thing.

So last week Mason and his parents moved into their beautiful new house in Barnaby Woods on the far northwest edge of the city and, if you had a good arm, a stone’s throw from the Maryland border. Mason and I have been talking about it for weeks to try and prepare him for the move. I know his parents had a lot to do and think about and I wanted to help with Mason’s transition as much as I could. On Thursday morning, as the movers were getting ready to come start their work, Mason and I headed outside for an adventure. I told him we’d find a new creek to throw rocks, new construction sites to watch, new mushrooms and berries and new birds and other assorted friends. Before we left that morning, I walked to the side of the new house and got my walking stick which I had moved over from the old house, and his face lit up at the familiar sight. We set off to the Pinehurst Tributary of Rock Creek and played in the water there all day (it was 70 degrees and perfect). It was a good first day for us both.

4 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 48

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 48

Hi Everyone! It’s 70 degrees and sunny out and my window is open here and that alone has really picked up my spirits. It’s been a long and dreary winter and I’m very happy that it’s finally coming to an end (although somehow snow is in the forecast for next week). I’ve gotten myself on the vaccination wait-list here in Washington, so now I’m just waiting to hear back from them which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. I’ve been doubling my walks this week, trying to start losing some of this weight and bring my blood sugar back down to a reasonable level and the improved weather has really helped motivate me for that. My mom’s hip is improving every day since last week’s surgery and Mason and I are both happy to have our feet back in the water. It hasn’t been the most productive week in the world, but it’s been pretty good.

Mason and I have been spending longer and longer outside every day and it’s much easier on both of us to not have to get geared up in the morning. Yesterday I brought a pair of shorts and his water shoes for him to change into, and even though the water was still pretty chilly we both got out into it – me up to my ankles and Mason to his knees. Standing in the creek, pulling rocks out and throwing them – he looked like the happiest kid on the planet. We’re watching signs of spring emerge all around us as the buds are coming out, the geese are flying north and the robins are everywhere. Mason’s cousins taught him that the early flowers blooming now are crocuses, and he happily points them out in all of their beautiful colors. We’ve seen deer in the park on two separate occasions this week, which is a real treat for a city kid, and we keep our ears tilted skyward to listen for woodpeckers. Mason is pretty awesome at identifying birds for a two year-old. We also saw a mounted park police officer this week which was pretty sweet as horses are also not a part of our daily experience here. The list of things Mason has randomly told me he loves has grown to include: blueberries, napkins, pandas, the moon, crocuses, raccoons, jellyfish and airplanes. His vocabulary continues to grow and his sentences are more complete every day. Tomorrow I am off to meet him at his new house for the first time which I think we’re both looking forward to. I went and scouted out the woods nearby over the weekend and have found plenty of places for us to get our feet wet, touch mushrooms and explore.

Last Friday, my folks and I had to move our weekly celebration up to the second floor because my mom was still in a lot of pain from her hip surgery on Tuesday. I was hoping she could come down to the first floor and we could enjoy some Swiss culture in front of the fireplace, but she wasn’t up to it so we came to her instead. I made us some delicious traditional fondue and we listened to some Swiss folk and alpenhorn music. I have spent a fair bit of time in Switzerland in my life, and it was nice to think of some of the beautiful places I’ve been there. I hope to see more of it sooner rather than later.

Saturday was a really wonderful day outside and I spent a lot of time in my van. A lot of the things I’ve been working on are small things, but it was nice to get a bunch of them accomplished and cross them off my to-do list. I’m going to spend some time showing y’all the inside of my van soon and will try and explain what everything is and how it all works when I’m on the road. It really is an interesting process and lifestyle and I’m eager to invite you all over for a virtual look in the months to come.

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 46

2 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 46

Hello Everyone. February sure has blown by, and I’m not upset about that one bit. The end of last week was miserable and cold, and the rain that was coming down was freezing on contact. More than one morning this week I scraped a solid quarter-inch of ice off of my windshield. By mid-afternoon today, though, the temperature was up to 60, and the sun shining down was simply wonderful. The first day of real spring-like weather is always one of the best days of the year for me. As Mason and I were walking around today, I caught a whiff of a barbecue in use and it made me smile from ear to ear. I am really looking forward to the fast-approaching spring.

There has definitely been lots of good news recently on the virus front. The numbers are still way higher than they should be and than they are in most other countries, but at least they are coming down. It was heartbreaking to cross the half-million death mark, all in just a single year, and realize that we’ve lost the equivalent of a mid-sized city like Miami or Raleigh. Sadly, I think we could have saved many of those lives by acting faster and smarter, but I am trying to focus on the positive. We are now vaccinating at a rate of almost 2 million people a day with the potential for even more in the near future. Every day on my social media feeds I’m seeing more of my friends getting vaccinated, and I know that my turn is coming soon too. While I know that this won’t mean we are out of the woods, all indicators are pointing to a great summer ahead. My plan is to be on my own and on the road, exploring the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region of the country all summer long. I can’t wait.

Meanwhile, Mason and I have continued our explorations this week, even in the cold and ice. I took him sledding for the first time at the end of last week (maybe not his first time, but our first time together), and he loved it. He was laughing and squealing with delight as he skidded over the ice in his Flexible Flyer. Oh, to be two year old again! He has been having a blast smashing ice this week as well which I have also been finding quite satisfying. I’m happy to take my frustrations at the ice out on the ice itself! Because of the sub-freezing temperatures though, we’ve been spending more time inside than either of us would like. I’ve started working on teaching him to read this week, which is interesting. He has known most of his letters for a couple of months now, but he’s only 2 and I didn’t want to push him. Recently he has seemed more curious, so I’m slowly edging in that direction. We started with A but vowels are complicated, so we moved on to B. He sleeps in his bed, under a blanket with bunny and big bear after all, so the B sound is something he is both familiar with and able to pronounce. We then went on to read a book, and I pointed out every time we heard that B sound. It was pretty cool when he pointed out the boat in the corner. Hopefully tomorrow we can work on some Ds. Today he started using the phrase “I love…”, and the official list of things he told me he loved today was: mud, pine cones, trash trucks and blueberries. He really cracks me up sometimes. We also had a long and heated conversation this week about whether the cat in one of his books is a cheetah or a leopard. When we started reading it, I thought it was a cheetah, but the book said it was a leopard and I thought we should take them at their word. I admitted I had made a mistake, and we looked at the differences in their spot patterns and body shapes, but he was still convinced it was a cheetah. I think it’s hilarious having these “arguments”, but I also think it’s good for him to have his own opinions.

2 Comments

D.C. Chronicles Volume 43

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 43

Hello Everyone and Happy February! This is going to be a short post this week because there really hasn’t been too much going on. We had a pretty decent snowstorm this week here in Washington which has kept things pretty quiet and close to home. I’ve enjoyed the visual change of pace the snow has brought and also enjoying it with my little buddy, Mason. I’ve been struggling with depression this week though, which I’ve managed to keep at bay for much of the last few months and I can’t say I’m thrilled by its reappearance. All in all, though, it’s been a pretty quiet week.

Towards the end of last week, Mason and I went on some really long walks around his neighborhood which we both really enjoyed. On Friday we zigged where we normally zag in one spot and 20 minutes later found ourselves on the shore of a massive (by D.C. standards) pond. It had been pretty cold, so the surface was frozen solid and we stood there and talked about ice and water for a long time. Then we threw some sticks which skittered across the surface to our collective delight. Big rocks managed to crash through the surface, but only to make a divot. While I was holding both of his hands above his head with my feet planted firmly on the boardwalk just in case, Mason took a few slippery steps across the ice. For a kid who loves the water, I think this was a really cool experience.

Our week ended with our usual end-of-week basement celebration. Last Friday we celebrated Up-Helly-Aa, the Scottish Viking Fire Festival. We started with drinks and sea shanties in the basement and then played a nice game of Muggins (dominoes). Then we came upstairs and had a nice fire in the fireplace. I had made a delicious Scottish potato-leek soup and some bannock (skillet bread), and both were perfect for a cold winter night. It was another successful celebration! These next two weekends we’ll be bringing it home to Louisiana to celebrate Mardi Gras before seeing where our virtual journey takes us next.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day here, but really just bitterly cold and windy. It was a shame to not be able to go and enjoy it somewhere, but it really was unpleasant to be out in. Late Saturday night it began to snow and continued through much of Sunday and on into Monday. It was a very nice, dry, light snow which was easy to shovel but made for a pretty scene outside. We were all a little surprised at the amount of snow we got, but as I mentioned it is nice to see something a little different looking out the windows.

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 42

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 42

Hello Everyone! This is the last post for January, which is hard for me to believe. The time really is going quickly here. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that my political opinions won’t be making an appearance today. It’s been a rough couple of months, and being in Washington it’s hard to escape it, but I’m sure going to try. I have enough things to focus on without getting mired down in something I have very little control over.

The most exciting thing that happened this week is that my folks got their first vaccine shot. This is wonderful news and we’re very grateful to the folks at Howard University for making it happen. I’m really hoping the federal government will ramp up the vaccination as promised and that we can all have ours before the summer.

Young Mason continues to make me smile with his good humor and big smile. Last week we were sitting at breakfast and we were discussing each other’s shirts, which is a common occurrence over his morning meal. I had on a shirt from the amazing total solar eclipse I got to lead a trip to see in Wyoming a few years ago. He pointed out what looked like the moon to him, but was actually the sun so I explained what the eclipse was and how it worked and what it was like to see it. Once I was done explaining it, he hopped up and went and got one of his books about space and we looked at the sun and the moon together. It was pretty cool.

On one of our walks this week we were out in one of the parks in his neighborhood which has a grove of bamboo in it. He always points out the bamboo, and I ask if he sees any pandas around which he never does (but growing up in Washington, I know he will see them often at the National Zoo). A few minutes later he picked up a huge log and told me it was a panda and carried it all the way home. The next day we took his panda to “the lake”, which is really just a small pool along one of the creeks we visit, and he hurled it in. He really loves throwing things in the water, even things he seems to really like. I definitely don’t understand everything he does or says, and he would probably tell you the same about me, but we sure do have interesting adventures together.

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 41

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 41

Hello Everyone! Another week has come and gone and January is moving right along here at home in Washington. We’ve had some warm and sunny days this week and trees are starting to bud and some plants are waking from their winter slumber. Mason and I continue our daily adventures around Glover Park, and my mom and I took a nice long trip out to western Virginia over the weekend. And, of course, the United States has entered a new presidential era. While all of these things have been great, and certainly good distraction, I don’t want you to think I’ve forgotten the reason why I am here, which continues to worsen by the day.

It was a year ago now that the first documented cases of Covid19 showed up in the United States. This coming week the death toll here will surpass the total number of Americans who died during World War II. In other comparisons as far as American deaths go, we are now suffering one September 11th every 18 hours and one D-Day every 30 hours. I can’t get my vaccine fast enough and hope my folks can get theirs before the end of the month. That would certainly be a step in the right direction. I’m also hoping the incoming administration will take the whole thing a lot more seriously. Had now former-President Trump taken it a little more seriously, I believe he would have won this election in a landslide. We’ve tried things his way for long enough and clearly whatever their plan or lack thereof is failing and I’m grateful we’ll be heading in a different direction.

Congratulations to now-President Joe Biden and our first female Vice President Kamala Harris. I’m certainly wishing them the best of luck in the days and years to come. This is not a partisan statement; I think we should all have that sentiment as a new presidential administration begins. If you wish failure on someone entering those positions, I would sincerely question your patriotism. I felt the same four years ago when Donald Trump took his oath of office. Knowing of his almost absolute lack of experience in government, I was hoping he would do what I would do in a similar situation – surround himself with the best and brightest to move the country forward and make him look good. Especially as an outsider, I would have sought out the most qualified people in the country regardless of political affiliation and brought them on board to help “drain the swamp” and do remarkable things. Instead he surrounded himself with people he believed would be loyal regardless of their backgrounds and dug deeper in the mud. Many of the issues which are important to me, like the environment and public education, took some pretty serious hits over the last four years. Outside of his policy decisions, he brought almost constant negativity and division and that’s from his own Twitter feed, not from the press. I’m really hoping that Biden can make some real progress over the next four years. As a country, we are definitely better together than we are apart.

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 40

Comment

D.C. Chronicles Volume 40

Hello Everyone. It’s been an emotional week here in Washington D.C. as I’m sure you can all imagine, but we’re hanging in. I’ve spent a lot of the last week trying to process what happened last Wednesday and reading entirely too much news. I have, of course, still been spending time with my little buddy, Mason, and he continues to grow and learn every day. I’ve also been playing some music this week and trying to increase my exercise level to try and drop some of this pandemic weight. I want to be back in traveling shape when traveling comes back into my life. Overall it’s been a contemplative week and one that I very much hope doesn’t foreshadow what is to come in the days, weeks and months ahead.

My head is still spinning from the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday. Much like in the days following 9/11 I’ve been very consumed with the news this week. Of course back then there was no social media, so we at least knew that the stories we read were written by people with an education in their background, a fact checker in their newsrooms and a job/professional integrity to protect. Now it’s just all over the place and it seems there will be no consensus on what happened that day any time soon. Suffice it to say that my personal opinion is that anyone who entered the Capitol that day, unless they were a credentialed journalist, should be arrested, tried and sentenced for unlawful entry and sedition. It seems pretty clear to me that some of the people who went in were prepared, disciplined and intent on causing harm to our Senators and Representatives. Others were simply cartoonish buffoons meant to distract the world with their outfits and juvenile antics. All of them, however, should be sought out and punished to the fullest extent of the law. All Americans, no matter your party, race, religion or background should be appalled by this act. If you don’t like the system, seek to change the system through elections, courts, organization etc. When you seek to overthrow the duly elected government through violence and intimidation, I have no sympathy for you. While I don’t condone any violence which has happened this year by anyone, anywhere, this was the United States Capitol. If people can’t see the difference, I don’t know what to say to them. As the sister story about those charged with defending the Capitol unfolds, I hope we will get a clearer picture as to why and how the Capitol was allowed to be breached in the first place. It didn’t seem like it was a big secret that people were coming to Washington that day intent on causing trouble, and while the vast majority of people who came were peaceful, there was enough of a threat to at least have had the National Guard at the ready. Right now, I hope President Trump will go on television and tell all of those who are planning on coming to the inauguration that if they come with the intention of violence not to do it in his name (he did make a press release today to this effect). January 6th, 2021 is a day that people will be reading about in history books years from now and it really didn’t need to happen.

As we watched people storming through our hallowed halls, I listened to what many of them were saying and it was much the same rhetoric I’ve heard so often over the last few years – something along the lines of “we’re taking our country back”. I can’t help but wonder every time I hear this who this “our” is referring to. Isn’t it my country too? Isn’t it as much Bernie Sanders’ country as it is Mitch McConnell’s country as it is Steve in Detroit’s country? I truly don’t understand this us vs. them mentality and it bothers me. We are all Americans and we need to start acting like we believe this. The two places we can start are fighting this pandemic together and condemning anyone who invades our Capitol building.

Thankfully amidst it all, young Mason has no concerns about politics and has kept me sane as usual through an insane time…

Comment