It’s like this see…
last update: 05/14 @ 20:33

… The forecast made it sound like a rainy day today. With Sarah not having any meetings and me being, well, retired, we took advantage of where we live and metroed in to the American History Museum. It had been almost a full Robert lifetime since we’d been :)

As we headed back to the metro we stopped for a bite and bit of tea from Teaism and we got a call from Robert. He has the chance for extra credit if he can produce an illustrated map of where sewage flows.

He gets normal credit for an illustrated map of the flow from his dorm in Seattle to Seattle’s waste water treatment facility at Discovery Point.

But he was wondering if his parents could take a few photos for him to work on an Alexandria map. Like Hooff’s Run where storm water flows through Alexandria.

The forecast was wrong, it was not rainy and we were on our way back home anyway so …

… we learned that the waste water plant we thought treated our water actually doesn’t. That is for Arlington and Alexandria has it’s own treatment plant, which is getting substantially upgraded (thanks our and our neighbors waste water bills).

And we found this cool public art noting how Alexandria was exepcted to be (and was, for a while) a major shipping port (in the cities early days). With lots of traffic to Hispaniola, Barbados, Jamaica and Bermuda (I may have to go back and re-read that to be sure I’ve remembered that correctly).

We never would have stumbled upon that globe with it’s bit of history if we’d not been on the little expedition for Robert this afternoon.

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Epic Mother’s Day Gift
last update: 05/11 @ 10:56

For Mother’s Day this year, Robert mapped all the previous Mother’s Days with photos of the two of them.

So, of course, I need to add a photo of the two of them looking at that gift for this year’s Mother’s Day.

Sarah was very moved — it really was a great and unexpected gift (and proof he’s in the right program at UW — and maybe something I should look at for use here on the blog…).

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We’ve had some rain
last update: 05/07 @ 17:27

So the river is muddy and up a bit (4.6).

With a mostly blue sky (some clouds) and mid 70s it was a really nice day to be out.

I didn’t make it across to the Virginia chute — too much current moving downstream.

But I did paddle up the back channel and saw a goose family complete with a few goslings waddling around.

And the Howard County swift water rescue team was out training. When I first got there, they were all swimming down from the Virginia chute — I would guess getting used to being in swift water.

They were just getting ready to head upstream when I took that photo. When they really starting going up the current, it was pretty impressive.

You may notice that they are front loading the rafts to keep the nose down a bit as the motors get going.

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Pre-Mother’s Day
last update: 04/28 @ 21:56

It was a perfect day to take the Baseball Boat from Alexandria to see the Nationals play.

And they were playing the Mets — Sarah’s home team, and her mom’s favorite.

And just to celebrate the day and show off for Sarah and her mom, Lois, the Mets stomped the Nats: 19 to 5.

As I said a beautiful day for game (and trip up and down the Potomac).

But maybe not the Nats best showing so far.

We were both surprised to learn that they used up all their pitchers so for the last inning, the third baseman was pitching.

That really gives you perspective on how good and specialized pitchers really are.

And going for an afternoon game on a weekday was an extra treat.

Retirement really is very nice!

The Baseball boat is highly recommended!

It got us there in time to find the presidents so Sarah could get a picture.

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Back to normal programming
last update: 04/22 @ 19:03

A perfect way to spend part of Earth Day!

It was warmer today; about 75 degrees and the water level was about 3.5 feet. The water temp seemed a tiny bit warmer than last week — but maybe that was really just the much warmer air temp.

At any rate, a very nice day to spend some time out on the river.

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Protest
last update: 04/19 @ 19:04

Today’s protest and march was organized by Refuse Fascism.

It started on the other side of the Washington Monument from April 5th’s Hands Off protest and then marched down 15th to Constitution around the White House.

It was peaceful and well attended — not huge, but enough folks to fill Constitution from 15th to 17th; I think that’s thousands.

I appreciated that march up Constitution Avenue; if our elected officials actually honored the oath that they took to the Constitution, we’d start to see things getting better.

Sadly, we’re not seeing that yet.

And a bit alarmingly, there were some posts this morning warning that there could be violence which would likely be met by a large law enforcement reaction.

There is a real concern that the administration is looking for an excuse to really clamp down much harder of our free speech and right to assemble.

Sarah got me reading Heather Cox Richardson and Heather got me reading Timothy Snyder

Timothy today posted a reminder of how that scenario has played out over time and reminded his readers of Lesson 18 of his book On Tyranny:

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.

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Chilly day on the river
last update: 04/17 @ 18:04

Sally had a friend to go visit this morning so Hank and I dropped her off and headed to Angler’s Inn. Sadly, Sarah had a conflict.

It was about 3.75 on the gauge; the water is still pretty cold (I found out with direct experience) and the air was just barely 60.

So chilly.

But look at the blue sky!

And all the trees are starting to leaf out now (some more than others).

We had to say goodbye to Hank and Sally this afternoon. They are headed back up to Hull for the spring. But we’re talking more seriously about when we could head up that way for a visit.

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Fun Day
last update: 04/15 @ 19:16

Hank and Sally are working their way up the east coast from their wintering grounds in Florida :)

And they stopped by our neck of the woods!

They gathered a mini-reunion of about half of the Galapagos trip folks for a day at Hillwood Estate.

We lucked out on the weather and spent the first part of the day outside (with a lunch under the tent) before touring the mansion as the little bit of rain passed through.

That’s David, Sarah, Penny, Hank, Neil, Sally and JD (photo by another visitor) outside the green house.

It’s really hard for me to say what was most impressive.

The flowers, orchids, gardens and grounds (including the Japanese Garden Sarah is showing off below.

Or the Faberge eggs, jewelry, paintings and historical collection.

It is well worth a visit (and with fun, interesting and beautiful things inside and out, the weather is not too important in planning a visit).

Sadly, Sarah had a couple of meetings, but was able to catch up and enjoy most of the grounds and tour.

And, of course, we took advantage of a quiet table to catch up and think about future trips.

Watch this space to see where we end up next :)

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A bit early …
last update: 04/14 @ 22:51

… but better too early than too late:

The all new, 2025 tax day letter is now available online!

Paper copies are in the mail (or should be in time to get an April 15^th timestamp). If you’d like a hard copy, just let us know we’ll be happy to add you to the distribution list.

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Mini Circus
last update: 04/10 @ 22:25

Sarah took me to the Live at the Library show this evening. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Circus is donating some historical artifacts to the Library and so, they brought some performers to show off what they do now.

Jumping rope with someone on your shoulders who is also balancing someone on their shoulders (they added one more layer after I took this photo) seems very extreme! It was awesome (but scary watching it performed on the marble floor).

Quite the venue for such a show!

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