Holmes Run, Alexandria

On Saturday 22nd, I was awoken by a winter wind whistling around the building. All I wanted to do was snuggle further down under my warm comforter, but I had made plans to go on an eight mile hike, so I slowly slid from the bed and dressed warmly for the outdoors. Out of 32 that had signed up for the hike, only 5 of us turned up and not wanting to stand still in a freezing cold parking lot, we only waited 10 minutes for late arrivals before we set off.

Setting of at a brisk pace, it didn't take long before we warmed up but it was still too cold and windy to remove gloves and scarves. We passed a swamp area where the ice had started accumulating on the still water.

It was nice to walk through this tunnel and get a break from the wind. Holmes run is a beautiful walk where the trails are nearly always alongside waterways. Some of the trail passes briefly through residential areas but it is mostly rural, a gem in busy Alexandria.

In the Spring, the water levels are higher, covering the sandbars and the bottom of the bridge above and the rocks in the photo below.

We finished the hike without the sun warming up the day and without the wind dropping, but with a great feeling that we'd had a successful morning's workout. Time to go home and cook up a potful of soup with sausage and vegetables.
I've been experimenting with HDR recently and the bottom image shows the HDR result of the one above it. Doubleclick on the image to see the result more clearly. There's software available for HDR imagery but this one was done in Photoshop. And once again, I'd left my memory card in my laptop so these photos were taken on my iPhone.

Urban Exploring in D.C.

On Sunday morning, I met with my fellow explorers to investigate an abandoned brick works in D.C.


The inside of the kilns had this beautiful brick flooring to allow heat from below to dry the bricks.

The bricks were transported to and from the kilns by these rail tracks.



After the brick works, we went on a scouting trip around D.C. to find other abandoned buildings, and came across this wonderful old firehouse built in 1894. It had new locks on the doors so we're hoping it will be restored.

The wall by the side of the firehouse was covered in intricate patterns of ivy leaves.

This is the Old Naval Hospital.


Even as night fell, we carried on searching and checked out the old Wonderbread factory which is going to be developed into offices, retail & parking space. We also found an old theater, a couple of schools and a church which we made notes of for future exploring.

Arlington National Cemetery

A group of us went to Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, the best known of more than a hundred national cemeteries in the U.S.


This is President John F. Kennedy's grave above. Note the constant flame at the center of the circle.

Above is the Memorial Amphitheater where memorials are held and wreaths are presented each Memorial Day and Veterans Day. We met a man here who had come to visit the Challenger Memorial to remember his uncle who had been commander of the crew.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is guarded 24/7 regardless of inclement weather by sentinels who are on duty for 24 hrs, then 24hrs off for 5 days, then 4 days off. Less than 20% of all volunteers are accepted for training and of those only a fraction pass training to become full-fledged Tomb Guards. During the changing of the guard you can hear a pin drop, and to the right you can see veteran soldiers, some of whom were weeping. It was a very humbling and poignant moment.

Over 320,000 servicemen & their family members rest on these 624 acres and about 27 burials are conducted every weekday.

Arlington House, or the Robert E. Lee Memorial, overlooks the Potomac river. These beautiful columns look like marble but were in fact built by slaves from handmade brick, covered in cement and then painted to look like sandstone & marble.

This is the view looking across the river.


This shows Arlington Memorial Bridge leading to the Lincoln Memorial today and how it looked in 1865.
Once we reached the bottom of the hill, our group headed back to their cars, but Salim and I wanted to pay our respects to Section 60 where the fallen soldiers from the Iraq war were buried.

With our country still at war, and thousands of soldiers still deployed, we wanted to pay our respects to those that had fallen to maintain our freedom. We approached Section 60 with lumps in our throats and slowly walked the lines taking in every tombstone. Family members quietly chatted in groups while others sat in silent reflection. The sun beat down and I was acutely conscious of the sun's rays warming my back and profoundly grateful to those beneath my feet who had ensured that I could continue to do so.

Halloween 2008

With Halloween being on a Friday this year, I felt there was no excuse not to dress up. This is something I would never have done in England, but here in the U.S. I love the American attitude of just letting go and having a laugh regardless of age.
I proudly wore my witch costume to work and Squelchie, our I.T. guy had also dressed up as Wolverine. Those blades are real metal and he had to file them down quite drastically to avoid being given a wide berth all day.


I liked to think I was a good witch and so made sure everyones' fears were dissolved by handing out candy in my boot basket. We went out for lunch to get maximum exposure and then after work I headed to my very good friend Debbie's house where we were going to sit on the front porch and hand out candy while her husband Jim took the boys out trick or treating.


Here we are on the porch just before they set off. Debbie was going to be a witch with me but couldn't find her costume so she wore a very convincing pimp outfit instead.

This is little Maximus above in his first ever Halloween costume. He's only 2.5yrs old and excelled as Spiderman. His enthusiasm was contagious, that mask didn't come off once all evening.
Debbie & I sat out front with creepy music and sound effects in the background and dranks copious amounts of hot tea, also sampling the chocolate in the dish just to make sure it was OK to hand out. We saw some wonderful pirates, transformers, fairies, cheerleaders and ladybugs as well as plenty of gruesome ghouls. I overheard one mother referring to me as a witch and was beginning to get defensive when I realized, hold on, I am a witch. Had to reverse a spell or two there.

When Jim returned, we all piled into the car and headed over to Kim & Scott's house, which is always the most decorated house in the neighborhood. Deb struck a pose on the lawn above with a couple of ghosts while the Lukestar below checked out the inside of a pumpkin to make sure nothing was lurking inside.

Kim was inundated with kids and callers from the neighborhood, but when she got a free moment, we grabbed a kodak moment with our 2 little spidermen in her awesome archway which had flickering lights and ghostly sound effects.

What a lot of laughs I had that day!