Union Station, DC

On Thursday evening, Steve and I met up with some friends from our exploring group at Union Station to take photos. The trip into DC was a nightmare as heavy rain caused issues on the roads and I was very grateful to have company as the journey from Centreville to Union station took 2 hours. 

There was some heavy flooding and thunderstorms in DC but we finally managed to find a parking space and join the others. Everyone had turned up at different times and so were scattered around the station. Steve and I met briefly with Toby, our organizer, and decided to press on with taking photos then meet up for beers later. 

Although the station opened in 1907, it was only restored in the late 80's and was the largest most expensive project undertaken in the U.S. It is an impressive national headquarters for Amtrak.
We weren't allowed to use tripods inside the building so a steady hand was required with short exposures. I cheated a little and brought my small gorilla grip tripod to hold my camera onto the back of a chair or railing where I could do so without being noticed.

I had read this article online about the Roman soldiers revealing more than they should under their skirts and spent quite a bit of time checking out this theory but was a little disappointed, with 'little' being the operative word!

This photo is actually looking directly up at a light outside but looked a bit like the moon to me. We did grab a couple of beers before we left to complete the evening then while we were outside taking more photos, the winds picked up again and the rain fell down once again.

The sky was very stormy and as we stood and watched, the rain fell even harder showing no sign of stopping. Realizing we could be waiting a long time for a break in the weather Steve and I said our farewells and decided to run to the car which was a couple of blocks away. Clutching our camera bags tight we sloshed through the puddles but were completely soaked before we'd even made 50ft. We continued running and collapsed inside Stuart, checking cameras and phones with water dripping from our hair and faces. Luckily it was still very warm outside so we wouldn't catch chills but I was very grateful to climb into a soft dry bed when I finally got home.