Rock Creek Cemetery Part 2

This is what I went to Rock Creek Cemetery in DC to take pictures of, but I have to admit yesterday postings of the three deer were a lot more exciting! However as you can see, this cemetery has a lot of cool headstones. The cemetery opened in 1719. The third picture from the top is the "Adams Memorial" by the sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. To read more about this sculpture click on this link: http://www.nga.gov/feature/shaw/s2110.htm

Rock Creek Cemetery Part 1

So it's been a rainy weekend here in DC. In between rain showers today, I decided to take a trip to my favorite cemetery, the Rock Creek Cemetery in Northwest DC. I had been there a number of times (but it had been a while) and I planned to shoot for the blog some of my favorite headstones and a famous statue by Augustus Saint Gaudens. I thought I had the cemetery to myself, until I came upon the above three deer. These city deer stared me down a couple of times, but didn't seem to mind me following them around and shooting their walk thru this very old cemetery. Tomorrow night, I will post some of the headstones & the famous "Adams Memorial" by Saint Gaudens.

Pentagon Memorial

As promised, I visited the new Pentagon Memorial on Wednesday Night. Living in DC for while, I have visited many memorials, but this one is by far the simplest memorial I have seen. 184 benches with one name on each bench remembers the victims who died both in the Pentagon and on the plane the crashed into the building on 9/11. While I was there a tour group of kids came by, and one of the chaperones said to the kids "you can sit but you can't play on the benches."

Professional Bike Race on Pennsylvania Avenue

Pictures from this morning's Inaugural Race of the ING Direct Capital Criterium on Pennsylvania Avenue. This is the same road and route that the new President will travel down in less than four months after being inaugurated. I had no idea this bike race was going on, but it was a pleasant surprise (and makes a pretty cool blog post).

Only in Washington D.C.

This is a story that I believe could only happen in Washington DC. Yesterday morning the above paper machete Polar bear was placed in front of the Columbia Heights Metro Station in Northwest DC. For two hours, the bear stood until someone called the police department. The police department then called the fire department's bomb squad, shut down the metro station and the surrounding area for close to two hours, until they deemed the paper made Polar Bear safe (and crumbled up the bear into the garbage). Today, Greenpeace took credit for the Polar Bear (and put up another one in front of the U.S. Capitol). Apparently they are part of the global warming awareness campaign. FYI. I did not take the pictures, they were from Washington Post and another blog.

Takoma Park

Next to Silver Spring (where I live) is the City of Takoma Park. For non locals, it's on the border of DC and Maryland. It's been called "the Berkeley of the East" because of it's extremely liberal community. On every Sunday (all year long) they have a farmer's market in the heart of this small city. Also today was it's annual (the 31st annual) Folk Festival which had at least seven stages with lots of great live music. It was a very hot day, but I'm glad I was able to explore (on my bike) the very cool city to the south of me.

9/11 Remembered

Thursday marks the 7th anniversary of the attack on the United States. At the Pentagon they will dedicate Thursday morning the memorial to the 184 victims who died there. I hope to make it there in the next couple weeks to take some pictures (and will post them of course on the blog). I think I speak for most, 9/11/01 is a day I hope we never have to live thru again. It's also a day we will never forget!

Tropical Storm Hanna

A rainy Saturday here in the DC Metro area... Tropical Storm Hanna is racing up the East Coast dropping 4 to 8 inches of rain and wind gusts of more than 40 mph. These pictures were taken outside my apartment building in downtown Silver Spring.