Various Photos From the Past Year – Part 2

27 – Seagulls near a puddle in the parking lot at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.

Below I have included more photos that I took at different times over the past year, but were not previously included in this blog.  They had not been previously posted because what they depict are not necessarily main ingredients in what I like to call the recipe of this city.  I consider them to be more like ingredients that contribute to the overall flavor.  I hope you enjoy them.  And I hope you will continue to follow this blog, and enjoy the posts as much as I enjoy everything that goes into them.

28   29   30

31    32   33

34   35   36 

37   38   39 

40   41   42

43   44   45

46   47   48

49   50

51   52 
[Click on the photos above to view the full size versions]

27 – Seagulls near a puddle in the parking lot at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.
28 – One of the mid-day summer performances in Franklin Square Park.
29 – The Suburbia airstream bar in the parking lot in front of Union Market.
30 – An altered stop sign in the H Street Corridor. (I couldn’t get the song out of my head for the rest of the ride.)
31 – A weary-looking bike tourer and his dog in front of the Trump International Hotel.
32 – The Chocolate City mural in an alley near 14th and S Streets in the U Street Corridor.
33 – One of the colorful artworks at the National Zoo made entirely of trash taken from the ocean.
34 – An overview of the WMATA rail yard in Brentwood.
35 – A peaceful promotion of Islam and the Al-Islam online digital library by a young woman handing out roses.
36 – A colorful knight, or at least suit of armor, guarding the balcony of an apartment on Capitol Hill.
37 – Some promoters of Red Nose Day raising awareness and money to help raise kids out of poverty.
38 – A clock on the side of a building on 14th Street in the U Street Corridor.
39 – An artist working and displaying his wares on the sidewalk near Eastern Market.
40 – Evidence of an eviction in front of an apartment building in Downtown D.C.
41 – The iconic dome of the U.S. Capitol Building towering over trees on the Capitol grounds.
42 – A Muslim protestor in front of The White House taking a break.
43 – One of the many Little Free Libraries I have seen throughout D.C.
44 – An antique Good Humor ice cream truck in front of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
45 – A promotion for the Washington Capitals using the DuPont Circle Fountain.
46 – Demolition of an office building at the corner of 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
47 – Mushrooms at the Department of Agriculture Outdoor Farmers Market.
48 – Construction on the southwest waterfront development project.
49 – A homeless man in a doorway on 8th Street, ironically next door to The Lansburgh, a luxury apartment building.
50 – A company car for a marijuana advocacy and investment group.
51 – A lone gun rights advocate demonstrating in front of the White House.
52 – The Spirit of Washington dining ship in the Washington Channel.

NOTE:  Check out Part 1 of my year-end collection of various photos on yesterday’s post.

East Potomac Park and Hains Point

East Potomac Park and Hains Point

East Potomac Park is a section of Potomac Park located south of the Jefferson Memorial and the 14th Street Bridge, and sits on a peninsula that drives a grassy wedge between the Washington Channel and the Potomac River on the south side of the Tidal Basin (MAP). The 328-acre finger of land is bordered on the east by the Washington Channel, on the west by the Potomac River, Hains Point at the southern end, and is separated from West Potomac Park by the iconic Jefferson Memorial.

The peninsula on which the park is located was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  After a disastrous flood in 1881, the Corps of Engineers dredged a deep channel in the Potomac and used the material to create the current banks of the river and raise much of the land near The White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue.  Much of the dredged material was also utilized to build up existing mudflats in the Potomac River as well as sandbars which had been created by resultant silting, including the peninsula which led to the creation of Potomac Park on March 3, 1897.

In addition to providing terrific views of the city, East Potomac Park also features many of Washington’s famous Kanzan cherry trees.  These double-blossoming cherry trees line Ohio Drive and bloom about two weeks after the single-blossoming Toshino variety that attracts throngs of tourists to the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin during the National Cherry Blossom Festival each spring.

Ohio Drive, which is a six-mile loop that runs the perimeter of East Potomac Park, is a popular route with bicyclists, runners and walkers, and inline skaters.  And a scenic riverfront sidewalk, which winds around the park’s shoreline, remains a popular place for fishing, despite falling apart and literally sinking into the river in places.  The park is also home to one 18-hole and two 9-hole public courses at the East Potomac Park Golf Course, a driving range and a miniature golf course, a public swimming pool (the East Potomac Park Aquatic Center), tennis courts, picnic facilities, a playground, and a recreation center.

The southern end of the park at the end of the peninsula is known as Hains Point.  This location offers stunning views of the river, as well as Fort McNair and the National War College in D.C. to the east. To the west, visitors can watch planes take off and land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, located across the Potomac River in Virginia.  Hains Point was also formerly the home of a popular public artwork entitled “The Awakening,” a 70-foot sculpture depicting the arousing of a bearded giant who is embedded in the earth.  However, the sculpture was sold in 2008, and the new owner moved it to its current location at National Harbor in Prince Georges County, Maryland.

It is rare for anything in D.C. to lack controversy or intrigue, and East Potomac Park is no exception.  In 2004, an area of four acres adjacent to the National Park Service offices at Ohio and Buckeye drives was enclosed by a 10-foot high security fence and large beige metal buildings were constructed. The action, initiated by the U.S. Navy, bypassed normal multi-agency review procedures usually required for the use or taking of Federal parkland.  The Navy, which operates the site, calls the work a “utility assessment and upgrade” and will not say if the project is classified or whether it has a name.  Nor will the Navy say how much it cost, how many people were on the job or why it was needed.

When questioned about activity at the site, D.C.’s non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, advised that she “is aware of what’s going on but cannot comment.”  Similarly, Frederick J. Lindstrom, acting secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, advised that he had been advised that it would be illegal for him to discuss the matter.  Lindstrom went on to state, “Let’s just say when they’re finished, you’ll be glad they’ve done what they’ve done.”

Athough the Navy originally advised that work at the complex would last approximately four years, a decade later the ongoing activity and construction that goes on inside the security fence, involving regular arrival and departure of dump trucks, remains a mystery.  Amid the secrecy, theories about the four-acre complex and hangar-like structures abound.  In a city which contains radiation tracking instruments atop the Federal Reserve building, biowarfare sensors analyzing the air on the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Institution castle, and antiaircraft systems on a rooftop next to the White House, the Navy’s secretive activity on East Potomac Park is presumed by many to be related to national security.

Although we may never know the details of the Navy’s activity there, that should not prevent visitors from enjoying the remaining 324 acres of this active yet pastoral park.

         

              

The Titanic Memorial

The Titanic Memorial

The Titanic Memorial on D.C.’s southwest waterfront is in a great location for going for a bike ride.  Located on the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail next to the Washington Channel (MAP), the thirteen-foot-tall statue is sculpted from a single piece of red granite and depicts a partly clad male figure with arms outstretched.  It should be noted that any similarity to Kate Winslet’s much-imitated pose at the helm of the ship in the 1997 film Titanic is purely coincidental, inasmuch as the memorial was dedicated in 1931, decades before the movie.

As stated in the inscription on the front of the memorial, it is dedicated “to the brave men who perished in the wreck of the Titanic – April 15, 1912.  They gave their lives that women and children might be saved.”  The memorial was erected by the Women’s Titanic Memorial Association.

Despite their efforts, more than 1,500 people were killed after the ship collided with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.  It remains one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.

The Titanic Memorial was unveiled on May 26, 1931, by Helen Herron Taft, the widow of President Taft.  The statue was originally located at the foot of New Hampshire Avenue, in Rock Creek Park along the Potomac River.  However, it was removed in 1966 to accommodate the construction of the Kennedy Center. The memorial was re-erected without ceremony in 1968 at its current location.

After enjoying a ride and visiting the memorial, consider riding over to the Thai Tanic Restaurant  for some of their house famous Soft Shell Crab Pad Thai or Goong Lava.  They are located at 1326 14th Street in northwest D.C. (MAP).

         
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

A Warm Ride to a Colorful Church

The Old Friendship Baptist Church in southwest D.C.

As I’ve ridden bikes around the city over the past few years, I have taken notice of a number of D.C. churches for a various reasons – their architecture, their history, or their role in the community. I’ve also come across some churches that caught my attention because of the church’s unusual name. But on a recent ride I found a church that is unlike any other I’ve seen before.

The old Friendship Baptist Church building, located at 700 Delaware Avenue (MAP) in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood of D.C., is an abandoned church building built in the late 1800s by James A. Boyce, which has recently been used as a canvas for a contemporary street art exhibition. Created by an Atlanta-based artist known as HENSE, the large scale composition features all sorts of sprayed elements, large dots, stripes and a wide array of colors. The end result is a mixture of color and pattern with a mural style all on the exterior of the building. The mural installation was a private commission by an arts club named Blind Whino, and is located directly across the street from a planned museum for emerging artists, a hotel, and other hot spots in this up and coming area of D.C.

The day I found this church was a near perfect day for a ride, especially for the middle of winter, with temperatures reaching almost 70 degrees. It felt good to get out and enjoy the unseasonably pleasant weather, particularly in light of the fact that it has been an otherwise harsh winter.

The church, the unusual weather and the ride itself made me think about how you should enjoy what you have while you have it, because often it will be gone too soon.

    
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

Note:  The colorful church building is now the home of Blind Whino, a non-profit arts club and event space dedicated to the principal that art is a catalyst for change in a community, and providing inspiration and motivation for those that encounter its power.