My Oyster

Oh No...

Portsmouth Memorial Bridge, originally uploaded by noahdelaughter.

Save this bridge.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced its list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places today and the Memorial Bridge connecting Maine to the rest of the United States.

When I am driving north on I-95, I am always excited to see it because I know I am close to home. Growing up, my family always celebrated once we got half way across the bridge and so into Maine.

You can read more about the bridge and even try to save it by going to this link.

**Note - I have my bridges confused and was quickly corrected in the comments.  I was blogging while watching American Idol.  Oopsie.  Thanks Mel & Mike for the catch.  It's still a nice bridge, though - don't you think?

Sunday at Lincoln Park...

Jean and I had actually hoped to visit the newly opened Kingman and Heritage Island Parks in the Anacostia River this morning. 

We drove all the way over to RFK stadium shortly after the 9am opening of DC's newest park.  Only problem - the entrance was shut and locked.  Welcome to DC.  At this point it was already starting to get quite hot and we wanted some shade - so we drove a few blocks to Lincoln Park.

This park is tucked away in a corner of DC that is quite far from my home in Columbia Heights.  I have driven by it a couple times in the last 17 years - but never hung out there.  This morning I did.

Jean and I found a shady spot and read the Post.

I love the story of Lincoln Park.

During the Civil War, it was the site of Lincoln Hospital, named after the President.  The name apparently stuck and after his death became the first site to bear his name.

 

But even more cool was the effort to make the park a real memorial to Lincoln.  Not long after the assassination, a freed slave named Charlotte Scott (of Virginia) used her first $5 earned in freedom to kick-off a fund raising campaign among freed blacks as a way of paying homage to the President who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation that liberated the slaves in the Confederate States.

 

The campaign for the Freedmen's Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln, as it was to be known, was not the only effort of the time to build a monument to Lincoln; however, as the only one soliciting contributions exclusively from those who had most directly benefited from Lincoln's act of emancipation it had a special appeal.

Two Wheels on Opossumtown Pike...

OK.  I just love the name of that road. 

Today Vijay & I did a 57 mile ride way outside the city - starting somewhere north of Frederick.  We found ourselves pedaling on Opossumtown Pike several times - and I giggled, silently to myself, every time.

I really wanted to ride into THE Opossumtown.  But we never did.  Maybe the Pike doesn't really lead to the town.

The rides up in Frederick County are really beautiful and worth the drive.  Rolling hills.  Farms.  Old stone houses.  Covered bridges (2 this time).  Meandering creeks.

This is Vijay on a small road along a creek...

And here we are at a rest break...

Sunday in the Park...

Both Montrose and Dumbarton Oaks Parks.

This morning was warm and sunny and so we picked up some breakfast to go at Starbucks and headed to Georgetown to soak in some nature. 

I have always loved Montrose Park but never knew, until today, that Dumbarton Oaks Park sits just below it - kinda tucked away.

We started with some breakfast in Montrose Park...

And some dog watching.  Lots of dogs.  I think this one and his master were my favorite...

After some breakfast we sort of stumbled upon Dumbarton Oaks Park. It was a great surprise.

This Park is actually the northern part of the Dumbart Oaks estate.  The mansion was built in 1800. Famously, it was the Washington residence of U.S. Senator, official, and Vice President John C. Calhoun. It was purchased in 1920 by Robert Woods Bliss (1875-1962), a longtime member of the Foreign Service and his wife Mildred Barnes Bliss (1875-1969), a prominent art collector.

Beatrice Farrand one of the first female garden architects, created in what is now Dumbarton Oaks Park, a naturalistic landscape of stream, woodland, and meadow.

A circular walk begins at a stone bridge, crosses through a series of waterfalls and pools, enters a forest of mixed, largely native, trees and shrubs and then winds through four meadows on the northern slope above the stream.

It was a real treat and we will go back to see more.

Caffeine Free...

caffeine curve, originally uploaded by emdot.

For 6 months now. Amazing.

I was a POWER-USER of caffeine. I basically always had a cup of coffee in hand. At least 8-10 cups a day.

All the travel and conferences and work meetings did not help. I think I always was having a cup of bean juice pushed in front of me. Eventually, the positive effects diminished to not much. I could drink a cup of coffee at 11pm and fall asleep immediately.

6 months ago I was spending the weekend at a buddhist monastery on a mountain in Korea and had no access to the brown liquid energy - so I just gave it up.

And after a couple days of withdrawl I have not looked back. So far. I drink herbal tea now and like it. Lots of choices. However Jean and I want to take a vacation in Morocco and I think there is a pretty strong cafe/coffee culture there.

That will be a challenge.

Searching for the Mysterious Grove of Cherry Trees...

During the National Cherry Blossom Festival (everything that happens in DC is "National"), there are several cherry blossom articles in the Post every day.

One article last week talked about a mysterious grove of just 18 cherry trees that could be the only survivors from the original 2000 trees sent, via Seattle, to DC from the City of Tokyo as a gift in 1910.

I skipped over all the financial meltdown and G20 Summitry news to dig in deeper.

Apparently all of the 2000 trees that were sent 100 years ago as a gift were diseased.  Oopsie.  So they all had to be burned in a big bonfire.  All except 18 according to some sources - who think those 18 that were spared are in a small grove on Hains Point. 

The article went into some detail, kind of arborial historical sleuthing, about why this mysterious grove may be the survivors.  They are bigger than the ones you see at the Tidal Basin.  They are more "gnarly".  They have a Y shape.

At this time of year, I can never get enough cherry blossoms - so Jean I were out the door early (before 730am) to get down to Hains Point and find the mystery grove.

We found it... 

Of course, it was in the middle of a golf course - but we snuck in and took some pics.  They really are pretty spectacular...

And more pics at my flickr account.

Two Wheels Through the Blossoms

I took my Roubaix out this morning for the first ride of the season. A bit late this year I guess - but just in time for peak cherry blossoms.

I did one of my favorite rides - which is out my back door through downtown to the Capitol back to Hains Point - which juts out into the Potomac River and is surrounded by cherry trees - then back into Rock Creek Park and north up to...somewhere. Maybe not far from Rockville.

Downtown was just buzzing - tons of blossom peepers and the parade was getting ready to start.  It looks like there is a Japanese street festival this year too.  I think that is new.