Jones Point Park

I took a walk this evening and wound up at Jones Point Park. Even though the park is less than a mile from my house, for some reason I never got around to visiting. It's not your typical park; a large chunk of it is a concrete slab underneath the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which spans the Potomac River. There are even basketball courts under the bridge!

(By the way, I took these pictures with my phone, so the quality isn't as good as it could be.)

The park is built on the site of a former shipyard. On display is a rudder from a World War I ship that was found in the river.

There are two fishing piers at the edge of the river.

Lastly, I quickly snapped this picture of the Mount Vernon Trail, which crosses through the park, and I think it turned out rather well!

Blizzard 2016

I'm on my third day of being home-bound after the Great Blizzard of 2016. About 2 feet of snow has fallen in the DC area, and it's going to take a while to get back to normal. But first, the calm before the storm..

The sunrise on Friday morning, as seen from my apartment.

And the view the next morning.

And then on Saturday afternoon, when I could barely see out of my window.

It snowed all day Saturday, and when things finally cleared up on Sunday, I went for a walk around Old Town.

This is actually the Potomac River, not an open field.

That's a parking meter hiding under there.

While on my walk, I came across this bride and groom! I guess a blizzard wasn't going to stop them from getting married....good for them. (She must be freezing.)

And there's my little car, buried under a couple feet of snow. It's not going to be fun getting her out. I actually just trudged out there to do the preliminary work, and I sank up to my knees.

I hope all of you out in California are enjoying this winter!

Snow day

You want pictures of the snow? Here you go:

I don't mind the days off of work, but I am officially ready for spring.

Snow day

Earlier this week, the DC area was hit with its largest snow storm in 3 years. I think the total was around 11 inches, so I was excited to hear that we would be getting a day off! After watching men's figure skating pretty much all day, I decided to get outside and go for a walk. That was a mistake. It was drizzly, the ground was wet and slushy, and my feet got completely soaked even though I was wearing pretty sturdy boots. I did manage to take a few pictures though.

The snow shovel brigade

My cute little church!

My new toy

I just bought a new camera and I'm so excited about it! It's a Panasonic Lumix ZS5, with 12 megapixels, 12x optical zoom, manual controls, and a whole host of cool features. My crappy old 6-megapixel, 3x-zoom, no-manual-controls camera doesn't even compare. I got a good deal on it too - Best Buy was selling it on "clearance" for $250; I got it on Amazon for $180!

Like an excited kid on Christmas morning, I just wanted to play with it as soon as I got it and didn't really bother reading the manual first. I'm sure there's much more I can do with this camera, but for now here are a few samples from this past weekend...

The first thing I did was test out the zoom. I took this picture from the Alexandria waterfront, facing north towards DC. You may be able to see the Capitol building way off in the distance.

And this is with the extended zoom. I think my jaw may have actually dropped when I saw this.

Here's another picture I took with the zoom.

The camera also has the ability to stitch together a panoramic image. This picture was made from four different photographs.

Here's a fun feature called "pinhole," which gives the picture an old timey look.

And finally, spring is upon us!

You know what that means...baseball and cherry blossom pictures will be forthcoming!

Snow!

The DC area got hit with a heavy snowstorm on Wednesday. I was fortunate enough to get home before it started, unlike other people who got stranded on the roads for hours on end. Once the snow started falling, it looked so pretty I was tempted to go outside and take some pictures. However, I was just too warm and cozy inside my house. So I took this picture from my window.

I think we got about 8 inches in total. Much of it has melted already. I took this picture as I went on a walk this afternoon.

P.S. Some jerk stole our snow shovel! Seriously, who does that?!

First Snow

We got our first significant snow of the season today! I have mixed feelings about it; it's pretty to look at and fun to photograph, but on the other hand it's a nuisance to get around in, a pain to shovel, and a reminder that it will be a long time before I feel the warmth of spring.

I got home a little early today, took a walk, and snapped some pictures before it got too dark. I've been living here for so long that I feel like I'm starting to take pictures of the same things over and over again, especiallly when it snows. Hopefully I can keep things from looking too stale.

Yes, the river is frozen.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Last weekend Alexandria had its annual St. Patrick's Day Parade (it's always a week or two early - don't ask me why). And for the first weekend in a long time, we actually had beautiful weather.

Naturally, there was a festive crowd outside Murphy's

There were lots of great pipe and drum bands...

several troupes of Irish step dancers...

and then there were these Latino dancers that seemed oddly out of place.

They were fun to watch; I just don't get why they were at an Irish parade.

Last but not least, there were lots of cute dogs trying to look "Irish."

Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'all!