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Riverbend Park

Great weather today, so Judy and I tried to go to Great Falls Park. There was a big traffic jam entering the park, so we went to Riverbend Park. Smaller traffic jam there, so we left the car at the entrance and started our walk there.

The Potomac flows calmly past Riverbend Park

The paths were significantly less muddy than May 3, the last time I was in the park, but we had to navigate around some patches.

The trail was still muddy in spots from last month's heavy rain

The flow of the Potomac had also subsided from a month ago.

The  trail mostly follows the edge of the Potomac river and we passed many enjoying the great weather in the park.

Can you eat the fish from the Potomac?

Hidden moment overlooking the Potomac

OLLI-Mason Luncheon

Today was the annual appreciation lunch for the Mason facilities folks. Lots of food and lots of happy people.

The RX100 is a great pocketable camera and its flash has the ability to bounce the light off the ceiling. This mostly eliminates the harshness and overexposure caused by direct flash in the indoor environment.

Eventually, the OLLI servers got a chance to chow down.

The weather was not the best, but rain held off until the lunch was finished.

Additional pictures can be viewed here.

Reston Lake Swim

Judy and I volunteered at the annual lake swim sponsored by the Reston Masters Swim Team. The weather was fantastic.

On Saturday, a clinic was held to help swimmers not familiar with open water swimming. On Sunday there were both 1 mile and 2 mile swims. Robin and Matt swam both events.

Used manual focus and 6 frames/sec to capture the best shots

As usual the many participants, spectators and workers helped make this a successful event. 

Taking a well deserved break between events

Lots of spectators...

Lots of swimmers…

Old Town Alexandria

Memorial Day weekend brings in bikers from around the country to honor the military with the Rolling Thunder parade on Sunday.  We often visit Old Town Alexandria on Saturday evening to both enjoy its atmosphere and  restaurants as well as seeing some of the bikers.

The weather was perfect for walking around the area and snapping some pictures. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea, since the area near the waterfront was quite crowded.

There were lots of interesting bikes and bikers.

As evening fell, both the sky and the town had a little glow…

The Wild Potomac

The recent rains have changed the Potomac into a wild river.  It even overflowed its banks into the C&O canal for a short time. Below the river  swells its banks and  covers much of normally quiet Olmstead Island.

The path to the falls overlook on the Maryland side has been closed, since the water level is quite close to the pedestrian bridge. Photographers unable to see the falls, climb perilously close to the edge of the rapidy flowing river to get that great shot! 

Usually small peaceful creeks become raging rivers.

The restored canal boat is tied down tightly onto its dry dock to withstand potential flooding of the C&O canal.

Washington DC

Judy had a lunch date in DC, so I went along.  Too bad the the Metro is not finished to Reston yet, so we had to drive and park at the Vienna station.

It was a great day, so I spent the time walking around Capitol Hill.

I wondered into the Supreme Court building to view the spiral staircase. Took a photo, but still have not created the right image!

Next door to the Supreme Court is the Library of Congress, one of my favorite indoor shooting sites in DC.

Walking back towards Federal Triangle to meet up with Judy, I briefly stopped off at the Botanic Garden.

Then a very brief walk through the Air and Space museum, one of my favorite Smithsonian museums.

An then finally along the mall.

Exploring the Geology of Great Falls

Went on a Geology walk with an OLLI group led by Dr Barbara Frank. We started in Riverbend Park, but most of the interesting rocks were in the Great Falls park.

Dr Barbara Frank - our guide

Lots of 'potholes' can be found in the rocks. These were formed by swirling water and sand that over a very long period of time created a 'pot-shaped' hole in the rocks.  Thus,  in the far past the level of the water was hundreds of feet higher than the Potomac River is now and covered all this region to a significant depth.

A large 'pothole'

It was a great shirtsleeve weather day with low humidity and not many flying insects, making for a wonderful walk.