Galapagos Photos
last update: 01/28 @ 10:06

Not surprising; I really enjoyed taking pictures of all the cool things we saw in the Galapagos.

This was the first big vacation for Sarah and I without Robert — he was in class (and doing well). That was a bit of change and he would have enjoyed it as much as we did. But we did have a great crew to spend the time with.

Notes and many more photos in the vacation section.

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Galapagos!
last update: 01/22 @ 12:23

Excellent trip!

With some travel challenges.

Great crew to spend the week with.

I completely recommend making the time to go; it was fantastic.

More pictures (obviously) later — I have a lot to go through.

Seems like we saw it all: sea lions, penguins, boobies, land and marine iguanas, land and marine turtles, sharks (not hammerheads, though), pelicans, frigate birds, night gulls, etc.

And I likely need to catch up more on sleep; the trip back on a red-eye was a long one.

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Got out the sleds…
last update: 01/06 @ 17:41

We’re likely to be down to one after this season. This green one is going strong; our red/orange boogie-board style is showing it’s age, sadly.

This one is clearly much faster and tracks further.

And, as you see from Sarah’s expression, is really fun!

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Snowy Day
last update: 01/06 @ 11:57

We’re in a little bit of a lull in today’s snow.

But it’s the most we’ve had in years already.

I’m sorry Robert’s now here to enjoy it.

Sarah and I have date to go sledding later this afternoon.

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Christmas notes
last update: 01/04 @ 13:55

More photos and a few more details of our Christmas are in the Vacations Section (even though we stayed in Alexandria).

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Happy New Year!!!
last update: 01/01 @ 13:24

We enjoyed celebrating the New Year with Will’s family. The tradition of a countdown and balloon drop around 9:30 is great for the younger generation and helps to bridge the time to midnight for those staying up.

And then we headed to the Masonic Memorial to watch Alexandria’s excellent fireworks show.

It was pretty odd for it be so warm, low 50s, but that gets corrected in a few days. Oddly, just after Robert heads back to Seattle, the temps are due to dive down to daytime highs around 35.

So we’ll enjoy the warmth while we can.

New this year, there was this interesting ice sculpture by the steps. I don’t known anything about it.

Not new this year, ate our 12 grapes under the table, we swept our troubles off the front and back porches, and ran around the house 3 times with a bit of luggage.

We should be all set for good luck for the year.

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Warm end of the Year
last update: 12/30 @ 22:18

With late December temperatures in the mid 60s, I couldn’t stay home.

I took the canoe (and the cool weather gear as the water is pretty chilly) to Angler’s Inn.

Early afternoon on a Monday and I had the river to myself — along with a couple ducks.

As I was heading back towards the car, more folks were showing up.

The river was about 3.3 and I think they were heading upstream to Rocky Island.

Clearly leaves are off the trees now.

I think this makes it look colder than it really was.

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National Aquarium
last update: 12/30 @ 11:24

Robert had the great idea to check out the National Aquarium while he’s here.

We went up for the afternoon yesterday (carefully ensuring we’d be home in time to watch the Commanders host the Falcons on Sunday Night Football).

Of course, we needed a photo in front of the Domino Sugars sign across the harbor (trust me, that’s the sign). That’s in honor of Lee and her Texas sheet cake recipe which calls for a box of powdered sugar for the frosting.

After giving it some thought, we concluded Baltimore still has a better aquarium than Seattle (though Seattle’s is much improved based on our trip this past Thanksgiving).

Seattle’s new wing does have a fantastic viewing window. And it’s much lighter. And it has that cool bowmouth guitarfish we’ve never seen anywhere else.

But Baltimore seems to have more tanks and more variety. So maybe just a little bit better… maybe.

Robert asked a docent why Baltimore has a rain forest area as part of the aquarium. I think I overheard correctly that they are making the point about the connectedness of water. The rain falls in the rain forest, flows downstream and ends up in the ocean.

But that still doesn’t make this sloth an ocean-dweller :)

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Yellow and Blue
last update: 12/27 @ 14:07

Nice day for a walk around Alexandria.

And I liked the way the Cherry Blossom’s wheel looked framed within the back deck of one of the Potomac Water Taxis.

I guess it was the variety of yellows and oranges that drew my attention.

I happened to bring my “real” camera, so these are not cellphone photos. I wish I’d thought to try to use that as well to compare the two.

On the way back up Cameron Street, I liked the neighborhood’s endorsement of their Scottish heritage.

I stayed in for the Scottish Walk this year, but Sarah was out to represent the SFA. One of this years we’ll catch up with the McNaughton clan.

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Consistency
last update: 12/26 @ 18:04

We renewed our memebership in the National Building Museum when we went by to check out the Brutalist exhibit.

Robert is big fan of much of DC’s Brutalist architecture, especially the metro stations.

And since we were there, and they have such a cool Lego space…

Check out this blast from past and compare the styles.

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