Birds on the Potomac

When we went to Washington DC in February 2005, the Potomac River was frozen over, and many fish were trapped in the upper layers of ice, a fact that these birds were taking advantage of as we looked across the river toward the Jefferson Memorial. Notice that the birds are standing on the river. While we watched, many of them skated on the ice and others flapped their wings to give themselves push for little hops.



Birds feast on the frozen Potomac at the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC. Feb 2005

Iwo Jima

In February 2005, we took a little four-day trip down to Washington, DC to celebrate my birthday. I'd tell you how old I was, but math is too much effort and I was never very good at remembering things like that. In any case, one of my hubby's amazing discoveries was what he calls "the poor man's filter" - a way to take very neat pictures using only a cheap pair of polarized sunglasses and a camera. The monument and day were both beautiful, but the amber sky scene he created below still blows me away.


Iwo Jima Memorial, Washington DC, Feb 2005


Iwo Jima Memorial through polarized filter

St Louis Arch

The St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West, Monument to US Western Expansion

On the first leg of our Oct 2007 journey to complete our honeymoon, we stopped off in St. Louis again. The city looks to have been cleaned up, particularly along the riverfront, where I spotted bullet holes in one stop sign on our last pass through in 1997. This time, we decided to make the ascent to the top of the Arch. The trip up was quite the adventure. As you can see from the photo below, the egg-like contraption we rode up 630ft in was rather cramped, and the door opening at the top was very much like being hatched.



The view from the top was lovely, but let's just say it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we're rather pleased with that.