My January is half melancholy, half relief. I slip back into well-worn patterns, and find comfort in the familiar. There is beauty there, and surprises too. Ailsa’s Travel Theme, Routine, made me think of these — glimpses of other people’s ordinary moments. 1. Early commuters streaming to work in São Paulo. An hour earlier, I ambled through the sleeping city to São … Continue reading
This week’s travel theme, “Below,” made me think of the serenity I felt while looking down on Harpers Ferry, where the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers meet. It was a fine autumn day, and we decided to explore Maryland Heights, the highest of the mountains overlooking the town. Here’s what we saw: Your journey can begin … Continue reading
I’ve been meaning to visit Richmond for years, and this was finally the year to do it. Here are the five favorites from that sunlit weekend. (1) The Virginia State Capitol. Designed by — who else, with that neoclassical look? — Thomas Jefferson, the Capitol is impressive when it comes into view: an immaculate Roman temple atop a … Continue reading
President Theodor Roosevelt called it “the most beautiful place around here.” Great Falls, shared by Virginia (today the Great Falls National Park) and Maryland (part of the C&O Canal National Historical Park), is our Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, rolled into one and scaled way down. It is a spot where the normally sleepy Potomac rushes … Continue reading
And just like that, at long last, my gardening season begins in earnest. I love the newness of it all: Everything is crisp, fresh, and, for the moment, somewhat in order. Each day, I begin with my spring color survey. Here’s this week’s palette. My greens: Maroons: Purples and blues: A blaze of yellows: All … Continue reading
Now that spring has finally sprung, I look forward to our walks at my favorite local place to watch the seasons turn: the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve. Just south of Old Town Alexandria along the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, Dyke Marsh does have its scrappy patches, the old wounds still visible and, in places, growing. Still, there … Continue reading
“Walls,” this week’s Where’s My Backpack travel theme challenge, made me think of Barboursville Ruins, tucked away along Virginia’s Monticello Wine Trail. This yawning brick skeleton is all that remains of the grand mansion designed by the local demigod, Thomas Jefferson, for his friend James Barbour, Governor of Virginia and, later, the US Secretary of War. The … Continue reading
As you fly into DC, a bizarre structure greets you, monumentally confusing in its architectural references. I saw it as a Greek temple with the Ark of the Covenant stacked on top and opened up like a Russian matryoshka doll to issue a garland of diminishing square vessels into the sky. It is an eyeful … Continue reading
For my first visit to Montpelier, the Virginia plantation of James and Dolley Madison, I chose a birthday weekend: the Constitution Day Celebration. It is one of the most festive days of the year for the plantation. James Madison, after all, was the chief architect of the Constitution and its ardent supporter. It was here, … Continue reading
If you find yourself in Washington, DC, with a morning or an afternoon to spare, consider crossing the sleepy Potomac into Virginia: On a warm, sunny day, a stroll through Old Town Alexandria is an engaging stroll through history–local and national. Established by Scottish merchants in 1749 and laid out with help of a 17-year-old apprentice surveyor named George Washington, … Continue reading
“My treasures do not click together or glitter. They gleam in the sun and neigh in the night.” (Bedouin proverb) A trip to Assateague, where wild horses graze and shore birds fly over dunes, marshes, shrublands, and forests, all within a 37-mile island shared by Virginia and Maryland, is an early-October tradition. Goldenrods are in … Continue reading
Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, the beloved home of George and Martha Washington, is a place I recommend all our visitors see–its location here and Washington’s attachment to his plantation is why we have the capital in DC, after all. “No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this,” Washington wrote of Mount Vernon … Continue reading
The summer is almost over, and I am ready for autumn to begin (DC summers are entirely too hot, humid, and, lately, temperamental for comfort). Here is a memory of early summer, before it became its usual impossible self, from one of my favorite places to watch the seasons turn: Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a … Continue reading
Its entrance lost among the storefronts of Old Town Alexandria’s South Fairfax St., just off the bustling King St., a wonderful place is waiting to be stumbled upon: the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum. A family-owned business from 1792 to 1933, the apothecary played part in Alexandria’s history from the Revolutionary War (filling orders for the Washingtons … Continue reading
In summer heat, a getaway to a subterranean kingdom of perpetual cool and fairy-tale names like “Titania’s Veil” and “Giant’s Hall” is a temptation hard to ignore. Luray Caverns in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley is only an hour and a half away from Washington. The cave is a popular attraction in the summer, but the first tour … Continue reading
Transplanted Tatar 