A good case of the bends

I've been on some pretty nice walks in the Washington, D.C. area, especially here in Virginia, but today's hike was the nicest by far. Walking a round-trip total of 6.8 miles (10.9 kilometers) in 4¾ hours, I started out from Riverbend Park in Fairfax County, made my way along the Potomac River down to the Great Falls and beyond, before turning inland and then making my back along the same route. The skies were clear and the weather chilly (high 30's F) but not uncomfortable. The fact I was facing the sun much of the time on the trails provides a convenient excuse for why my photos are nowhere close to being as stunning as the actual scenery, but I'll remember this outing for a long time to come.

The waters of the Potomac were deceptively tranquil as I set out along the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

This massive rock outcropping was apparently once sitting at the bottom of the ocean - it's 500 million years old, formed when the African continent slammed into the North American continent, lifting the seabed in the process. Or you can believe in edenic gardens. The choice is yours.

This small aqueduct dam marks the obvious southern limit for boaters on the Potomac. From this point, only a moron or someone with suicidal tendencies would want to go into the river.

This seemingly languid stretch of river is actually the remnants of a canal that was designed to skirt the Great Falls. Railroads and high maintenance costs combined to put the canals out of business.

The current was starting to get swifter as I approached the visitor center at Great Falls National Park.

Inside the visitor center could be seen displays such as the above rock, covered in petroglyphs, and exhibits on a time when, thanks to a trolley that ran from Georgetown in Washington during the early years of the 20th century, a visit to the Great Falls was a popular day trip. Outside the visitor center are three overlooks providing scenic vistas of the falls.

Overlook 1

Overlook 2

Overlook 3

Yours truly poses with a post showing various high-water marks from Potomac flooding. The highest was in 1936, which you can just make out at the top of the photo. 

I continued past the Great Falls as I followed the Potomac. The bridge pictured above connects Olmsted Island with the Maryland side of the river. Amber, Pamela and I visited here back in September, when we took a boat ride along the C&O Canal and took a look at the waterfalls.

Mather Gorge, named after the first director of the National Park Service

For the most part, all that can be seen of the Patowmack Canal are the cut in the landscape and the remains of the locks.

Looking down to the point where boats went back into the Potomac from the canal

There were moments when I could forget that the year is 2013, and that I'm living in a country of 315 million people.

River Trail came down from the rocky ledges above to briefly make contact with the Potomac at river-level at Sandy Landing.

The trail soon started rising again, and eventually made its way inland, but not before providing final glimpses of the Potomac.

Here being Virginia, there were plenty of ruins to be seen in the woods. What the sign doesn't inform us of is that Matildaville was founded by "Lighthorse" Henry Lee, Revolutionary War officer, governor of Virginia and father of a traitor to the Union.

Eventually, the trail made its way back to the visitor center and beyond, as I followed the River Trail back to where I started. On the way back I passed by more remnants of the Great Falls Skirting Canal.

The local waterfowl are no doubt impervious to the winter chill

Passing by the aqueduct boundary again. In the background is Conn Island.

For the last leg of the return journey, I detoured into the woods for a quiet walk among the trees before finding my way back to the car. This afternoon's hike was one of the finest I've been on, and the river scenery brought back memories of driving along the Columbia River separating Oregon and Washington. Only this time I was on foot, a much preferable mode of travel.

Super Bowl Sunday

The photo above of my daughter was taken earlier this week as she was on her way to the school bus stop. As you can see, we've had some snow recently. Yesterday, we received another dusting to the extent that Amber used some of her birthday money to buy a round plastic sled in anticipation of the snow staying on the ground. Unfortunately, the best laid plans don't always work out. Even though it snowed again this morning, and the temperature hovered around freezing all day, the snow already on the ground decided not to stick around. Mom wasn't about to let Amber slide down a muddy hill, so our little one will have to wait before trying out her new sled. The forecast is calling for snow tonight and later on in the week, so hopefully she won't have to wait long.

So instead of sledding, we took a Sunday drive along Highway 50 west into Virginia's horse country. We stopped to have lunch in a town called Middleburg, founded in 1787 and boasting a population of under 700 souls. Like many scenic American small towns, Middleburg has found a nice niche for itself. In Taiwan, this would mean converting its storefronts into snack stands and souvenir shops. In the U.S. (at least in the former colonies), it means lining the main street with antique stores, art galleries and British-style taverns. Both are equally fake, but walking along Washington Street (aka Highway 50) with snowflakes blowing all around is an experience that can never be replicated in Taiwan. The number of real-estate agencies in Middleburg suggests that many people are buying homes in the area in either a bid to escape D.C.s spreading suburbanization (though unintentionally encouraging that very process), or perhaps as retirement homes.  

Amber poses with a friend looking on

Amber had her first taste of licorice, purchased from a gourmet grocery store. She pronounced it "delicious", but her mother disagreed, describing it as "plastic candy".

No American small town would be complete without a water tower

At one point, we took a walk through Sharon Cemetery. Amber enjoyed reading some of the gravestones, but my Taiwanese wife was clearly uncomfortable being there, to the point of feeling "creeped out", an expression that my daughter found highly amusing.

On a cold and sometimes snowy Super Bowl Sunday, traffic was understandably light

On our way back to Falls Church, we stopped at another small town along Highway 50, Aldie. Aldie is less-developed as a tourist attraction than Middleburg, but it does boast some history, being the site of a few skirmishes during the Civil War. 

The most-noted historical attraction is the Aldie Mill Historic District, centered around a mill built in 1804. The visitors center was closed for the season, but Amber and I could still take a walk around the buildings and the surrounding area. Mom stayed in the car: 33°F (0.6°C) still takes some getting used to.

Unfinished business

Back in late December, Amber and I took a long walk on a very cold and windy day through East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., finishing up at the Jefferson Memorial. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera died before we reached that Washington landmark, and I was unable to take any pictures to post on this here blog. So this afternoon, with some free time and nothing to do (other than study, but there's always time for that later), I returned with a spare battery in tow to complete the task I set out to do last month. Mission accomplished, despite the bad cold I've been suffering from the past few days. Feel free to admire my dedication.

The Jefferson Memorial

The weather today was cloudy, with rain falling later in the afternoon. The temperature, however, reached the low seventies Fahrenheit (!), quite a change from the cold of last week. Winter, apparently, will be back at the end of this week.

Inside stands a 19 foot (5.8 meters)-high statue of the third president, along with selected quotes, including his famous words from the Declaration of Independence.

Near the Jefferson Memorial George Mason sits and ponders the writings of Cicero, Locke and Rousseau.

The memorial sits by the Tidal Basin, where Washington's famous cherry trees will come to life sometime around April.

I also walked for a while along the Washington Channel, across from the Washington Marina. It was just me out there...and a lot of geese. 

Also on the opposite side of the channel is Fort Lesley J. McNair, with its Generals' Row of brick houses and the National War College building.

On the way back to the Metro station, I snapped a picture of the outside to the very sobering United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I visited last November.

Of Kings and Wizards

It's been a while since I've attended an NBA game...a long while. So long, in fact, that I can't quite remember when, though if I had to place a more exact time frame on it, I'd say it must've been during Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's first season with the Los Angeles Lakers. I recall going to the game at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, CA with my friend Steve Nash and his dad, and seeing the bald patch on Abdul-Jabbar's head as he ran up and down up the court. In any event, that was a long time ago.

Will my daughter's recollection of her first professional basketball game be any clearer than her old man's? Time will tell, but she definitely had a good time last night (Monday), as the three of us (Mom included) rode the Metro to the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. to see the host Washington Wizards take on the visiting Sacramento Kings. It was hardly a marquee match-up (both teams are in the second division), but it was most certainly an exciting affair, with 11 lead changes and 16 ties before the Kings' Isaiah Thomas made the winning shot with one second remaining to give Sacramento the victory, 96-94. You can read a write-up on the game here, and watch some video highlights on the NBA's website here. It was a contest definitely worth seeing, even at the risk of aggravating an already troublesome cold.

Did I go home feeling like a winner? You betcha! Having attended high school and college in the greater Sacramento metropolitan area, it was the Kings I was rooting for, and the game took on an added poignancy with the knowledge that this is most likely the team's last season in Sacramento - they're in the process of being sold to a group of buyers from Seattle, who will move the team to the Pacific Northwest and change the name to the SuperSonics. Sacramento has never been much of a major-league sports town - other than the Kings, the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs played at ARCO Arena from 1997-2009, and the Oakland Athletics' Triple-A affiliate Sacramento River Cats ply their trade at Raley Field in West Sacramento. For most of the 28 years the Kings have played in Sacramento, they've been a terrible team, but the fans always came out to cheer them on - I never got a chance to see them when I was still living in the area due to the difficulty of acquiring game tickets. The glory days of the Chris Webber era, 1998-2005, when the Kings won their division a couple of times and came so close to beating the Lakers and going on to the NBA finals (curse you, Robert Horry!) happened while I was in East Asia. But while the supporting fan base has always been there, the Maloof family ownership hasn't, backing out of a couple of arena deals at the last minute and frustrating Sacramento Mayor (and former NBA player) Kevin Johnson's heroic efforts to keep the team in town.

So it's farewell to the hometown team - at least in my case, they went out on a winning note.

Pre-game introductions

The view we had from our seats during the first half. Even the nosebleed seats at the Verizon Center, where we sat, weren't far from the action.

DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings' troubled young star, gets ready to shoot a free throw. The team was only 15 for 25 from the free throw line.

The girls at the start of the halftime break

Underway in the second half. An usher let us move to another section with a slightly better view of the action on the floor.

The Wizard Girls

The scoreboard shows the final score. 10 of Thomas' 22 points came in the fourth quarter, including the game-winner, of course. Francisco Garcia had 17 points, including four clutch three-point goals.