May 6 at Alexandria, VA harbor

We got to Old Town Alexandria in the am and parked (the May 6 trip as a whole was my combo birthday/mother's day gift).

Then we walked around a bit and got coffee and waited for a watertaxi to take us to the Gaylord Harbor.

The image is us at a pier near where the water taxi docks.

The watertaxi itself isn't much to look at but their website is here.

The other image is from that site with the water taxi nearing the Gaylord Resort.

May 6 - arrival at Gaylord Resort - about noon

The Gaylord National Resort has its own harbor which is bigger than the one in Alexandria with considerable covered area but no shops, rest rooms, etc.

It is a few minute walk to the resort. Uphill too but pleasant and with nice vegetation.

May 6 Gaylord Resort Front Yard

We got to the middle of the Gaylord National Resort Front yard. There are sculptured gardens so the path to the building itself is pretty nice.

You can see the Wilson Bridge in the background.

Near the Entrance

Near the front entrance of the Gaylord Resort is a little waterfall. It is along a little path with a little stream.

In back of the waterfall is the facing of the near atrium. There are two atria. The one you can see in this image is about 11 stories high. There is another behind it that is 18 stories high.

The waterfall is only about 4 feet high but sets off the atrium nicely.

M & A with the Babe

There is a Sports Bar in the Resort.

In the bar is a private dining room which has a statue of Babe Ruth (personally I don't see why they were unable to use a Washington Senator player but since Babe Ruth was born and grew up in Maryland, I suppose it could be considered appropriate).

The Sports Bar also has a pair of 30 foot screens. While we were there, they were covering an NBA and a MLB game. 

Beer was not too unreasonable ($6 for a Miller GD).

From the 2nd Floor Ballroom

 The 2nd floor ballroom is the bottom of the higher atrium. 

In the image Ann is seen with the smaller atrium in the near background and the Wilson Bridge in the far background.

On the 1st floor (the bottom of the smaller atrium) there are restaurants (including the sports bar) and shops.

Between the 1st and second floor is a mezzanine level with the Registration area and some banquet areas.

View from the 19th Floor

The elevator stops at the 19th floor. There is a little foyer there and some good views. The top image is of the National Harbor and the adjacent hotels and shops. The bottom image is of Gaylord Harbor.

Both images have the Wilson Bridge in the near background. In the bottom image the Virginia shore is in the far background. In the top image Washington DC is to the right (and north). The top image shows the VA shore on the left far background and the DC shoreline on the right far background. The Washington monument and the National Cathedral are actually visible from this point (although the image doesn't show it very well). 

back to VA May 6

We took the water taxi back to Alexandria.

We walked around a bit. One thing we visited was the garden of the Carlyle House.

The image is Ann near a row of Camellia Bushes.

As explained by the sign, this house once was at the shore line of the Potomac but is now 3 blocks from the River due to in-filling.

After this we returned home.

June 12 National Arboretum - Mount Hamilton

We went to the National Arboretum on June 10.

The first thing we did was take the tram through the place to get an idea of what was there - its a big place; about 900 acres.

Then we did our first activity. We hiked up Mount Hamilton (about a 1 mile round trip). This is the highest point in the Arboretum and also the highest point (236' above sea level) in SE Washington DC west of the Anacostia River. For comparison, part of Tenleytown in NW DC is about 400' above sea level but most of the 'Federal City' is between 5 and 20' above sea level.

There is a decent view of the Capitol and downtown (its a better view in the winter when the leaves are off the trees).  If it had come out, the Capitol would have been just above Ann's left shoulder in the image with only her.

June 12 - Trees from the Dinosaur Age

The images show Ann in front of trees called Dawn Redwoods. These are conifer trees that are deciduous. That is, they have cones but lose their needles in the fall.

Up to about 70 years ago, the normative view was that all such trees were extinct. However, a small grove of them was then discovered in China.

Since that time, seeds from these trees have been planted in several parts of the world. The National Arboretum has the largest grove of these trees in the Western Hemisphere.

Even though the trees are only about 70 years old, most of them are already over 150' high.

I like this quote from the wikipedia article on the Dawn Redwood (aka Metasequoia),


".. Metasequoia has experienced morphological stasis for the past 65 million years, meaning that the modern Metasequoia glyptostroboides is identical to its late Cretaceous ancestors".

June 12 - Capitol Pillars

In 1848 when the US Capital was built, these columns supported the East Portico. 

When a new dome was completed in 1958 with new larger marble columns, the old columns (which were sandstone) were placed in storage. In the 1990s, the old columns were moved to the National Arboretum. 

 

Across a field from the columns is one of the capitals which serves as the decorative top of a column.

June 12 - Ann's fav tree

Ann's favorite tree is the smoketree.

It is native to the South and the natural smoketree doesn't grow well this far north and even when it does grow, it is usually just a shrub.

However, at the National Arboretum, they have been breeding improved varieties of many plants and they have produced a subspecies that not only thrives this far north but also gets tall.

This tree was near the dawn redwoods. 

The Arboretum has also done a lot of work creating winter hardy azaleas (most of the azaleas in the DC area are offspring of Arboretum created subspecies) and a winter hardy camellia (many of the camellia currently being sold locally are descended from one plant that survived some harsh winters in the 70s in the DC area).

June 12 at the admin building

The national arboretum's administration building was closed for repair but the terrace around it was open.

There is a koi pond just outside the building with hundreds of koi in it (and some people were feeding them).

There is also decorative vegetation. 

The first image is of us in front of a desert willow which is holding spanish moss. There is also an agave plant in that little mini garden. 

The willow naturally only thrives in dry places and the spanish moss only in wet places so its an amusing choice for a combination.