Once More into the Marsh

Our original plan for yesterday had been to go into DC and visit the Native American History Museum. Then I saw a calendar that reminded me that the Folk Life Festival was taking place this past weekend and next weekend. Traffic, crowds, parking issues, crowds. So we decided on a Plan B, which was yet another fresh water marsh, this one in Fairfax County: Huntley Meadows Park. 

The park's history is convoluted. Native settlements followed by European settlers and farming--first crops and then dairy. In the late 1920s there was a failed attempt at creating an airship terminal and historic park. The land then passed to the federal government which used it to test asphalt for highways, an aircraft battery protecting the capital, and finally a research site for radio communications. In the mid-70s the federal government donated it to Fairfax County for park or recreation usage. In the late 1970s beaver moved into the area and built dams which increased the water levels in the wetlands. 

The trails go through and over the wetlands, and there are no rails on the boardwalks. I've never been so close to beaver lodges. Just before we took the picture of me by the lodges we heard a splash on the other side of the boardwalk. We turned around to see a Great Blue Heron hunting in the marsh. We'd seen another one just a few minutes earlier, but this one was only about 10 feet from us. You have to look closely in the picture to the left, but you can see it.

We also saw evidence of beavers at work. It's one thing to see these things on TV but quite another to see them up close and in person.

On a hill overlooking the park stands an odd looking house that gives the park it's name. This picture shows the back side. It was built c. 1825 by Thomas Francis Mason, but there is no record of when its construction began. Nor have historians and archaeologists been able to locate a kitchen on the property. As a summer getaway, the kitchen would have been in a separate building. The Masons were a prominent Virginia family. Thomas' grandfather was George Mason IV who authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Thomas was an important figure in his own right.

The house is only open on Saturdays, so we didn't get to look inside. Another revisit added to the list.

More Green Space

 Today we went into DC to see the National Arboretum, which is part of the United States Department of Agriculture rather than the National Park Service. First stop, of course, the Visitor's Center. When I asked what we should see they told us we shouldn't miss the Bonsai exhibit. They were right. These unbelievable trees are displayed simply with enough space between them to appreciate each one individually. We saw one that started training in 1875 and then found one that started in 1856. Unbelievable! A short while later we came upon the tree pictured to the left. Believe it or not, it's a Sequoia. Thee little tea bag looking things sitting on the soil in the pots are release fertilizer each time the plant is watered.

In the National Herb Garden I saw plants that reminded me of cattails, which were pearl millet. I'd read about millet, but this was the first time I'd ever seen it. They also had rice, wheat, and rye planted there. Who knew that many varieties of wheat only come up to my waist! There were several scented geraniums in pots around the knot garden. What surprised me though were the roses. Many of the plants didn't look healthy, so I guess it's not just the rose bushes around campus that are having a bad year.

In 1958 they removed several of the original sandstone columns from the Capitol to make way for an addition to the building. They used marble for the new columns, and the originals eventually found a new home in the Arboretum. They dominate a large meadow that has paths mowed through it. Across the meadow stands the capital of one of the columns on what is called the Capitol Columns Overlook.


The columns are pretty impressive, and they sit on top of a hill with a reflecting pool in front of them. We also walked through the Azalea Collections. Even though it's past their blooming season, the was an oasis of cool on a muggy afternoon. We walked up the Mount Hamilton Foot trail, which takes you to the Mount Hamilton Overlook, one of the highest points in DC at 240 feet. If you look through the trees, you can see the Capitol two miles to the west.

It continues to surprise me how much green space there is within the 68.3 square miles of the District of Columbia. Walking across the meadow you wouldn't know that the Capitol is less than three miles away.

These weekend excursions are what I envisioned doing when I first moved down here a little over two years ago. While I did a couple on my own, they're definitely more enjoyable to do with someone else. And we get in a lot of walking.

Dead Mall Walking

Heat and humidity moved in, and we moved our walks indoors. I've become a mall walker. So far we've been doing most of our walking at Landmark Mall, which is the closest to campus. Originally built as an open air mall in 1965, it was enclosed in 1990. It had three anchor stores, of which two remain--Sears and Macy's. The large restaurants are closed, as are about half the food court spaces. Close to half the retail spaces are empty. What remains isn't capable of supporting it. The city has approved the most recent redevelopment plans, and work is scheduled to begin later this year.

Last night  we walked the Bollston Commons Mall in Arlington. It has very few empty stores, but two of the large restaurants are closed closed as well as some of the smaller ones in the food court. While not as dead as Landmark, there still weren't a lot of people there for a hot and humid summer evening. There are signs that Bollston Commons has begun the decline. We see this trend across the country.

As malls popped up they replaced town centers, many of which were dead or dying, as the social and commercial focus of communities. Some towns fought the building of malls but instead worked to attract some of the same stores found in malls. In a sense those redeveloped streets became open air malls themselves. In other places the old town centers have revitalized and become the vital retail, dining, and residential centers they once were. We're reversing the process.

But it's more than revitalized town centers that are causing the decline in malls. The Internet has taken a large and increasing part of retail spending. It's also affecting the big box bookstores, which in their time pushed many of the small book shops out of business. A process hastened by the arrival of Amazon.com. The internet is changing the retail landscape, and social media is changing the way we interact with each other. Yet it seems we still need places where we interact face-to-face. This probably has something to do with the revival of our old town centers.

So what will become of the mall spaces? Even some of the currently successful ones are adding office and residential space, hotels, and recreational space.They are creating town centers in suburban areas that developed without traditional centers.

But the rest?

A Hidden Gem in DC

 Today's excursion took us to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, "the only National Park dedicated to cultivating water-loving plants." It is part of the larger Anacostia Water Trail and was once the estate of the Shaw family. When the family saved the water gardens in the 1930s from dredging and fill by the Army Corps of Engineers, they also inadvertently saved a few acres of fresh water marsh. Congress purchased the original eight acres and gave it to the National Park Service.

Restoration work continues on the marsh. As you can see in this picture, the marsh is once again open to the Anacostia. They have created new mud flats and re-introduced native marsh plants including wild rice, cattail, and two varieties of Nuphar, a plant so ancient that it may be a common ancestor to both the waterlily and the lotus. One of the trails in the park winds through the marsh and takes you to the banks of the Anacostia. You an observe both native plants and non-native plants growing along the trail. At some places you can see where marsh restoration is taking place. Today we saw a small group of kayakers come up the river and detour into the marsh.



On the other side of the park is a boardwalk that takes you out to look over the marsh and where you can see the marsh plants close up.

While the I found the marsh really interesting, the water gardens were fascinating. Waterlilies and lotus predominate in the 12 ponds. We also saw frogs, turtles, geese, and dragonflies.  

The plants are just beginning to flower. The big festival takes place next month, but we got to see a variety of waterlily flowers.

It's hard to believe that this garden and marsh exist within the city limits of DC. Although the number of visitors increased while we were there, it never got very crowded. More people will probably come as the blooms increase.

This area has so many of these places, both hidden and well known. Who knows where the next outing will take me...

A River Runs Through It

One of Dennis' interests is weather. Since we had a great deal of rain over the previous 24 hours, yesterday he checked the Potomac River water levels throughout the day. He often goes down to the river to observe. Last evening he asked if I'd like to go up to Great Falls and see the river. Last Spring we went to the Maryland side of the park. Today we to the Virginia side. It's a pretty spectacular place, as you can see from this picture in the National Park Service brochure. At least until it rains.

We could hear the river as soon as we got out of the car, and this is the falls looked like when we got to the overlooks. You read descriptions of raging rivers, and you see the video that accompanies news reports, but nothing really prepares you for actually seeing it in person.

And this is about as close as I care to get to a raging river!

The walkway you can see across the river is on Olmstead Island on the Maryland side of the park. Since we saw no people on it, we think they must have closed the bridge that gets you to it.

The Potomac watershed is the second largest emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. It includes the Shenandoah, which joins it at Harpers Ferry. We saw a lot of debris--mostly trees, but occasionally things like this barrel.

 

Further down the trail you can get a little closer to where the cliffs usually are.











While we were there one of the Park Police helicopters made several passes over the area. I also saw a Coast Guard helicopter fly by at one point.









A small oasis of calm in the rocks of one of the observation areas.

 










After an early lunch we drove back to Theodore Roosevelt Island to see how things were there. As we drove through Georgetown along the river we could see that the Potomac was high and running swiftly, though not as raging as further upstream. The lower path was flooded on the Roslyn side of the island.

On the DC side the river was literally running over the lower path.

Reminders of the power of nature.

Spring Returns to Alexandria

This evening we went down to Old Town for dinner without a specific plan in mind. We drove down, parked, and started walking. We eventually settled on O'Connell's on the lower end of King Street. In spite of the fact that we had no reservations on a Friday evening, they seated us in less than 5 minutes. It was loud, even on the third level, but the food was good, including dessert. I don't often eat dessert when I eat out these days, but we'd eaten fairly lightly. Besides, we went walking after dinner.

As we often do when we go down to Old Town, we walked to the river front. The water was high and browner than usual due to the heavy rains last night. The forecasters expect it to rise a bit more, perhaps higher than it has been in four years. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to know for sure. We didn't walk along the river as much as we usually do, since we had a couple of stops to make on the way back to the car. Plus Dennis found it a bit chilly with the slight breeze, even though it was close to 70 degrees. After the heat and humidity earlier this week and last night's rain, it felt good to me.

It was the first nice evening--the first nice SPRING evening--that I've been down to Old Town this year. The fountain in front of City Hall was on. People filled the sidewalk dining areas. Street performers were out in force. Familiar ones were in their usual spots--the balloon man, the hammer dulcimer player, and the sketch artist, among others. We also saw some new ones. The most interesting was a trio of young Irish step dancers who set up a dance floor near the entrance to the Torpedo Factory. They wore the most gaudy, even garish, Irish step costumes I've ever seen. Then again, I'm sure the traditional Irish step garb has evolved over the years. And if you're going to dance on the street...

Now if we could just figure out how to cleanse the pollen from the air!

Walking the Trails

Even after living here for two years, I am still learning about what's around Alexandria. I did know about the Mount Vernon Trail, which runs from Roosevelt Island to Mount Vernon in the green space between the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Potomac River. I've driven past the Belle Haven Park several times, but I went there for the first time this afternoon. Dennis and I went down after lunch to walk the trail.

Lots of bicyclists ride the trail, which was designed with them in mind., but joggers and walkers also use it. For the most part everyone is respectful of everyone else on the trail. Cyclists are supposed to warn people on foot as they approach from behind. About half of those that passed us today either called out "On your left," or used a bell. Some did both. Many did not. Most of the time I could hear them coming, but once in a while one would come whizzing by unexpectedly and startle me. I'm a once and future cyclist, so I understand the issues of riding in urban areas. However, you need to respect others who use the same trails.

As we neared the Alexandria/Fairfax line we passed a piece of concrete. Or pieces. When I see things like that I wonder what was once there. An old sidewalk that once accessed the river front? Part of a front or back yard? What might be left for an archeologist to find in another two hundred years? It's also a reminder of how quickly nature retakes its ground when we abandon it. Or work with it to restore important environments.

Adjacent to the park sits the Dyke Marsh Preserve. During the early 1800s farmers tried to create grazing land by building retaining walls. Because the resulting land proved unsuitable for grazing, the marsh reclaimed the area. But that was not the end of  human impact on the marsh. For many decades in the last century companies dredged the marsh for sand and gravel, and even after the dredging stopped, erosion has continued. For 40 years federal agencies and organizations have worked to develop a plan to restore the marshlands. One of the factors that has focused renewed attention on the restoration process is the number of coastal storms that have hit the area over the past few years. Marshes serve as natural protection for coastlines.

To see the marsh you walk on the old Haul Road, which now serves as a walking trail into the area. Bicycles are prohibited, and pets must be leashed. We passed several folks with binoculars engaged in bird watching. We also saw some of the non-native invasive plants that the National Park Service and the Friends of Dyke Marsh are working to remove from the area. Lots of English Ivy, which I know first hand how difficult it is to eradicate.

At times it is hard to believe how close this is to a major urban area. Then you walk around a bend in the trail, and there's the Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing the Potomac.

One day I hope to bike from my apartment to this area and even all the way down to Mount Vernon itself. For now, however, it's a short drive to a beautiful area for walking. I logged over 11,000 steps this afternoon.

And there's still a lot to explore.