East Coast Swing

This post is mostly narrative... scenes from my recent trip to the Washington DC metro area. I used my little Canon A520 on all the shots, so I don't have too many technological mishaps or revelations. I am becoming better friends with photoshop now, so each of these pics has a little bit of adjustment, but they are secret. broo ha ha haaaa.

Enjoy!

The trip started with a red-eye flight to DC. New Dan hadn't visited there before, so we went on a truly whirlwind tour. I think we walked at least eight miles that day. I took this picture outside our nation's capital.

And then we walked aaaallllll the way down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial.

By late afternoon I was in need of a little latte break ;) I was happy to stumble upon Swings, an independent coffee roaster.

After a few more miles of urban hiking, including a stop at the National Portraiture Gallery to check out the hall of Presidents & current photography exibit (sylar behave!), we headed towards the metro to head back to Arlington. I passed the time playing with the shutter priority on my camera. The gentleman in this picture reminds me of my grandpa.

Fast forward to Saturday. My friend Jessica drove down from Baltimore and we headed to Colonial Williamsburg. First stop: the gift shop.

The picture below is actually pretty cool... it was taken on Jamestown Island, the first permanent English Settlement in the New World.

One random fact about me... I live through other people's cats. My sister's cats were my "nephews" before the Corbinator came around. I have a picture of one of my friend's cats as my wallpaper on my computer, so of course, I had to take a few pics of one of Jessie's kitties, Scout.

Sunday night I got together with a few of my Peace Corps Tonga folks for a great dinner. If you are ever in Baltimore, check out Holy Frijoles on W 36th. Seriously. Go there. I took the pic below from where I was sitting. I was torn between color and black & white, so I added a black & white version too, with a colored pencil filter. I am happy with the photoshop'd version, it reminds me of the "Take Me On" video by A-ha. Funny, now I want to do a series of pics in the A-ha style. That is so Norwegian of me.

Now you have that song stuck in your head, huh? ;)

My thanks to New Dan for being such a good sport with my random tour of DC and having patience while i took weird pictures. To Jennie for opening up the bed & breakfast (you MUST come to Seattle soon!). To Jessie for a fun weekend (if you had told me in Mrs. Pruitt's pre-algebra class that we would be taking goofy pictures in Colonial Williamsburg when we were in our thirties I would have laughed at you...) and to Elica mo Atama mo ene ki'i famili for fabulous last-minute dinner plans!