Capitol Hill & Adams Morgan, DC

Decided to try out some new neighborhoods i.e. not just Georgetown and The National Mall. Had fab mussels and tomato soup at Belgo in the lovely Capitol Hill just round the corner from Richmond friend # 2's new house.

Then Sunday lunch at Song Byrd in Adams Morgan. It was laid back with great music but the street was a bit less characterful than hoped. Next time Columbia Heights and back to Georgetown...

Capitol Skyline, Washington

One person's tired hotel is another person's retro dream. The Capitol Skyline has its original metal window in curved concrete cells, relief brickwork around the fab party pool (condoms, beer bottles & near-drowners removed for morning swimming) and a fab skyline view right up to the Capitol. We'd go back.

Peacocks in Washington

One set disemboweling each other in a gilded twist by Darren Waterston on Whistler's Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room c.1776-7, shipped in from Liverpool in 1904 to Detroit and now the Freer.

The other is the real deal in the National Zoo. Two boys and one peahen do a performance make. Boa Boa, the panda, had grown up and sat chomping on bamboo shoots (not in the same enclosure!).

Wading Pool, Naval Yards, Washington DC

I can't imagine why we were the only people here... amidst the rain and grey, overseen by one security guard we splashed through the waterfall, sustained a slipping-injury that swelled and picnicked beneath the Millennium Bridge.

Front Yards in RVA

Both are lovely, leafy and have lousy lawns. One is ours for now and the other is our future home...

Sculpture at Maymont

 
If we could talk to the animals, just imagine it... 

Summer Time on Floyd

In the downtime pet portraits have got made, though Me-Me was far more amenable than Oscar, origami penguins have multiplied & now have their own diorama and finally a dolphin scene on a tea towel fresh from Crete.

Change on Monument Avenue

It's hard to tell and I was driving... this is a confederate flag-bearing individual (and film crew), going against the tide of public opinion just days after a dreadful massacre in a black church in Charleston by a young man waving the very same emotive flag.

Heartfelt graffiti got daubed across the next monument down - Black Lives Matter.

Texas Beach, RVA

We actually queued to get down to the water and it was warm & low but wonderfully still with folks floating along, booze trailing with them, just chilling.

Father's Day on Floyd

There were paper chains, origami framed place-names, a 'Dad' perler bead sign and best of all scrambled eggs made by M.

Later some jokes that had been intended for distraction during set-up.

Emma in Town

She's back and in 72 hours we cracked the town...

- One Ellwoods' kale smoothie
- One BBQ joint
- One BIG storm
- Two HOT jogs with backyard dip for afters
- Two breweries c/o Ardent & Hardywoods
- Three (maybe four) cooked breakfasts!

It was bliss.

Perk! Bon Air

First family outing for homemade lemonade and weaving, plus coffee of course, to Perk! A parent-venture from J's pre-K program - stylish and welcome in Bon Air. Usually my end-of-jog location of choice.

Pool House, Goochland

A Modern Richmond tour out into the countryside and over rolling hills, past amazing oak trees, picket fences, grazing horses, new Tudor Mansions then this modern gem. 

It was all about the pool which dictated the dimensions of this home-office/family-party/work-out structure and was washed with blue like an Yves Klein painting with a hot tub in the middle. It was unbearably tempting to leap in!

Inflatables of the Summer

Will it be a lobster for two or a dolphin?!?

Where else but Target could get inflatable fashion so right?

Marlins Swim Season 2015

First up the Sharpie marking...

Then thunder & lightening and in Meet II a heat win and a 10 second improvement in back stroke. This is a fully immersive thing and J, P & I are just about coping in our multiple support roles, including 'official' timing at 38C.

Science Monday at Reedy Creek

So to summer school and investigating water quality at Reedy Creek, before a good dose of wallowing...

Last Day of School

That's a wrap for 3rd Grade and Kindergarten.

A magic year all round.

Robot Cat on Floyd

Talent show preparations... though the prototype required box shortening to allow the robot cat access to its knees and a return to a standing/dancing position.

In the higher grade, a synchronized dance routine to Taio Cruz' Dynamite, accompanied by a singer and gymnasts went down smoothly after some considered choreography by M.

PS: Robot cats often need rockets too.

Pool on Floyd

It took three semi-launches to get to the saltwater filtered and even-grounded state it is now routinely in. No algae bloom for us.

So far its been pool parties by the club house every day and fairy lights to come, once we've overcome the health and safety considerations.

Hermione at Yorktown

Quite by chance we arrived at the beach to see Lafayette's stately French frigate leave the dock. It's canon boomed and it's sails wafted as it headed up the Chesapeake Bay to Mount Vernon.

We swam and did the Delly with the Y but they had no flounder... It had been a busy weekend of Revolutionary War celebrations.

Finished with B&J's ice cream as is tradition

Bold Rock Cidery, Nellysford, VA

These guys landscaped a brook as part of their stunning cidery setting and so we sampled 4 ciders from wooden tray, including pear and then cooled our feet or swam... should I mention the leach?!?

Blood splattered back of the new car now wiped clean as is the open slit from the site of between-toe attachment. Poor M and thanks heavens for Phil - the Ray Mears of VA.