Great Falls National Park

GREAT FALLS NATIONAL PARK

Great Falls is just a few miles north of Arlington on the Potomac. I biked out there on the C&O Canal towpath back in July. It's a beautiful park with a nice boardwalk to view the rapids and watch the kayakers run through. The C&O Canal runs from DC up through Virginia and I believe on to West Virginia and into Pennsylvania. Apparently, it's bikable with towns to stay in along the way.

A dog!

Another dog!

And another dog!

Maybe she could model for the vegan's alternative to Santa's Rudolph? I'll contact PETA.

Crawling and Sitting Up

She has been pushing up with her arms for weeks know, but yesterday morning, Phoebe figured out how to dig her knees in and push herself up into sitting position. Her ability to crawl is coordinated, but she only knows reverse. Yesterday she backed all the way up and got herself wedged under our rocking chair. We both wonder how many calories this kid is burning now!

Beautiful Weather

TURKEY RUN NATIONAL PARK

After the rain of Hurricane Ida moving through (a 3 day soaker) we had a 75 degree sunny day Sunday. The three of us celebrated Alisa's weekend off by going for a short hike before sundown. Turkey Run is adjacent to the CIA headquarters just beyond Arlington and it overlooks the Potomac, which is the river in the pictures below. We hope to get back there and do more hiking along the river this winter before spring floods come through.

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL

Today is yet again a gorgeous day so Phoebe and I bussed-trained over to the Mall and walked around the Tidal Basin to spend some time at the Jefferson Memorial. If any of you ever consider DC as a vacation destination, October and November are the months to hit this place. We were 2 of about a dozen people there. This also was good since Phoebe decided to ignore the "Quiet Please: Be Respectful" signage and yell continuously at Jefferson himself. I guess she thinks he's pretty cool. Or maybe just the echo the dome made was cool.

Enjoying the view of the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument

I will just say that I did not try to take a funny picture of the monument sticking out of my daughter's head. It just happened. Honest. I couldn't see it in the lighting while shooting pics.

Brushing Teeth

Mat's Visit from Portland

Mat had a meeting here in DC yesterday, so Phoebe and I took the Metro up to Rockville to meet up with him and visit with him on the train ride back to our place. He had hoped to hang around for another day, but Laura and the kids are all back in Portland ill. We got to hang out and he got to meet Phoebe.

Phoebe got scared for a second and started to cry.

"Hmm, so that's what dad would look like if he didn't have hair like Jeff Lebowski."

Happy Halloween!

CALVIN AND HOBBES

starring Phoebe and Tigger

since trick-or-treating will be meaningless for a year or two, we just killed some time Tuesday afternoon while it rained like crazy. Enjoy.

Arlington National Cemetary

Arlington National Cemetary

Phoebe and I took the bus and train over today for a walk. We're having more gorgeous fall weather (60s and sunny!). She rode on my back with little fuss, as long as there was some stranger that got sucked in to her cute smiles. Then she knows how to put on a show. The views from Arlington House on the hill are fantastic. Probably the best views in the entire area, which is the reason for the site I presume. Colors are at peak right now so hopefully we can get out more in the next few days to enjoy this great weather and the beautiful trees around here.

At JFK's site
From the Arlington House on the hill.

Arlington House . . . and our goofy daughter.

Looking over the river and the city.

JFK's Memorial overlooking Washington with the monument in the center.

EATING PEAS

As we've said, she can use her fingers, but is clearly enjoying eating a bit like a bird. This sequence should give you a pretty good idea what it looks like. We're grateful she loves peas. She had some chili I made Saturday night and seemed to think that was okay too!

Planning her attack

Like bobbing for apples. There's a lot of smearing her wide open mouth across the tray.

Success is always announced in case we didn't notice.

What a beautiful day!

The weather in DC was aces today. It's about 70 and very sunny with not a breeze. We hopped the bus and a train and made our way to the White House this morning. After that we walked up to St Matthews Cathedral (where JFK's funeral was held if I'm not mistaken) and then to Dupont Circle Park.

At Dupont Circle
The fountain at Dupont Circle

Phoebe loves fountains.

St Matthews Cathedral. Phoebe was a very quiet girl in the church, for a while. Then

she yelled and heard the brilliant echo--leading to more yells, which prompted us packing up and heading out.

At the White House with the tourists. It was quite quiet compared to the time I passed by this summer. The white paint on this house is jarring to look at. The house looks like a matte-finished white frosting on a wedding cake. It's quite odd, yet beautiful.

Feeding herself . . . well, sort of.

What am I supposed to do with these?
Got one!

Wait, now what are these again.

Breakfast attempt at eating sweet potato without the use of her hands.

I guess that's one way . . .

Phoebe would not do well on the SAT section related to logic. Currently, she understands that peas, cheerios, and other chunky, tiny foods are fun to pick up. She also understands that these are indeed food when we offer them to her with our fingers and model eating by taking bites ourselves. Yet, she is struggling to put together that she can pick food up and then place it into her own mouth.

Last week we took a pear from the Farmers Market to mom at work. While waiting, Phoebe used her one tooth to tear the skin of the pear and then suck on the sweet juices. So maybe she is just not in the mood to waste any time on these mere chunks and would rather jump straight to apples and lamb shanks.

Well, here is a video showing great success. Also note her bobbing up and down. Although it's silent, she decided she enjoys music yesterday. She first grooved to an AC/DC guitar riff on an NPR commercial break. Ah, she's my little girl :-) ~Andy