I have added a page to my blog specifically for kayaking. For the moment, the page just lists the places where I have kayaked with links to the access points less that of the Ferrisburg, VT, town beach. I will be adding over the winter comments and pictures about each location and as I revisit the the sites I will include updated information. I hope that this page will provide a reference for other kayakers as to good places to get on the water.
Category: Recreation
Recreation
Pictures from Vacation in Salvo, NC, on the Outer Banks
It took me longer than I had wished to get all these pictures together. The downside of digital photography is that we can take too many pictures and look at them before printing or publishing them with minimal monetary impact. Nonetheless, I spent the time and put together a set of pictures from our recent trip to the Outer Banks. Many thanks to my sister who made the arrangements and paid for the place!
Check out the pictures here on my photo album or browse to my photo album from the main page of my blog and look for the Salvo vacation pictures. The only real downer of the vacation, other than a couple of trips to Urgent Care centers, was the traffic. For one four hour stretch, we averaged 19 MPH!
Kayaking the Potomac River Near Point of Rocks, MD
I had quite the nice paddle on the Potomac River on Sunday, 8 August. We have had a dry summer and the rivers are down but, after a mass of rainstorms came through last week, the Potomac near Point of Rocks, MD, still had a pretty good current flowing. The water was crystal clear. At one point up about 1/2 mile from my entry point at Nolan’s Ferry Road, I saw a school of about 300 good sized fish, presumably Largemouth Bass.
The paddle up from Nolan’s Ferry Road to the Rt. 15 bridge across the Potomac was right about four miles and quite a good workout. There were some stretches of low water where the going was slowly but there were more stretches of deeper water, up to about four feet, where the going was much easier. I saw a few Great Blue Herons and Osprey but no eagles on this trip.
Here are a few pics from the trip:
Greetings from the Outer Banks!
Trips to “Urgent Care” not withstanding (everyone is okay), we are having a great time at the Outer Banks (Salvo, NC). Thanks especially to Julie for getting the house. We have nice a house with pool and hot tub and are about a five minute walk from the, very uncrowded, beach. Of course we are BBQ’ing like crazy!
Traffic was hell getting down here. It took Kim, Don, and I 5 hours to drive the 125 miles down here. Julie, Ed, and Ryan had about a 9 and 1/2 hour journey from Centreville. Dave came down Sunday. He had the longest drive but made it in less than seven hours. Locals say the traffic was nearly as bad as they could recall it being.
Julie and Ed took a short trek down to the beach Saturday night but the rest of us didn’t make it out until Sunday. Unfortunately it was in the mid-90’s with a wicked wind blowing from the south. The wind was blowing major sand so we didn’t last too long on the beach.
Sunday night we had heavy thunderstorms, the wind switched to the north and abated considerably, and the temps dropped down to the mid-80’s. That made for much more enjoyable trips to the beach! This morning has been much of the same. I headed down to the beach with my coffee, watched the sun rise, and took some pictures.
Here are a few pictures from the trip so far:
America Gave Me the Bird…
And I took a picture of it!
I had a great paddle on the Potomac River today. I put in at Algonkian Regional Park and just happened to look up and catch this Bald Eagle in the tree. It seemed totally unconcerned that I was hanging out below it taking pictures. Joy!
Blog Blanking
I definitely need to blog more. I will add more details shortly in future entries such as:
- Marathon Scooter Ride to Deep Creek Lake and Back
- Scooter Ride on Skyline Drive with Hooter
- 4th of July at Kim and Don’s
- Paddling on the 4th of July Weekend
- Braking for Ronald
Zebras In Cuba?
Here is a picture of zebras that I took at the National Zoo in DC five or six years ago. Don’t these zebras look like they are in a prison compound like Guatanamo Bay? Stars and Bars and wire for hire?
Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest, 2010
The 3d annual Northern Virginia Summer BrewFest, “A Celebration of American Beer,” will be held June 26 and 27th at Morven Park in Leesburg, VA, just north of Leesburg on Route 15 at Tutt Lane.
I went with my sister and brother-in-law last year and really enjoyed it. The weather was perfect and the selection of beers was awesome. Advance tickets are a bit pricey at $20 but cheaper than at the gate ($25) and that includes a 6.75 oz tasting glass and four tickets for tasting. There is no fee for parking and parking (as well as exiting) is hassle free.
Follow the link above for more information including a list of last years breweries. This year’s list has not yet been posted.
I’ll be out there Saturday afternoon…hope to see you there!
Sl “apps” Happy iPhone Users
In the Washington Post article, “iPhone Apps for the Traveler,” dated May 16, 2010, Ross Arbes, endorses 15 apps for the iPhone using traveler. I will comment on a few of them.
- Maps – Buy a hard copy or print something out from Google or Mapquest or just access the sites on your iPhone. Do we really need an app to replace competent services that are available to us on our web enabled device? Familiarize yourself with where you are going before you get there. It is generally very beneficial.
- Cheap Gas (free) – First of all, cheap gas may be cheap but is is not free. No driving directions to the gas station so what is the point. What is that $1.50 savings per fill up in the wider scheme of things anyhow? Especially if you are out of town.
- ATM Hunter – ATM’s are everywhere…banks, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, gas stations, bars, etc. Now an app for “Money (free)” would be cool.
- Sit or Squat, public toilet finder – Public toilets are everywhere…banks (just kidding), fast food restaurants, convenience stores, gas stations, bars, etc.
- EveryTrail, records route, speed and elevation using iPhone GPS and incorporates photos taken into the route – This presumably requires that you use the camera on your iPhone. God forbid! Give my my Nikon D60 any day. Besides if you can’t remember where you took your pictures then they probably weren’t very good.
- HearPlanet Lite, locates nearby sites and reads articles aloud from Wikipedia and Wikitravel – Get the relevant real Lonely Planet guide and read about it beforehand. Bring the book with you to refine the experience on site. Avoid noise pollution be it by headphone or speaker, especially by speaker.
- Am I Safe (costs $.99), provides crime states for your area and classifies it as safe or not safe – Bam your mugged or dead. If you can’t figure that out by yourself or haven’t researched it in advance then you are effed. Sorry.
- iTranslate, can translate more than 50 languages and voice translations out loud – Sounds pretty good but how do you input the foreign language? Do you have to type it in? Can someone speak the foreign language in and have it output in the desired other foreign language?
Washington, D.C., Cherry Blossom Festival Venture
What madness! I took the Metro into town on Thursday, April 1, to see the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin. Last year I rode the scooter down to check them out but the area was so packed with people I just cruised through for a quick look and headed home. This year, I wanted to walk around and get some pictures so the Metro was the way to go. I got on at the Vienna, VA, station and off at the Smithsonian station. From there it was a reasonably short walk to the Tidal Basin where all the action is. I ended up walking all the way around the Basin at a leisurely pace snapping pictures of the trees and the Jefferson and Washington Memorials.
There were people all over the place. The advent of digital photography has not boded well for tourist destinations since now everyone thinks they are a photographer. Walkways were blocked by phototogs trying to get snaps of their friends, family, and the monuments. I believe that I can assuredly say that if all those people had to pay for film and developing, most of them wouldn’t be taking pictures. I certainly take many more pictures using my digital camera than I would using my analog cameras. At least I have a history going back 26 years of taking analog photos and have four analog cameras to my two digital cameras.
That being said, I think I got a few decent photos. I went into town late with the intention of staying through sundown. I did do that but ended up shooting sunset photos on the mall of the Capitol and the Washington Monument rather than of the cherry blossoms. This was mainly due to the fact that I had to pee and was thirsty as hell. I walked down the south side of the mall near the Capitol looking for an Irish bar that I had been to years before but haven’t been able to find for the past few years. I am not even sure it is there any more.
What is really odd is that it is so hard to find someplace to just stop and get a brew or quick bite to eat around the mall. There are huge government office buildings everywhere and people have to drink and eat. D.C. is very much a commuter city so perhaps the government workers are just in and out for work and there isn’t a good restaurant business environment. I ended up going to Capitol City Brewing Company on Massachusetts Avenue just of Capitol Hill. It is adjacent to Union Station which is a good venue for getting chow and such, not sure about brews, and also catching the Metro.
After making my bladder gladder, I managed to find a seat at the bar in the very packed restaurant. I was so thirsty from walking around for four hours in the sun that I pounded down a pint of Kolsch and a pint of water in no time. Since the sun was setting, I had to get back out on the mall, about 5 blocks away, snap some pictures and get back to the Smithsonian Metro station. Even though it was about 8:15 PM, I just barely managed to get a seat and was hemmed in by people as the car reached standing room only a few stops later. That lasted until about four stops before the end of the line where I disembarked and headed home.
When I got home, I realized that I hadn’t eaten the sandwich I brought with me so I showered the city off of me, scarfed a quick brew, ate my sandwich, and chased it all down with more water. Meanwhile, I was downloading 203 pictures from my camera to my computer.
Here are a few of those pictures. More will be posted in my photo album in the not too distant future. Once that is done, I’ll make a note and put a link to them here in my blog.
