washington

It was snowing tonight and we woke up to a white world. It's the first snow this season, and it will disappear soon.

Last year when we visited D.C. for Sasha's interviews there was a very thick layer of snow in February, so there's still a possibility, but it has been a very mild winter so far.

I took three pictures and stitched them together with Hugin, an excellent tool.

We went for a walk in the beautiful Huntley Meadows Park yesterday. It was around 3.30 pm and the sun was already low on the horizon. The park is an area with wetlands and there are many different types of birds in the wetlands and the lake. There's a boardwalk through the wet areas and several trails through the woods.

We are scouting for places where it's nice to go for a walk. Last weekend we walked part of the Washington & Old Dominion trail, which was nice but a quite busy with bicycles.

This weekend we made a road trip to Washington D.C.

On Saturday morning we took care of sme household stuff and we left around 11.30 am to pick up our fellow travelers Hernan, Sergej and Vladi, classmates of Sasha.

This was the longest road trip I have ever made myself, and I was curious how it would be to drive a such a long distance. Things went very well, and I didn't get tired. I was taking it easy and we had 2 stops for gas and lunch.

We arrived in D.C. when it was getting dark, and we made a few stops at touristic places; for some of Sasha's classmates this was the first time in D.C. We saw the Tidal Basin and the monuments, and made a stop at White House.

On the road.

Back in DC.

A picture at the stairs of the monument.

In front of the White House.

Then we went to Rosa's place, where we would stay the night and parked the car. We changed and took a cab to Dupont Circle where we had dinner in that favorite place of us, Kramer's Books. The "death by chocolate" cake is amazing. We went out for drinks in Georgetown, where there were a lot of Halloween celebrations and we celebrated in a bar.

Halloween in Georgetown. We spend a nice time in this bar, singing along with a guy with a piano.

On Sunday morning Rosa made breakfast for us -- her hospitality was wonderful.

We drove to the Bulgarian embassy, where Sasha and Vladi voted, and then we walked to Starbucks for a real city experience.

We dropped Sergej, Vladi and Hernan at the Mall and Sasha and I drove to Angelique's place. After a while I left and went to Roslyn to meet Binish. I found the Key bridge easily but took a wrong exit and ended up on the I-495 and was forced to drive back into DC, then to Georgetown and again over the Key Bridge.

It was great to see Binish again and we had a drink in Cosi's in Rosslyn, near my previous company's old office. Then I picked up Sasha from Angelique's place, and we picked up the explorers and started driving back to Durham.

A road side restaurant in Virginia where we had dinner on our way back. We left D.C. around 3.00 pm and we were home around 9.30 pm. In this weekend I drove around 600 miles. It was a great, spontaneous weekend.

Last night I went to Sasha's work and I was at Federal Triangle around 6.00 pm, rush hour in the metro. A nice chance for some last D.C. metro pictures.

Our moving is going well; we've packed pretty much everything. I packed the computer last night and took the harddisks out to carry those as hand luggage this weekend.

The movers are coming on Friday.

Last Sunday we went to see the Cherry Blossoms. We started our walk again at the World Bank, just like a few days earlier when we went to the Tidal Basin in the evening.

We made a quick stop at Starbucks, and from the Bank we walked to the White House. We had lunch near there, and continued our trip towards the Tidal Basin. The weather was wonderful (shorts & sandals), and it was crowded on the National Mall and at the Cherry Blossom festival.

It was the last weekend the blossoms were blooming, but the flowers had not lost any of their beauty. However, there must have started to loose their blossoms as you could see a lot of blossoms in the water.

It was of course a great location to place our martenitsas as well.

After spending some two hours or so at the Cherry Blossoms, we walked back to the Reflecting Pool. Obviously, this was the time for a lot of pictures.

Last night Sasha and I went for a walk to the Tidal Basin. I took the metro to her work and we walked from the Bank to the White House, from there to the National Mall and then to the Tidal Basin.

It was already dark when we arrived, but even though we did not see much of the cherry blossoms it was a nice evening.

We'll probably go this weekend to see the blossom's during the day.

Two weeks ago we went to the National Archives.

This picture shows the ice skating ring just in front of it. The brightly shining sun made for a relatively warm day.

We saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence again and spent a nice time in the museum (National Vaults).

Since a few weeks Metro is running an experiment with longer trains on the Orange line.

The usual maximum length of a train is six cars, but their are experimenting with running longer trains to alleviate the problems during rush hour when trains are often overly crowded.

More on Metro Opens Doors.

A duck in a pond full with leaves.

This is the pond between the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial at the National Mall.

There was a nice article in the Washington Post today about the rivalry between New York, the Capitol and the White House about their Christmas trees, and at what time the trees get lighted.

The tree on the Rockefeller center was lighted on Wednesday, and the National Christmas Tree on the Mall will be lighted tonight by President Bush.

The official Christmas tree here in Puerto Rico was lighted yesterday.