I just showed you a portrait of Ted Kennedy in DC, and here are some pictures from his Arlington gravesite. As you can see, it's a very simple grave, without a lot of pomp and circumstance.
Compare this shot to the picture I shared with you of Robert Kennedy's gravesite. As you'll see, they in about the same place. In fact, Robert's plot is just to the right of Ted's, but I think there's some shrubs between them.
In honor of the recently deceased Teddy Kennedy, the National Portrait Gallery had hung this Andy Warhol picture of the late Senator. Is there anyone that Warhol didn't paint, or at least alter? I think all he did for this one was put a few colored lines on there, and a few lines of sparkly dust. Not nearly so impressive as his work for Marilyn Monroe or Mick Jagger.
While I'm showing you license plates, here's one that's not really very creative. Or maybe it is, it's hard to be sure. While I was in DC, my hostess was very excited to receive her new plates in the mail, and I felt it only fitting that I somehow fit them into into the blog here. If this seems at all familiar to any of you, you've seen the plates on her car before...
Previous states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.
And not a state at all: DC
I saw this artwork in the gift shop at The National Portrait Gallery in DC. I think it's by the same artist who did the Preamble in plates that I showed you last time. I thought this one was pretty good, too, and you can actually buy or commission similar ones. No, I'm wrong. The artist is Aaron Foster. Check out the little add-on pieces for Alaska & Hawaii.
Here's another view of that archway I showed you yesterday from the Chinatown district in Washington, DC. Or, as someone posted in the comments, in Chinablock. I guess they call the area that because it's so small compared to other Chinatown districts in cities like San Francisco and New York. But I liked this night shot and figured I'd throw it up here while I was thinking about it.
As I was standing on The Ellipse, shooting pictures of The White House, something caught my eye. Sure enough, there was a red-tailed hawk circling overheard, or actually just to the right of overhead, probably over the Treasury building. He never got too close, but I was able to get this shot of him since I had a long lens on the camera just by luck. I think sometimes I have fairly decent bird karma.
Since I just mentioned The Statue Of Liberty Enlightening The World, I wanted to link to some pictures I'd taken of it. And I couldn't find any full-on shots here at the blog, so here's a good one that I apparently never shared. This is from my trip to NYC last year around this time.
While I'm showing you things near the sky in DC, how about the statue that sits atop the US Capitol Building? This is the Statue Of Freedom by Thomas Crawford that sits way up there where no one can see it. Again, I shot this with my longest lens, in the best light I could find. It's a little bigger than the chunk of aluminum that tops the Washington Monument, so I didn't have to crop it as tight, plus, it's not as far off the ground. But it's a little dark. You can see more detail in the original plaster model from which they made the mold to cast the bronze version. This model is housed in the Capitol Visitor's Center, under the plaza in front of the Capitol. Some people seem to think it's a copy of The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, but as you can see, it's not even close.
Ever seen the top of the Washington Monument? That's it in the picture above. It's a really, really tight crop of a close-up picture with about a 450mm (35mm equivalent) lens. You can see the multiple lighting rods surrounding the aluminum pyramid. If you want to see what it would look like without the lightning rods, and before it lost almost an inch of height from getting hit by lightning for many years before the rods, have a look at the replica below. This is housed in a small display in the room just below the observation platform in the Monument. At the time of the Monument's completion, aluminum was a precious metal, worth quite a bit more than it is today.
I spotted this sign on the George Washington Parkway just outside of DC. Seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me, George Bush Center For Intelligence. I guess it's really for the first George Bush, though. Pardon the blurriness of the photo, I shot this through the rear window of a car moving at 60 mph away from the sign. I was lucky to get a picture at all.
Who knew that Washington DC had it's own Chinatown? Not me! But we stumbled into it one night in DC while looking for something to eat. And surprisingly enough, we found some really good Indian food. Anyhow, the big gate lets you know that you're in Chinatown, just in case you didn't see the Chinese signs all over the place. The left side of the gate was labeled in Chinese, too, but the right was in English, and you can see that below. Remember Marion Barry, the former mayor of DC? He was busted on cocaine charges and spent six months in federal prison. Of course, after that he was re-elected as mayor for four more years. Something about DC...
In case you didn't feel the Chinese vibe enough, they've even got some propaganda papered up on the walls. Not sure what this poster was for or against, but I thought it fit right in with the scheme of things. It was just to the left of the big gate above, barely out of frame in that picture, actually.
Well, I'm back from DC now. Did you miss me? I didn't think so. Anyhow, I just flew in from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (which I think is the only international airport called National...) and boy, are my arms tired. No really. My arms and my legs. I probably walked 50 miles in the four and a half days I spent in DC, traversing the National Mall from one end to the other more than a dozen times, and then back and forth across DC countless more times. I saw just about everything on my (unwritten) list, with the exception of National Geographic's Explorer Hall, plus a bunch of stuff that I just stumbled on through blind luck. But that, to me, is the best way to really discover an area. On the flight out, we circled right around DC, so I pulled out the camera and squeezed off a couple of shots by twisting my neck around backwards and shooting behind the wing I was seated over. This is the best of those shots, and it's not too good, but you can get the general idea of things. I know this may come as a shock to you, but they don't offer aerial tours of DC, so this is likely to be the best aerial shot I can get for you. You can clearly see the National Mall in the foreground, with just the very tip of the Capitol building peeking in at the bottom. Straight up from that is the Mall itself, with tents still up from a Black Family Reunion event they had Saturday and Sunday. Then you can see the Washington Monument, it's tip skewering the WWII Memorial, and the the Lincoln Memorial. The bridge going towards the left is to Arlington National Cemetery (I walked across that bridge twice) and the bridge to the right leads off to Arlington, VA. There's lots of other stuff visible in this shot, but I won't bore you with the details, those will come later as I begin to post some of the 4000+ pictures I took. Stay tuned!
They don't let you take pictures inside the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, so the only picture from that tour I have is this pile of $10 bills in the lobby. It's a pretty big pile, though, one million dollars worth, to be exact. So by my math, that means there are one hundred thousand bills in that box.
I was out taking pictures yesterday for 17 hours in DC. I don't think that's quite a record, but it's close. (I spent some really late nights in NYC last year.) Anyhow, I saw a lot on the anniversary of 9/11, which would explain why the flag is at half-mast on the White House. Stay tuned for more whenever I finally get home.
As I sat in front of the Museum Of The American Indian today eating my lunch, something about this truck struck me as odd. Look there on the front fender. Since 1689? Well, I'm in the Nation's capitol, and it does have quite a history, but that's a bit excessive.
It's good to know that even on Capitol Hill here in DC, there are a few Gators. It's not all diplomats and Congressmen. But the diplomats do drive nicer cars...
I thought you might enjoy these family photos of a trio of raccoons I spotted this evening on South Lido Key. They were alongside a nature trail I was walking down, and even though they ran off as I approached, I coaxed them back out by tossing little sticks towards them as if they were food. I know, I know, it was mean, but I wanted to get the shot. Something you can't tell from these pictures is that the mommy, or at least the big one in the front, had an injured foot. Her right rear paw must have hurt, because she didn't walk on it the whole time I watched her. These are much better pictures than the last raccoon family I saw in Ohio.
Well, as luck would have it, I spotted a bald eagle today. He was circling overhead as I roamed around the ground of The Ringling Museum. Unfortunately, all I had on the camera was a 17-55mm lens, which meant I couldn't get any shots that showed very much. These are both minuscule crops of much larger pictures. But there is no mistaking that white head and the white tail. By the time I got back to the car and grabbed a longer lens, he was half a mile down the waterfront.
I walked around the grounds of the Ringling Museum today for a few minutes (until it got too hot to physically bear), and I came across a familiar frangipani tree (or, if you prefer, plumeria). I shot the picture above just a few hours ago. The picture below, was the very first month on the very first yearly calendar I ever put together. That was for 2004, and that means I took this picture in 2003. That's a long time ago! I think I took a better picture back then, oddly enough.
Some years ago, I brought you a picture of this statue at the Ringling Museum, and commented on how he was rapidly being enveloped by the adjoining banyan tree. Well, fast forward to today, and here's what he look like now. You almost have to know he's there to find him. Another four years and he'll be gone.
Not much of a sunset tonight, I'm afraid. Too many clouds at the horizon. Shame, too, because I happened to be passing near a cool spot with some nice vistas you don't get every day. Looking west into where the sun should have set, above, you can see the distant skyline of St. Petersburg. Looking north, below, you can see the skyline of Tampa.
And looking back east, you can see the Big Bend Power Plant. So that must mean I was in Apollo Beach.
I spotted this poor limpkin on Lake Hollingsworth in Lakeland today. If you look close, you'll see he's got one of those plastic rings from a milk jug wrapped around his neck, and it's holding his beak open. When I saw this, I trekked off to see if I could find the number of some animal rescue place to come out and help him. I finally found a security guard at Florida Southern College across the road, but he said they'd tried to get wildlife rescue out for similar situations before and it's next to impossible to find somebody on a weekend, much less a holiday weekend. So I'm hoping someone else helps this guy get unstuck when the workweek rolls around on Tuesday. I tried to get closer to him to see if maybe I could help, but he's still quite mobile, and either walked or flew away every time I tried.
Spotted this sculpture in Lakeland, Florida, today, in front of the Polk Museum of Art. Yep, it's another John Henry, as if you couldn't tell. This one is much smaller than the others I've seen, and is titled Hudson. What's the other one I've shared? Star Pointer, I think. And there's Alachua at the University of Florida that they installed back when I was in school. To my eye, they all pretty much look the same.
As the sun was going down tonight, there were some thick storm clouds back over the mainland. But I was out on Anna Maria Island, where it was somewhat sunnier. Maybe ten minutes before the sun hit the water, it found a hole in the clouds and nicely illuminated the Anna Maria City Pier. I thought it made a great shot against the dark stormy background. This one is worth your clicking on it to see the larger image. It's pretty cool.
I can't even remember the last time I brought you a picture of a manatee. That's probably because I don't see them too often, especially in the summer months. I usually find them in the winter when they gather together in the warm springs or power plant discharge canals. But this one swam under the Anna Maria Island City Pier this evening while I was there, so I got a fairly decent picture of him. This is as he emerged on the other side of the pier from where everyone first spotted him. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture of the bubbles when he farted. I kid you not. This guy was probably 7 to 8 feet long, and surprisingly enough, he doesn't appear to have any propeller scars on his back.
There must have been ten dolphins in the water today, each one tempting me by coming up for air for a second or two, then diving back down to pop up a minute later at a random spot. Some of them were pairs, and one of the fins in the pair was smaller than the other, so I have to assume they were mother and baby. But the only shot I got with a recognizable fin out of the water was this one. That's the Rod 'N Reel Pier on Anna Maria Island in the background, and as you can tell, it was pretty close to sunset tonight. Actually, I added some of that color in ther after the fact, but not all of it. It was a pretty grey sunset, unfortunately.
Sometimes, a shot just comes out right, even when you've taken the same picture a thousand times before. I've shot these little lizards plenty of times before, but I've never gotten a shot I could crop this tight and still have it look sharp. This little guy is probably less than an inch high, but I was able to zoom in far enough that you can count the scales on his neck. His snout is a little out of focus, but the eye is sharp, and that's the important part. I'm pretty proud of this shot.
Thought you guys might want to see the sunset from Anna Maria Island this evening. This is about 20-30 minutes after the sun had actually set, but you get the idea.
Way, way, way back in the day, a little over 20 years now, I worked at Walt Disney World. Specifically, I worked at Tomorrowland Terrace in Magic Kingdom. That restaurant isn't there anymore, or at least the restaurant by that name isn't there. In it's place is something called Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Everything is in the same place as it used to be, but they've spiffed it up quite a bit. And the folks who work there no longer wear orange polyester pants. Come to think of it, I was working there when they switched to red pants, but I think they were still polyester. The counter in this picture used to be soups and salads, and it was rarely open when I worked there. The front side, just to the left of this picture was the side always open, and that was where I worked. Ahhh, memories. I don't have any pictures from those days, I'm afraid. I took this a couple of weeks ago when I visited Disney.
Well, the first of my local bald eagle pair is back. Don't know how long he's actually been around, but today was the first time I've seen him. I came around the corner, and there he was, just sitting up on his favorite tree limb. I don't think he's been back for long, since the local birds haven't learned to avoid the area yet. I think that's a mocking bird beating a hasty retreat in the photo below after he got a little too close. The eagle just gave him a dirty look and off the little bird went. I'll keep my eye out for the other one and let you know when they become a matched pair again.
This is the roof of a building near the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. I shot through the window of a moving monorail hoping that I would be able to capture an image of what I saw. This odd Mickey Mouse cutout was perched on the side of the building facing a parking lot. That alone was cool enough, but I happened to pass overhead at the exact correct time to catch the shadow on the opposite wall of the building, making two Mickey's for the price of one.
Look over the shoulder of Unconditional Surrender and you'll spot an odd little piece of a rainbow I saw yesterday. Clear blue sky, lots of little fluffy clouds, no rain in sight, but there was a rainbow in the sky. I guess it was somehow raining in just the right spot to produce some diffraction. I thought it was pretty cool.
I thought you might enjoy these photos of a hippopotamus at Disney's Animal Kingdom Saturday. Pretty cool how they have it set up like an aquarium, allowing you to see how graceful these guys are under the water, instead of how cumbersome they are on land. In the few minutes we stood there watching, he made four laps, so he must be pretty happy in there. Or maybe he was looking for a way out. Anyhow, these are much better than the previous pictures of a hippo I shared with you.
