Okay, so life briefly took my partner and I to DC for a very short visit (Monday to Wednesday) last week. I was busy during the day, but managed to get out for a few shots. My partner did another wonderful job of checking things out and snapping some pics. Anyhoo, here's some music for your listening pleasure:

 

One Love - David Guetta feat Estelle [full song]

 

Early in the morning, coffee was still kicking in so I had the shakes:

 

Unfortunately, my partner likes to sit as far forward as possible. I prefer to sit toward the back because the jet exhaust creates horrific blurs on photos. Ah well, I let him win this one  :|

 

Lakewood:

 

Tremont, with the Vortex of Death (aka the West 14th/Steelyard Roundabout):

 

D@mned jet exhaust, couldn't they have cut the engines for a few seconds while I took this shot?  :x

 

Oh alright, this one turned out better:

 

I-271 at Broadway/Forbes:

 

The enthralling architecture that is Solon's industrial parks:

 

Lake Milton in the foreground, Meander Reservoir in the background:

 

Berlin Lake - the small hamlet of Deerfield is where all those roads are converging:

 

And at that point, it was nothing but cloud cover until we got to Baltimore:

 

And that was about all for Baltimore:

 

Next stop, the Amtrak station at BWI (since NONE of Baltimore's commuter rail lines were running on Columbus Day - wtf?):

 

Having taken Amtrak a few times before, I would LOVE to have the option to use it for trips to Columbus and Cincy:

 

Anyhoo, about 30 minutes later, we start seeing the outer business districts of DC:

 

And just like Cleveland's Red Line, the local graffiti artists have taken up residence:

 

I get the whole height-restriction for preserving views of the monuments, etc - but ugh. Mo-not-o-nous:

 

 

Thankfully the interior of Union Station is a treat:

 

The actual Metro stations are a little less ornate:

 

Our destination was Crystal City - not my choice, but hey - this wasn't a leisure trip for me. Gotta say, the only redeeming feature of Crystal City was the fact that it had a Metro stop; otherwise, we're talking pure "business traveler" stuff.

 

Oh, and they had these funky mosaics on the wall of the overpass - yeah, a highway goes right through all this office park mess  :|

 

At this point, I had to pass the baton to my partner who set out for DuPont Circle:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright, enough of that - here's a shot I took on my lunch break. Mo.Not.O.Nous...

 

And back to my partner's shots - he made his way over to Georgetown:

 

 

 

 

 

I think this is Rosslyn, Virginia - just across the Potomac:

 

 

 

 

I was going through his shots, saw this and thought - did he make a side trip to Prague?  :?

 

Nope just some building at Georgetown U:

 

Not all the charm is on such a large scale:

 

 

 

Apparently the recession hasn't hit here!  :roll:

 

 

Alright, I finally got some free time - here are those mosaics again:

 

 

I gotta say - I've been to DC before, and I've used the Metro before but it seems like the stations, and *especially* the trains could use a boost in capacity. I've done transit in NYC and Chicago at peak times and never felt as crammed in as I did on DC's Metro:

 

Anyway, after kicking a few idiots out of the way - I made it to DuPont Circle:

 

 

This tile work is part of the Iraqi Embassy - who knew?

 

But I had to be up early so back to the Metro we went - on what is one of the longest escalators I've ever seen:

 

 

Next morning, this was as close as I got to any of the monuments - been there, done that, I'll pass:

 

Finally wrapped things up and got some free time so we headed over to Georgetown:

 

 

 

 

 

Found a cute pocket park sitting atop a steep hill:

 

Nice views from here:

 

Yeeeeah, not so much....

 

 

 

We wanted to check out Dumbarton Oaks and gardens but they operate from 2pm-6pm; so the lovely folks at Tudor Place got our tourism dollars instead:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just down the street was this cute couple - LOVE the Halloween decorations!

 

And then there was this... thing:

 

Ah, much better:

 

But it was time to retrieve our luggage and head back:

 

 

The lady at the MARC train ticket counter loved us - we had IDs and payment ready. She said "where have you been all day, I need more travelers like you!". We said "Cleveland. We don't mess around!". :-D

 

Back to BWI - not sure how those people got up there to tag:

 

Another batch of cloud cover between BWI and CLE, but hey, got a shot of Independence:

 

And signing off from SouthPark Mall, hope you enjoyed!

 

Don't be dissin' my BET Network headquarters!  It's near the Lowest Price Gas station that literally has the Lowest Price Gas in DC!

These photos have convinced me that I really need to make a trip back out to DC.  Great shots!

Great shots! Now we get not one, but two excellent photographers contributing to the MayDay threads!

Those subway stations always bring back memories from my childhood... they're quite unique.  Thanks for the DC photos!

 

This escalator goes on foreeevveerrrr. I remember that lol

D.C.'s Metro system is the nicest form of public transit I've ever been on.

 

 

This picture kinda reminds me of Mt. Adams in Cincy-- minus the windows.

 

 

 

 

 

Great pics. I like how you zoom in on the details.

I just hate the height limit. I cannot imagine how many towers DC would have if they didn't have that. I cannot stand big cities without large skylines. DC is great, but the lack of towers make me knock it a few notches down from my favorite cities. That's the way I have always felt. Without a skyline, the city feels so small. They could have had a district full of towers away from the monuments like Paris has with La Defense.