There isn't a point.

Mom and Dad sent yummy ice cream sprinkles!

Mint chocolate goodness on top of ice cream... life just doesn't get any better!

Nights turn people a little bit crazy!

Wandering.

I always want to know what's around the corner. If I am hiking a trail, no matter where in the world, I will always push myself to keep going out of plain curiousity of what might just be past the next bend or over the next hill. So this afternoon, I set out from my apartment to explore a park nearby. Now, when I first heard of the park just a block away from house, I was expecting a park in the California sense of the world. You know, grass field with benches, play equipment, some trees, etc. And if it's an even bigger park, I might just enjoy a man-made pond with a quint little bridge and a nice sidewalk to stroll. This park, Glover Archibald Park, was nothing like that.

With my Ipod singing me the my newly downloaded joint album of Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama, I set out down a small dirt path in a grass field that had a sign telling me this was the beginning of the park. Within 20 yards, I am on a trail that has a complete canopy covering with the trees and is in a small valley hiding it from the view and noise of the big city. The foliage completely covered the ground surrounding the small one-person wide dirt path.

Within minutes, completely enthralled with the beauty, I felt that I had left my urban neighborhood and entered into a national forest hiking path. Following a stream, the trail round through the woods up and over small hills with bridges cutting back and forth across the stream or just big rocks place to cross over. Washington DC provided beautiful weather today for my little adventure - gorgeous blue skies with a slight fall breeze.

Occassionally, a couple walking their dogs would wander by or a runner would wisk by me, but for the most part, I enjoyed the stillness and solitude of the woods. At one point, I found a small meadow/marsh to pause and journal. A while later, I found an old wood bench to catch up on my reading.

I enjoyed the beauty of the creation and ability to wander aimlessly through the woods. God's love and peace is so strong when you pause in His creation to simple enjoy who He is.

Due to my curiousity, I ended up following the path all the way to the end of the park, about 2.5 miles, and ending up in Georgetown. I then decided my best course of action was to hike over the Key Bridge to Arlington, VA, to catch the Metro home. So yes, today, I hiked to another state through the woods, over the river, under a bridge and then over a rather large bridge.. Yay for living in DC.

Kennedy Center Open House

For the second time, I attended the Kennedy Performing Arts Center Annual Open House! Amazing! So much fun and all for FREE. It's an all day event filled with every from of art occurring simultaneous around the majestic Kennedy Center overlooking the Potomac. This year's theme celebrated the survivors of Katrina with "Arts Along the Gulf Coast Highway."

We (Bekah, Ian, Jake, and myself) started out our adventure through the day with the crazy Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras "Indians." Some good ol' New Orleans funk with crazy men dressed up and dancing all around. Just some good fun music with lots of dancing. The crowd loved them, which makes any concert that much more interesting. One of my favorite things to watch is people just thoroughly enjoying themselves. There were older couples dancing with each other and people so into the music they forgot about the world around them. The joy they had during that concert showed so amazingly throughout each of their faces.

The Wild Magnolias are described as "the delights of New Orleans converge and compliment each other in the rich tradition of the Mardi Gras Indians. One of the most talented and renowned among the city's tribes is the Wild Magnolias. They are costumed in elaborate, handmade outfits that fancifully recall the dress of Native Americans, complete with feathers, ornate beadwork, and enormous headdresses. The origins of Mardi Gras Indians, which have parallels in the Caribbean (especially Trinidad), have their roots in African, Creole, Indian, and Spanish cultures and traditions. The Wild Magnolias' Big Chief Theodore Emile “Bo” Dollis was born in New Orleans. In 1970, the Wild Magnolias recorded a single entitled Handa Wanda. More than 30 years later, the song remains a local favorite and a perennial Mardi Gras classic."

The Archedream & One mask and musical dance theatre entered us into a whole other realm of theatre discussing the virtues of nature. With the theatre entirely black, the audience could only see the flourescent colors lit up by the black light. I enjoyed the unique form of theatre and watching how they portrayed fire, water, earth, wind, and animals through dance.

The end of the day was by far the best performance: The Blind Boys of Alabama! All three terraces of the concert hall filled for their performance, which created a energy-filled crowd ready to join in the music. The Boys "soul-stirring gospel" captivated every heart in the audience.

"The Blind Boys of Alabama have spread the spirit and energy of pure soul gospel music for more than 60 years, since the first version of the group formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939. Today, founding members Clarence Fountain, Jimmy Carter, and George Scott are joined by more recent arrivals Joey Williams, Ricky McKinnie, Bobby Butler, and Tracy Pierce. Their mission is to expand the audience for traditional soul-gospel singing while incorporating contemporary songs and innovative arrangements into their hallowed style."

P.S. I currently don't have a camera so I used photos I found on the internet to add some images to the blog. I'm working on a getting a camera, but these photos are not actually from yesterday's event. :)

National Cathedral

So, when I lived on Capitol Hill, I hiked all the way up to this part of town every weekend to go to the National Cathedral for church. However, now that I live only a 15 minutes walk from the Cathedral, I don't want to go there. Funny how that works.

It's still beautiful though, especially at night:

my new home...

My lovely kitchen.
Our living room... we have plants!


This is our apartment building. Yay for third floor. I kinda attacked Genae and we fell over.

Ernesto rained on our parade

Over Labor Day weekend, Eric and Stef came to visit. We had fun amidst the chaos of life. It was an incredibly hard weekend of moving, cleaning, moving, raining, running, breathing, crying, laughing, talking and everything in between.

I love the metro... Stef and Genae are just insane.

The blur is Eric and I laughing... oh surprise, I'm giggling.















While it was sunny almost every day I had been in DC so far, the two days we decided to move during is when Ernesto's tropical storm decided to hit us. So, we got wet.




















Eric and I cramped as much as possible into the elevator to take things up to our apartment. We live on the third floor, yay for elevators.