Back in DC & loving it

The cats and I moved back to my home town (Washington, DC) this past February for a new job at Smithsonian's National Zoo. I love being back in a town that doesn't feel like a city, but is easy walking or Metro distance from anywhere I want to go. I only use my car to drive across the Potomac to visit my parents and go to the same vet, doctor, and dentist I went to when growing up in the VA suburbs.

I love my neighborhood, living next to the Zoo and in easy walking distance of Rock Creek Park, but also having the intrigue of living only a few blocks away from The White House (near where interestingly bizarre things regularly happen when you pay enough attention).

Here are some photos of my new apartment in Woodley Park:

THE FORESTS OF DC: What makes me happiest of all about living living in Washington is that contrary to what some tourists who only make it to the (National) Mall to see monuments, a few museums, and cherry blossoms (if they come at the right time of year) may think, a large chunk of DC and its MD and VA suburbs is made up of beautiful forest, where I feel most at home and spend more time than I do in urban areas. 

Here are a few places I frequent:

  

Rock Creek Park
I spend as much time as possible in some of the more remote areas of the Rock Creek (National) Park forest. Some of the signs are pretty confusing (such as the one at top left indicating that the Western Ridge Trail runs perpendicular to itself), but I always bring a compass and have thus far always found my way out :).

Unlike other large urban parks designed in the 19th century such as New York's Central Park and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, Washington DC's Rock Creek Park is a natural reserve. Rock Creek Park is a 1,700 acre National Park (more than twice the size of Central Park) and borders Smithsonian's National 163 acre Zoo/my neighborhood.

According to some people Rock Creek "can sometimes feel abandoned and creepy, and is separated from the city by pretty significant topography changes" (DC Mythbusting: Parks | We Love DC). And of course the Western Ridge Trail, my favorite well-known trail in Rock Creek, is where former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy's body was found in 2002 (Who Killed Chandra Levy - Key Sites in the Levy Case (washingtonpost.com). But I take a few key safety precautions and am personally a fan of "abandoned and creepy" when it comes to woods. While inside the most wooded parts of Rock Creek Park it is hard to believe you are still in DC.

 

Great Falls National Park

MARYLAND SIDE

Kayaking on the Potomac River

Had a great time this summer kayaking on (and a little floating down) the Potomac with a friend from grad school now working at NSF and a group from the State Department with guides from Potomac River Outfitters (three of the group are current/former field primatologists and I will note that we were the first three down each of the rapids!). 

Billy Goat Trail

The Maryland side of the Potomac is basically a big rocky cliff. I hiked the Billy Goat Trail with my supervisor and other local female managers and finally experienced the hike I so often saw people on from the Virginia side of the Potomac. 

VIRGINIA SIDE

Mather Gorge Trail

This is my favorite hiking trail at Great Falls. Entrance is to the right, just past the Visitor's Center in Great Falls, just past the exit to the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA. I hiked this trail often while growing up in nearby Falls Church, VA and most recently hiked it with a friend from Middle/High School and her daughter. 

I am also happy to be back living in the second most liberal major city in the United States (according to the American Political Science Review):

Living in DC and next door to the Zoo brings me many visitors (more friends have visited since I moved here in February than visited during my entire four years in the Philly suburbs--including two friends who drove 5 hours to meet me in DC for dinner one night!)

 With friends who I worked with years ago in MD, visiting from PA!

A friend from undergrad, visiting before going back to CA. We played Jenga at a milkshake bar in Dupont Circle and visited our alma mater (Bryn Mawr)'s "Lantern Bookstore"in Georgetown--complete with owls, BMC lanterns, and a photo of our most famous alumna, Katharine Hepburn.