Capitol Hill Graffiti Wall

I’m not a big fan of graffiti. In fact, I really don’t like it. But sometimes the weekly 52frames photo challenge takes me to places that I normally wouldn’t go to get pictures for a particular subject matter. Two weeks ago the idea was to find some interesting walls. Old Town Alexandria hit the mark on that one. In fact the image that was submitted was picked top 52 out of 2000! But I was contemplating another photo - an interesting graffiti wall that is actually an “art gallery” of sorts. One of the support walls under the freeway in our old Capitol Hill neighborhood is very well done - because it’s not created on the stealth. The wall sits within a skateboard park. The freeway actually divides the old Capitol Hill with the new yards park neighborhood. We used to walk under it when we took walks over to the Anacostia River. The area will be one of the most, if not the most, dense populations in DC once all the high rises are done. Nationals Park was one of the first things built there. Since I didn’t use the graffiti wall image for the walls challenge, I thought I would take another photo for the “shot with a phone” challenge last week. I ended up using a Tidal Basin photo instead. Maybe one of these days there will be another call for something like this. I actually liked the photo - I just don’t care for the graffiti. 

Roosevelt Island Visit - Bridges and Graffiti

We haven’t been there for quite some time. So Roosevelt Island was on our radar screen to visit during the week. It’s much too crowded on weekends to go anywhere near it. The idea for us is to have a change in scenery, stay as far away from anyone else as is possible, have a bit of exercise, and get in a ride to cool off afterwards. From our northern Virginia location, you need to go all the way down to memorial bridge in Arlington and make a u turn to get back on the GW Parkway. The parking lot was fairly empty when we arrived. We walked across the bridge over the Potomac river and started down a lesser known path. It was a mistake because it was very muddy and the paths were very narrow with brush and fallen trees along the way. The tiny white flower vines were in bloom all around us. We eventually ended up under the route 50 bridge and a lot of graffiti. It was really humid and uncomfortable, so we backtracked and got on to the main pathway that was a bit more manicured. I don’t think we will take this trail again, because there is a much better way to go - for people like us who prefer walking to hiking.