The Annual Christmas Tree Run 2016 Version.

I no longer work there, but I certainly have friends there and so yesterday I led a noontime Holiday Season Decorations Run on the Mall, as I have every year for the last decade and a half.  Here is a group I led in 2008, at the National Tree on the Ellipse.

Here is the 2016 version of the same scene.

I had tried to lead the same run earlier in the month but the Ellipse was blocked off for some reason and this was as close as we got the the National Tree that day, plus there was no Menorah erected yet, so I rescheduled the run.

The run yesterday  got off to a rocky start.  We skipped the scheduled first stop, at the Botanical Gardens, once we saw that the line to get in to see it snaked out the door.  Here is a picture of the tree from last year''s run, with its cute little Thomas the Engine running around the bottom of the display.

We had better luck at the nearby Capital Tree outside the Capitol.

From there we ran up to Union Station to see the tree inside its cavernous interior.

We were the beneficiaries of melodious singing from a high school choral group from Catonsville, Maryland.

The little Norwegian mountain village display with trains running through it on multiple tracks had been set up behind the chorus.  When my children were young, three Christmas seasons in a row I brought Jimmy, then Johnny, and then Danny to Union Station to see the trains and have lunch.  Merry Christmas, boys, and also to you, too, Laura!

Resuming our tour, we ran by my favorite but mostly unknown Christmas tree, the Peace Officers Tree at the District's courthouse.  You might know that I was a peace officer for nine years in the eighties.  The tree's ornaments are photos of local police officers, including slain officers from the DC police force.  A strong wind the day before had blown several of these tiny, light ornaments off the tree and we collected them all and re-hung them.

Here is a picture of the same tree from the run a few years back.

Last year I participated in the Christmas Tree Run organized by my former running club one weekend.  Here is what the Peace Officers Tree looked like a year ago.  This stop was not on the club's schedule that morning but I told the group about it and insisted we run by it.  This living tree seems to have become more scrawny each year.

Then our tour resumed and we ran by the full, big tree at the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Here's a view of the same stop from the 2014 run.  A mountie came out and snapped our picture that day, and offered to take my running mate's hockey team on a tour of the embassy.  She never took him up on the offer.

Now the run became a little unmoored.  We went into three establishments along Pennsylvania Avenue that might or might not have had a Christmas tree inside and we were rewarded each time.  The first was inside the Navy Memorial's data room.

As a bonus, we got to pose with a doughboy outside the Navy Memorial's visitor center entrance.  He's a tall boy.

Next we ran up to and went into the recently-opened Trump Hotel, the old Postal Pavillion.

Here you go.  Make America great again (so when did it stop being great?).

We ran across the street to the Willard Hotel.

The Willard Hotel had this tree in its lobby.  Which do you like better?

The Willard also had a tree tucked away in the Nest, behind the Round Nest Bar.

Outside again, we the group posed by another tree at the Willard.  When I asked where the agreeable tourist who snapped the picture was from, he sheepishly said, "I don't know if I should say so, but we're from Texas."  One group member briefly chatted up the man and it turned out they both had some connections to southwest Texas so hopefully we allayed his feeling of being an outsider here.

The run was more than just a quest for every Christmas tree we could find.  We ran by people bedecked out in the holiday spirit.

Here's a picture from the last decade when I conducted the run from work in the evening.  I remember how bitterly cold that night was.

The holiday decorations in front of the White House was our final stop.

We passed by the Menorah on our way back to my running mates' office, where I peeled off to return home.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Lean on Travel

This past year was very lean on travel outside of the DC area.  If you include going to southern Virginia as travel, which seems like going to another state since it and Northern Virginia are so dramatically different (sorry Virginia, you never should have taken the area ceded originally to the District of Columbia back through retrocession in the nineteenth century, because Arlington County along with Fairfax County usually provide statewide Democrats with the margin they need to win), I ventured forth a little bit more since I went to Hampton Roads twice.  (The room at Fort Monroe where Jeff Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War.)

The first time was for pleasure, as I visited my cousin at Buckroe Beach in late August as I recovered from surgery earlier in the month.  The warm, briny water of the Chesapeake Bay where it meets the Atlantic Ocean was good for my surgical cuts and, I believe, hastened my healing.  (My cousin Liz.)

The second time was when I went down in November to be an inside poll monitor in Newport News on election day.  To say that I was surprised when I got back to my motel and turned on the TV late that night after an exhausting 15-hour workday would be an understatement, but the next day I visited the Mariners' Museum where I observed restoration efforts underway on the gun turret of the famous Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, which sunk in a storm off Cape Hatteras and was raised a century later.  (A full size wooden replica of the USS Monitor which you clamber aboard is alongside the museum in the park.)

I went to Buffalo twice for work, once in March and once in May, and then I promptly retired.  No, the two trips didn't have anything to do with my retirement, except as they figured in how I prioritized my work (active litigation) and how a manager (since departed from the agency) who had 1/3 as much experience as I did thought I should be spending my time (dead-end investigations).  (Beef on Weck in Buffalo.)

I went to North Carolina to visit my college roommate in October.  That was a fun trip where I did a little sight-seeing, sailing, electioneering and fish-eating.  (Jimmy's front yard.)

And last month I went to Colorado to inspect some property.  That's it!  (The splendor of the Rocky Mountains.)

Enjoy

I carry a camera wherever I go, especially on runs, and take lots of pictures.  And no, it's not an I-Phone, rather it's a rugged sports camera (that has lasted over 3 years despite two nasty spills and several drops) and here are the year's dozen or so more memorable snapshots.

Early morning on the Inner Banks in North Carolina.

I call this theme The Empty Chair and it's repeated during the noon hour at a particular lunch spot near where my three children grew up, on most holidays and birthdays.  This occasion was my middle child's 28th birthday.

Sunset in the Shenandoah on Veteran's Day.

I'm keen on wildlife.

Sunrise at Buckroe Beach in Hampton, Virginia.

The Key Bridge over the Potomac on a January morning.

A Civil War fort in North Carolina.

A boat basin in Vandemere, North Carolina.

A cold and windy winter run.

The C&O Canal Towpath, July 9th.

Buffalo Airport, May 14th.

Newport News, November 9th.

I won (my age group).

Fall in the Rocky Mountains.

Friends and neighbors.

In no particular order, and leaving out some noteworthy folks as well, here are a few of the people I have benefitted from knowing or encountering this past year.  My cousin Liz and her husband Bill from Colorado, with whom I stayed in Buckroe Beach in Hampton for a few days.

My friend and former colleague Lisa, here with with her first-born, who gave me a wonderful birthday present this year when she showed up unexpectedly at a restaurant I was having lunch at on that day.

My friend and former colleague Helen, who got me into politics again.  Thanks a lot!  ;-).

My friends, former colleagues and current running buddies Devin and Leah, here thoughtfully reflecting outside the Trump Hotel.

My friend and former colleague Greg, a fellow crackerjack litigator, here celebrating my last day of work with some single malt scotch.

My friend and former colleague Seena, whose experience helped me out immeasurably at work.

My friend and past running buddy John, here with his wife Riza.  John picked me up after my surgery this summer and made sure I got home safely and was safe in my house before he left.

My man Trevor.

My friend, mentor and former colleague Steve.  He was lead attorney on my first trial, a two-week affair in Reno, and gave me sage advice on my second trial, a two-day affair in Tampa.  We obtained full relief in both trials.

All of my friends and former colleagues at work, excepting current management and their toadies.  Here my friends assembled outside my former office building for my going-away lunch, which they organized and insisted that I attend.  I see, amongst others who attended, Karen, Tom, two Mikes, Voni, my trusted counselor Leah, Michelle who was invaluable as my second chair at my trial in Tampa, Coutney, Nick a fellow runner and litigator extraordinaire and Greg a fellow runner and litigator extraordinaire.

My dependable neighbors including Mike, shown here working his snowblower on our sidewalks following the blizzard last winter, Barb, Antonio, Bertha, Kevin, Tony, Steve and Sherry.

My friend and former college roommate Jimmy, seen here electioneering in North Carolina where he lives when he isn't in Hawaii.  I was able to help deliver Virginia but he couldn't help deliver North Carolina.

My family members including those I saw or spoke to this past year.  My sister Kate, seen here posing before the building named after the guy who destroyed America's middle class, visited me this year.

Goodbye.

I go to church twelve times a year, whether I need to or not.  Some of my friends think this orderly regime is funny, others think it is indicative of how I think.

This year I went to church thirteen times, as in today, because there was so much to speak to the Lord about currently.  I also contribute to the collection plate (of course) and add a dollar coin (as a token) for whomever I am  thinking about, troubled about or hopeful about currently.

Today was a record, perhaps by multiples, for the token donations, ten one-dollar coins, for my thoughts on persons or concepts.  After communion, I prayed on my knees in church for each person(s) or concept that each coin represented.

In no particular order, my prayers were for (i) a friend who was terminally ill, (ii) all relatives abroad for their eventual safe passage home, (iii) my estranged children, (iv) the one wife thereby that I know about (welcome to the family!), (v) the USA (do you wonder why?), (vi) illness stricken people in my family, (vii) a family member who currently needs prayers, (viii) my own heart for hardening against a person who should be close to me were I more understanding, patient and compassionate, (ix) a hopeful next year (this embarrassingly might be the same as praying for myself), and (x) a blessing upon the marriage and moving on of a friend of mine.  When I got home from church, I learned that the gravely ill friend of mine had passed and was obviously with the Lord.