An Afternoon Off-Planet

Spent a lovely day out and about with the kids, first at the National Geographic Explorers Hall which has an exhibit on the Mars rovers including regularly updated footage on the screens and an interactive map of the Martian surface, plus a history of Mars in the human imagination from ancient Egypt to H.G. Wells to Marvin.

Then, since we were already on Canal Road and could see out the window that the C&O Canal was still frozen, we decided to head up to Great Falls to see if the river was still icy too. When we got there we discovered that the bridges to the islands were closed and the canal was no longer open to skaters, though there was still a lot of ice. We did get to see hawks, ice floating down the Potomac River, and a sky so blue it hurt to look at.


The tumultuous Potomac River.


The canal barge docked for the winter near Great Falls Tavern.


Icicles hanging from the trees over the water.


Lock 18 and ruins of the lockhouse in snow.


DC: The frozen canal, the partially frozen river and Rosslyn, Virginia.

GIP: Base courtesy , text courtesy . Though it was my idea. *g*