As we come up on a year and a half back in the United States, C and I are embracing living close to Washington, D.C. As I grew up and spent some of my early 30s in the area, there are places I long planned to visit, but put off doing so, figuring I would do so eventually. But then I spent so many years away, and the places I had put off until “someday” did not become a reality. Until now. By shifting my mindset to seeing Washington, D.C. as an assignment, I feel more inclined to get out and about while we are here.

I had big plans for May, unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. It seemed as if the old adage “April showers brings May flowers” had been reversed. We had an April of glorious weather, then May began with lower temps, overcast skies, and scattered showers. The first weekend was a washout, so I was especially keen to do something the second weekend. We headed to the Oatlands Historic House and Gardens located in Leesburg, Virginia, about 45 miles outside of D.C. I had fond memories of Oatlands; my parents have photos of me there as a baby, my mom took me as an older child, and I am sure there was a school fieldtrip there at some point. I really wanted to take my daughter there.

Fortune though was not on my side. The mansion, built in 1803 and listed as a national historic landmark, was undergoing renovations; the scaffolding made even exterior photos unattractive. We had tickets to self-tour the garden and it was still pretty beneath the overcast sky, but then my plans to stroll the grounds afterward were foiled by the cooler than expected weather. We cut our losses and went to lunch.

Luckily, the sky cleared and the temperatures warmed for our next activity – picking strawberries at the Wegmeyer Farms plot just down the road from Oatlands. I had a vague memory of strawberry picking when I was a young child, and I really wanted to do it with my daughter C. It was not quite what I had been expecting; I thought there would be a farm, maybe some attractive buildings or fences, something, but it was just rows of strawberry plants. We were handed a bucket and told to stay in one assigned row for the picking. Still, we did have fun and the strawberries were delicious.

The following weekend C had a Scout camping trip so I had hoped to do some sightseeing on my own, but the weather did not cooperate. Therefore, we planned to make the most of Memorial Day weekend. On Friday evening, we had the great pleasure of seeing my sister and nephew grace the stage in a community production of Anastasia. The show was fantastic and it was incredibly fun to see our family members take part. This is something we really missed out on when hundreds of miles away overseas.

On Saturday, C and I visited the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo, Maryland. After we had both been to Antietam, where Clara Barton ministered to wounded on the battlefield, this made a good follow-on visit. The site preserves the home where Ms. Barton spent the last years of her life and also an early headquarters of the American Red Cross, which she founded. We were able to take a very good National Park Service (NPS) ranger-led tour that covered the first floor of the home, but unfortunately, the floor was bare of any furnishings and the upper floors were off limits due to upcoming renovations.

No worries, I thought, the Clara Barton site sits next door to another NPS-run Glen Echo Park. The park started first as an educational institute for adults called the Chautauqua in 1891. From 1911 to 1968, the site served as an area amusement park and was a site of civil rights protests in the latter years. It became a NPS-managed site in 1971 and then a place for arts and cultural performances in 2001, coming nearly full circle from the Chautauqua days. C and I though were primarily there for the 1921 Dentzel menagerie carousel, a National Historic Register site in its own right. C and I have long been a fan of historic carousels (or maybe it is mostly me; see also here and here). We did ride the carousel twice; we would have gone a third time except the carousel operator gave a very generous 20 or so times around each go, which was almost too much of a good thing. We walked a bit more around the park, but we found it sadly underutilized.

On Sunday, C and I headed to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with friends. I absolutely love Harpers Ferry; its preserved history and attractive location at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers just 65 miles from DC, make it a great place to visit on a beautiful weekend. And it is another NPS-managed site. With 6 kids in total, my friends and I walked the 1.6 miles from the main parking to the lower town. It was another lovely day, warm, but not hot, and the trail through the trees and then alongside the road was pleasant. We visited several key sites in the town to include John Brown’s fort and the industry museum, walked across the bridge over the Potomac River to Maryland and back, up to Jefferson’s Rock, where our third president Thomas Jefferson reportedly stood in October 1783, had lunch, and, of course, got some ice cream.

We rounded out our month-and-then-some of getting out and about with our first professional soccer match when we went to see DC United play against Toronto at the six-year old Audi Field. C and I have been to the nearby Nationals Stadium for baseball games at least a handful of times, but had never seen a live soccer match before. Our seats afforded us a great view of the goal line and several corner kicks and the thrilling penalty kick by DC United that tied up the game. I expect we will see more games in the future!

Finally, I dragged C to the National Arboretum in D.C. for some walking and photography. It’s another site in the area I had long heard of and wanted to visit and at long last got around to. The highlight of the National Arboretum are the Capitol Columns, 22 Corinthian columns which were part of the United States Capitol building from 1828 to 1958, which now stand arranged in a meadow alongside a reflecting pool. It is a popular spot for photographers, walkers, and picnickers. I managed to walk a bit with C along a pretty trail near the columns, again in the Asian collection, and then the National Bonsai Museum, but she protested any further exploration for the day.

I continue to be grateful to be here in the DC area, where we have such opportunities for recreation and excursions practically in our backyard or within a day’s drive. It is a great reminder that travel need not involve many hours on an airplane.