C&O Canal

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In and Around DC: Activities Spring 2026

A dogwood, Virginia’s State Flower, in bloom in early Spring 2026.

Since arriving in Washington, D.C., C and I have tried to make the most of my posting here by exploring the city and the surrounding region whenever we can. Whether visiting museums, attending special events, or discovering places just beyond the Beltway, we have enjoyed experiencing all that the National Capital Region has to offer. While Spring 2026 brought more challenges than we expected, we still found opportunities to get out, explore, and make a few more memories together.

The first activity we tried this spring was Puppy Yoga. With Washington’s unpredictable weather in late March, it seemed like a good choice. As it turned out, we could not have asked for a more beautiful day, with warm temperatures and clear skies.

We took the Metro to Rosslyn and then walked across the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge, perhaps my favorite bridge into Washington. The bridge offers beautiful views of the Potomac River, and I especially enjoy seeing the towers of Georgetown University rising above the trees.

Each week, Puppy Yoga features a different breed. We lucked out with the puppies that day as the featured puppies were corgis, C’s favorite kind of dog. They were absolutely adorable. There was also one especially friendly Bernedoodle puppy that “attacked” both C and me with enthusiastic face licks. We had 45 minutes of yoga instruction, with puppies on the loose, followed by 30 minutes of puppy playtime. The time was very generous. We all got enough puppy time, and for those who wanted the yoga – like me – we had an excellent session. I found the whole thing therapeutic. We enjoyed it so much we returned for more puppy yoga six weeks later.

Getting our therapy done with adorable puppies and yoga; the puppies alternate between rambunctious and exhaustion

Two weekends later, we were greeted with another beautiful spring day. My plan was to take C to the Bluebell Festival at Riverbend Park, a beautiful Fairfax County park adjacent to Great Falls National Park. For just a few weeks each spring, Virginia bluebells blanket parts of the park in a carpet of delicate violet-blue wildflowers.

Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else in Northern Virginia had the same idea. By the time we arrived, the parking lots were full and park staff had stopped admitting additional visitors.

Rather than call it a day, C asked if we could go to Annapolis, Maryland, instead. Now that she is firmly in the Sea Scouts, she had expressed an interest in visiting America’s Sailing Capital and the U.S. Naval Academy, and I had been telling her for some time that I would take her. Annapolis was certainly not nearby, but with such a beautiful day, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make the trip.

The Maryland State House, the country’s oldest state capitol in continuous legistative use seen from blooming tulips; C at the Annapolis City Dock

We strolled along the historic streets of downtown Annapolis, visited the campus of St. John’s College—the nation’s third-oldest college after Harvard University and my alma mater, William & Mary—and popped into the Museum of Historic Annapolis along the waterfront. Unfortunately, the United States Naval Academy was closed to all visitors due to security protocols, so C drowned her disappointment by picking up some USNA merchandise at a shop on Main Street.

A few hearty bluebells remained

With temperatures climbing into the mid-80s—almost unheard of in early April—we were not especially hungry. Instead, we each got an ice cream and sat by the city dock enjoying a little taste of summer in April while watching the boats and the people go by.

Two weeks later, while C was away on a Scout campout, I returned alone to Riverbend Park. The peak bloom for the Virginia bluebells had passed, though a few patches were still hanging on. The festival crowds were gone, and while there were still plenty of other hikers enjoying the beautiful spring morning, the trails felt wonderfully peaceful. I spent a couple of hours wandering through the woods, occasionally emerging along the banks of the Potomac before the trail disappeared back beneath the trees. It was a wonderful way to spend a spring morning and a welcome chance to slow down and enjoy being in nature.

In late April, I drove C to New York so she could participate in Sea Scout University, hosted by a New York-based Sea Scout ship at SUNY Maritime College. The college is located on the narrow peninsula of Throggs Neck in the Bronx and occupies part of historic Fort Schuyler.

Rather than make the long drive early Saturday morning, we left Virginia after work and school on Friday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel in Flushing, Queens. The following morning, I dropped C off at Sea Scout University, where she spent the day taking classes and meeting Sea Scouts from other ships, primarily from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. I had planned to spend the day sightseeing while she was in class, so I drove out to Oyster Bay on Long Island in hopes that the weather might improve. Unfortunately, the steady rain never let up, and my sightseeing plans were largely washed out.

Sea Scout University took place in the classrooms of the Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler on the campus of SUNY Maritime College; C had an opportunity to try the same navigation simulator as the college students

At 5:00 p.m., I picked C up from the college, and we began the drive back to Virginia. Despite missing out on some exploring of my own, I never mind a good road trip with my kiddo. And though brief, we had an opportunity to see more of New York outside of Manhattan.

Our next adventure came about through one of C’s Scouting commitments. In addition to being active in her own troop, she serves as the Den Chief for a Webelos den in a local Cub Scout pack. As part of that role, we joined several of the Cub Scouts and their families for an afternoon of kayaking on the historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park at Pennyfield Lock.

Although showers had been in the forecast, they never materialized. Instead, we enjoyed two wonderful hours paddling along a particularly scenic stretch of the canal. Surrounded by lush greenery and the quiet waters of the C&O Canal, it was hard to believe we were only a short drive from downtown Washington. It was another perfect spring afternoon.

C paddles ahead of me on the C&O Canal at Pennyfield Lock

By May, however, the season took an unexpected turn. With our apartment move scheduled for the end of the month, just after Memorial Day, I had intentionally kept our calendar fairly light. C had a one-night biking campout with her Scout troop at Antietam one weekend and later traveled with her Sea Scout ship to Sea Scout Academy at Fort Monroe. My plan was to spend those weekends preparing for the move.

Then, on Mother’s Day, everything changed.

While standing in my kitchen on the morning of May 10, I was suddenly hit with searing, electric pain that shot from my lower back down my leg. I had not lifted anything or twisted awkwardly. I had simply been standing there. The pain was so intense that I froze in place for several minutes before I was finally able to limp to the sofa.

My recovery has been slow, and I have been much more limited in what I can do. After the move, we did manage one outing: a Washington Spirit match at the very end of May. I had purchased the tickets before my injury as a little treat to celebrate getting settled into our new home. For the half of the game I actually saw, it was an exciting match, and the Spirit won. Unfortunately, I spent the other half either in the stadium’s medical unit asking for pain medication or waiting in line to buy us hot dogs for dinner. It was not exactly the evening I had envisioned.

Although Spring 2026 did not unfold quite as I had envisioned, C and I still managed to get out and try a few new activities, discover a few new places, and, most importantly, spend quality time together. As summer begins, C is off enjoying her summer camps while I am taking things a little easier and focusing on my recovery. With a bit of luck—and a lot of physical therapy—I hope to be back on my feet and ready for our next big adventure.

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Tulips, Falls, and Hallowed Ground: April 2024 in DC

April is usually the real beginning of spring in Washington, D.C. This April also marked 15 months since our abrupt departure from Guinea and just a little over a year since we moved into our permanent apartment in the northern Virginia area. It was that last marker that feels the most significant. While my daughter C and I have been in and out of the northern Virginia area many times for training, some shorter, some longer, this April signaled a real milestone: the longest we had been in one place in the United States. For my daughter, it would be the longest in her 12 years. For me, the longest since 2008.

There are times when it feels strange indeed. To be a U.S. Foreign Service Officer who is not overseas. Of course, many U.S. FSOs work at headquarters in D.C. It is just the first time I am doing so, and I am still trying to wrap my head around it at times.

I decided I should be taking more advantage of the area with all of the history, culture, and nature close by and within just a few hours drive.

A sea of multi-colored tulips at Burnside Farms

Our first stop this month was the Burnside Farms’ Festival of Spring. I first heard about it last spring, but had not been quick enough to get tickets before it sold out. Yet for the first time in a long time in America, I could tell myself, well, there is always next year! Lucky for us, this year my daughter had a day off school scheduled in the middle of the festival and Wednesday morning tickets were much easier to come by. And when I found out a friend of mine was in town from Nicaragua for training and had brought her son along, we took her son with us to see the flowers. Rain was in the forecast, but again we lucked out; it was partly cloudy at first and then blazing blue skies.

I have long wanted to see the tulip blooms in the Netherlands. I have been to the country twice, but both times were in July, far too late to see the tulip fields. Burnside Farm’s spring festival was a nice substitute.

High and fast waters churn over Great Falls

The following Monday, C again had school off. I took her and her friend visiting from Nicaragua to Great Falls National Park for a short hike. With our annual National Park pass bought for our visits to Joshua Tree and Death Valley last December, we could visit Great Falls for no additional fees. It is extraordinary to me that these falls on the Potomac River and the protected wilds around them lie just 17 miles outside our nation’s capital. So close, and yet a world away. I came here a few times as a kid, with my mom and sisters I am sure, possibly with school groups. I came here again with C’s dad when she was a baby. We visited here when we were back from Malawi to hike with friend’s from there. C and her friend seemed to have a good time — the falls were cool of course, but there also seemed me to be a lot of Pokemon in the area they could catch with Pokemon Go… Well, sigh, they were still in nature.

The War Correspondents Memorial Arch

The next weekend, C and her Scouting troop had a two-day camping and bicycling at the Antietam National Battlefield, just outside of Sharpsburg, Maryland. I had often thought of visiting Antietam. Even once, maybe fifteen years ago (?), I drove to the entrance gates and grabbed a brochure intending to get out there sometime soon. I opted then to volunteer to drive my daughter and other Scouts to and from the campsite, but spend two nights in a nearby hotel doing some sightseeing on my own. I promised my daughter that should I see her at Antietam, I would pretend not to know her.

Getting C into Scouting has been one of the highlights of being in the U.S. The Antietam trip would be her fourth camping trip in the six months since she joined. I have been so impressed with all the skills, camaraderie, and confidence she has gained. And I loved the idea of us both seeing the same place around the same time, but in different ways.

Unlike C, who was camping at Antietam and traveling by bicycle, I had a car and decided to make the most of my day on my own. It turned out to be a day full of American history. I first headed to George Washington Monument State Park, just outside of Boonsboro, Maryland. Along the way, I drove through Gapland and stopped at the site of the War Correspondents Memorial Arch, built by George Townsend in 1896. Townsend worked as a Civil War correspondent in his early 20s and at just age 24 became famous for his articles on the Lincoln assassination. Outside of Boonsboro, I made my way to the site of the nation’s first monument to our first president. The squat 40-foot tall stone tower was reportedly built by the townsfolk of Boonsboro in a matter of days in 1827, twenty-one years before construction began on the more famous monument in Washington, D.C.

Though the temperatures were a comfortable warm and the skies a dazzling blue, the wind was high, especially atop South Mountain, and it whipped around the monument making it difficult to stay long to enjoy the view. And time was of the essence; I just had the one day to make the most of it.

On my way to Antietam, I made a quick stop at the Kennedy Farm, the location where for three months abolitionist John Brown and his fighters planned and practiced their doomed raid on Harper’s Ferry. Though part of the National Park Service, I was the only person there at the time. There are no park rangers or staff on the site; there is just a small lockbox just inside the door where visitors can leave a donation. Given its importance, I had expected more. But I suppose it is enough that it is preserved.

I made sure to return to Antietam as the sun was setting to experience it without the crowds and capture a sunset photo

Then it was on to Antietam, where I spent the rest of the day, some walking, some driving. I never did run into C or her troop, though we talked about their visit on the hour and a half drive home the next day. We talked about the Potomac River, which we had just seen the frothing at Great Falls a few weeks before, to where General Robert E. Lee had crossed into the North, and the river as it passed near the battlefield. We talked of the significance of Antietam, the U.S.’ bloodiest single day in American military history, from the first battlefield photography to the role of Clara Barton, who would go on to found the American Red Cross. It is important to me that while we are in the U.S., that my daughter, who has spent thus far the majority of her life overseas, gets to experience the conveniences of our country but also is exposed to our history.

Fast moving small falls heading to the Great ones

C and I wrapped up our April 2024 local sightseeing with a trip to the portion of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal National Historical Park on the Maryland side of the Potomac, across from Great Falls I remember as a kid wanting to visit this spot (and for some reason I was desperate to ride a canal boat through the old locks), but only recall us ever visiting Great Falls on the Virginia side. With C spending so much more time outdoors with the Scouts and her love of scrambling over boulders after our trip to Joshua Tree, I figured we were up for a hike along the Billy Goat Trail.

We were blessed with yet another incredibly gorgeous day, perfect for a hike by the falls. While there were a good number of other folks on the trail, it was not what I would call crowded, so it had just the right amount of hiking without a lot of waiting or noise from other hikers without the “oh my goodness, I haven’t seen another person in an hour, I hope I am not lost forever” feeling. We saw a good amount of wildlife from a black snake to a great blue heron and frogs to geese, had a wonderful workout, and some great mother-daughter time.

C surveys the Potomac River front an overlook on the Billy Goat Trail

All-in-all it was a great month for activities around our area. And while this might seem to some not to be the most exotic of blog post destinations, especially considering the locations we have traveled to, for us, who have spent so much time outside the country, the ease in planning and executing visits to such places and the variety of places to go and things to do, is not something I want to take for granted. In the majority of places where we lived, we had only a fraction of these sorts of things to do. We are looking forward to seeing more!