We arrived home on May 20th from our 50-day camper adventure only to turn around and fly to Washington D.C. on June 8th.

I will begin this blog series where I left off with the last one…Nature. Editing this set of images for this post was WAY more manageable than the previous one. I only had nine days to sort through, not 50!

Let us begin with our airplane journey across the U.S. It was clear skies until we flew into Dallas, Texas where we encountered severe thunderstorms. In fact, we found out we were one of the last planes to fly out of DFW that afternoon due to the storms. Whew! Once we got above the clouds though, it was beautiful.

Our first day in the D.C. area found us on the banks of the Potomac hunting for prehistoric shark teeth.

It was amazing how many we found. It makes one wonder how many are out there because this is a popular activity in the area and most folks find plenty.

While looking for shark teeth down the beach I found this little guy. Definitely a highlight.

Following the morning at the river and a parking lot, and a tailgate picnic our friends dropped us off at Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington. There will be plenty of pictures later in the Buildings blog but I just wanted to point out how cool it was to touch a tree planted by our first president.

In walking along the National Mall and encountering several ponds and lakes, many with duck families merrily swimming about, we learned that the way the ponds were built is a death trap for little ducklings. They can’t get out as they can’t yet fly. So, volunteers, in their infinite wisdom, came up with duck ramps to help the littles get in and out of the water. Brilliant, right?

D.C. is certainly not at a loss of places to photograph flowers. They are everywhere, especially in June. The orange Lillies above are in front of the Smithsonian building while the white rose rests against the Vietnam Memorial.

We stayed on base with our friends and Jake, the family dog, at Fort Belvoir. We had a good soaking one evening.

One day we went to the U.S. Botanic Garden. It is on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Botanic Garden is supervised by Congress through the Architect of the Capitol, who is responsible for maintaining the grounds of the United States Capitol. The gardens are open every day of the year, and is the oldest continually-operating botanic garden in the United States.

The Conservatory is housed in a Lord & Burnham greenhouse and is divided into separate rooms, each simulating a different habitat. The habitats include The Garden Court, Rare and Endangered Plants, Plant Exploration, Orchid House, Medicinal Plants, Desert, Hawaii, Garden Primeval, Plant Adaptation, Jungle (this is the largest of the rooms, and includes a second-story catwalk so that the jungle canopy may be observed from both below and above), Children’s Garden, and Southern Exposure (courtyard), on the south side of the building, which is surrounded by glass walls, receiving more warmth. It features many plants from the Southeast and Southwest, which would not be able to live in the colder District of Columbia climate if not for the microclimate).

Needless to say, we kept getting lost.

The Washington D.C. area is beautiful. We spent most of our time going to museums and seeing historic buildings. The vegetation in the area is SO different from the desert southwest, so GREEN.

Next week I’ll show you some buildings. Buildings is a HUGE keyword on this trip. Lots of buildings.

Until then, happy shooting!