The DC Traveler

With $600,000 in prize money and 6,500 cheering fans, tennis stars play to win at the annual Washington, DC Legg Mason tennis championships.
The marque player is Andy Roddick, currently ranked 6th in the world. But watch out for the other players gunning for him, like left-hander Feliciano Lopez and 6’4” Russian-born Marat Safin.

Much of the 11-day tournament will be televised on ESPN 2.
Legg Mason Tennis Classic The William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center 16th & Kennedy Streets, NW Washington, DC 202-721-9500
Dates and …read more

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It’s the classic Victorian love story scene — a couple lounging in a rowboat, on a lazy summer afternoon in the middle of the lake, while he woos her with poetry by Byron or Keats.
And you too can add a bit of romance to your life and surprise your loved one with an afternoon or sunset rental of a rowboat at Burke Lake Park, in Fairfax Station, Virginia. All you need is a book of your favorite poet’s work.  Mother Nature can proved a romantic sunset.

In the late 1950s, Fairfax County Park Authority decided to create a public fishing lake. …read more

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Today marks the the 39th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land, walk on and safely return from the moon. 
About a month before the historic moon landing, I met the three Apollo 10 astronauts, John Young, Thomas  Stafford and Eugene Cernan on their national tour. They had just completed the final rehearsal for the moon landing.  Their mission was to circle the moon’s surface in both the Command Module and the Lunar Landing module (LEM), and conduct photographic surveys for a good landing site for the Apollo 11 mission.
Just two months later, on July 16th, …read more

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Save gas when you visit King Street in Alexandria by using the FREE King Street Trolley.
Old Town Alexandria has blocks and blocks of unique shops and not your typical chain stores you find in the mall.  There’s countless  specialty boutiques, antiques shops, clothing stores, art galleries and a wide range of places to dine, most that let you leave your car behind and visit on foot or by hopping on the free trolley. 
The King Street Trolley runs up and down King Street, Alexandria’s main street, and runs daily (10 a.m. – 10 p.m.) about every 15 minutes. It starts near …read more

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The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC is an opportunity to explore the living heritage and history of several cultures from around the globe. By experiencing a group’s music, songs, dance, art, food, crafts and overall culture, we can allow ourselves to better understand that culture’s people, ways of life, and history.
This year, the festival will highlight the cultures of:
– Bhutan: Land of the Thunder Dragon – About half the size of the state of Indiana, Bhutan is situated between China, Tibet and the snow covered Himalayan mountains to the north, and India and it’s …read more

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One of Northern Virginia’s premiere professional orchestra, the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, presents a free outdoor pops concert and fireworks display along the banks of the Potomac River as part of Alexandria’s birthday celebration.   Join in for some great music and dancing under the stars.
Alexandria Symphony Orchestra – Pops on the Waterfront
Oronoco Bay Park
100 Madison Street
Alexandria, VA  (map it)
Dates and Times – Sunday, July 12, 2008,  8:30 p.m.
Admission – Free
Nearest Metro Subway Station – Braddock Road, Blue and Yellow lines, then a ¾ mile walk.
Parking – Street parking is available.
Image – Flickr, Symphony. 
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The University of Maryland near Washington, DC offers free star gazing at its campus observatory.

The observatory uses 4 telescopes during open houses, ranging from an 8″ 1960s-era NASA reflector, to a 20″ reflector. 
The star gazing evening starts with a 30-minute presentation by an astronomical expert, followed by a tour of the observatory and, if weather permits, some star gazing.
The summer lecture schedule includes topics such as little galaxies,  black holes, the Hubble telescope, and more.
Univ. of Maryland Observatory Open House NightsUniversity of Maryland Observatory – Lecture Hall Across from UM System Administration building at 3300 Metzerott …read more

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I came across this classic Citroën 2CV, parked on a residential street in Arlington, Virginia.
As France’s answer to the VW Beetle, just 250 of the 2CV’s were built just before the start of WW-II in 1939. After the war, when production began resumed, it became a very popular car across France.
By 1990 when production ceased, over 3.8 million had been sold.

Three engine options were available, a 375 cc, a 435 cc or the “powerful” 602 cc engine. None created more than 40 horsepower. By comparison, the current Honda Civic engines produce 4 to 7 times more horsepower than the largest …read more

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You probably first saw your first team of flying trapeze artists at the circus or on television as a kid, and thought that only kids who run away to the circus will ever have the chance to fly through the air with the greatest of ease.

But in the past few years, aerial flying has gone mainstream. Some credit the child in all of us, who secretly wants to leave our responsibilities behind and run off to the circus. While others credit an episode of the HBO show, Sex and the City.  In it, Carrie, the show’s main character and relationship …read more

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Before the 1872, Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC was a small creek and later, it was turned into a shipping canal, as part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal system.

The original Tiber Creek was widened during the initial construction of the Capital City between 1810 and 1815, when it was converted into part of the the Washington City Canal. The canal ran almost the length of Constitution Avenue, coming within a coupe blocks of the Capitol Building. (See map for original path.)
Since Washington had no public sewer system at the time, the Washington City Canal was used by many residents …read more

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