theparkerfamily.org » Washington D.C.

out: capitol christmas tree

evancparker — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:10:06 +0000

hike: glover archibald trail

evancparker — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 16:49:04 +0000

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
hike: glover archibald trail, washington, dc

out: rock creek nature center

evancparker — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:19:33 +0000

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
out: rock creek nature center, washington, dc

the drews after dark

evancparker — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:14:20 +0000

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
the drews after dark, washington, dc

day 2: the drews go to washington

evancparker — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:23:36 +0000

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
the drews take washington, dc

dc, meet the drews!

evancparker — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:51:48 +0000

See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
dc, meet the drews!

earthquake damage assessment

evancparker — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:09:24 +0000

one letter off the wall, one photo slightly askew — not exactly something to write home about, but certainly a good deal more severe than the last one.

i was actually in new york for work, so missed most of the excitement. what i got was a strange surge of vertigo (i was on the 18th floor) and didn’t realize it was an earthquake until my knees started bouncing half a beat later.

the lady sparkler had it the worst, being forced to walk the mile and a half home because the District (as expected) lost it’s collective minds.

most buildings downtown were evacuated, traffic was at a standstill which put a kaibosh on the bus, and the metro ground to a halt under unprecedented ridership and speed restrictions through the whole system.

unfortunately, none of this is terribly surprising. given how badly we handle snowstorms, i expected the District would see roving packs of bureaucrats in ripped suites — with bandanas made from yesterday’s ties — ransacking local stores for water, plastic sheeting and duct tape.

sparklet, for her part, was walking down the street and didn’t seem to have a problem with the quake itself, but more the fact that each and every front door within view immediately popped open and all at once people started flooding the/her street.

so, what’s next — a hurricane?

anthony bourdain on d.c.

evancparker — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:24:39 +0000

just saw anthony bourdain’s treatment on the District, and it’s pretty spot on for someone who hasn’t spent much time here — especially his closing bit on how badly the city is misunderstood by outsiders:

D.C. is not just a city of dead presidents and cold marble monuments.

The people we see working here on our television screens, in the halls of power, in the plush seats of Sunday morning punditry, often have as little to do with the city itself, and the people who actually live here, as any creature from another universe.

This is a city filled with actual living, breathing, eating Americans. Not vessels for one ideology or another, or empty suits with empty ideas. They have hard lives, hard struggles and have taken long roads to get here.

Maybe at the end of the day a delicious bite, a laugh, a warm welcome from somebody you didn’t know before, is as much as we can reasonably hope for.

Maybe our kids will get it right.

Maybe.

papa’s got a brand new flag

evancparker — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:02:28 +0000

… and one that’s slightly more appropriate than that “other” flag we’ve been flying recently.

dear america

evancparker — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:39:26 +0000

happy tax day, america!

just a friendly reminder that your friendly neighbors here in Washington, DC pay all the taxes you do, get federal bureaucrats / international ambassadors / presidential motorcades clogging up our roads, and get to welcome your tour groups / protests / elected officials to our little town each spring and summer (and fall, and winter) — all without voting representation in the process you all seem to deride so much.

(i’m not great with history, but i hear wars have broken out over just this sort of thing.)

so, while the rest of the country is basking in the warm glow of a recently passed federal budget — DC is once again being told how to spend it’s money by a bunch of outsiders who use our city’s name as a kind of expletive to describe everything that is wrong with the planet.

for the record, we don’t mind (necessarily) doing our part for democracy and taking one for the team. we’d just like to be able to vote against it.