theparkerfamily.org

Tag: Family

  • Photos: National Museum of Natural History

    [Natural History Museum, Washington, DC]
    Explore the Photo Set:
    National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC

  • Photos: Washington Monument

    Explore the Photo Set:
    View from Washington Monument, Washington, DC

  • Photos: National Mall

    Day two of the Parker Brothers’ tour of DC.

    This time we stayed much closer to home, including my first trip to the top of the Washington Monument since it reopened earlier this decade, a quick “thaw” trip to the Natural History Museum, and a jog around the sites on the National Mall.

    Collin’s got a great eye, and you can check out his pictures of our tour on Flickr.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    National Mall, Washington, DC

  • Photos: Great Falls National Park and Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

    Day one of the Parker Brothers’ photo tour of the greater metropolitan Washington, DC area.

    For Collin’s birthday in August, the family chipped in together and got him a gently used Canon 10d, and he has been taking at least one photograph a day ever since.

    We started our two day shooting event on Saturday by heading west, hitting Great Falls and a drive by of the North District of the Shenandoah National Park.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

    Explore the Photo Set:
    Great Falls National Park, Virginia

  • Photos: D.C at Night, Washington, DC

    After practically a year of trying, my brother is in town for the weekend.

    He was originally supposed to come last March for the Washington DC Regional of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (for those of you paying attention, that was the tourny where hometown-heros George Mason knocked off Connecticut). My sister-in-law went into labor about a month early, and so he missed possibly the two best days of basketball in recent memory.

    After the first attempt didn’t work out so well, we tried to get together this fall for a couple of sporting events (a DC United and a Washingtion Nationals game) but he managed to herniate a disk in his back, and was on his butt for a couple of months.

    Finally, this weekend, with only weeks left before his Southwest ticket expired, we got him down here for a Wizards game and a couple of days of R&R.

    Explore the Photo Set:
    D.C at Night, Washington, DC

  • Carter’s Country Shooting Range

    [Carter's Country Shooting Range, Houston, Texas]
    there is nothing better than going with three hot young texas women to a shooting range out her in a suburb of a suburb of houston, texas.

    the spindler sisters were decidedly the only women there under 300 lbs — and watching the crowd as they moved through is as close as i’ll ever get to witnessing supermodels navigate the paparazzi on fifth avenue.

    i didn’t shoot myself — not sure anybody was ready to a the long-haired hippie with anything approximating a loaded weapon — but watching everybody else watching the spindler sisters squeeze off a few rounds was totally worth all those awkward “who let him in here” stares i recieved.

    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    Carter’s Country Shooting Range, Spring, Texas

  • Travel: Isle of Shoals, Maine

    second consecutive day on the water … this time on a “blow boat” with friends of the family (who are also my 59th cousins 326 times removed). we went out to the Isle of Shoals, a group of nine small islands about 7 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine.

    During the 1700’s, there was a town on the islands, Gosport, which was fairly prosperous up until about 1778, when the Islanders were evacuated to Rye, New Hampshire due to the Revolutionary War. The islands were then largely abandoned until the middle of the 19th century, when a popular summer hotel opened on Appledore Island. Currently, the only inhabitants are a Unitarian church retreat, and scientific research camp.

    Having never been on a sailboat, it was quite an experience covering those 7 miles and back again. We were on such a beautiful 30-foot sailboat that I am shocked I didn’t get a single picture of the boat itself.

    Isle of Shoals, Maine
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/…9772/

  • Travel: Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire

    spent the day with my godparents, out on their boat!

    Portsmouth’s harbor is on the Piscataqua River, the third fastest-flowing navigable river in the world. the harbor, arguably the finest in New England, is dominated by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, located across the river on Seavey’s Island in Kittery, Maine.

    we went up river (against that aforementioned 3rd fastest current in the world) and had some steller sandwiches under the “middle” bridge. giving up the fight, we went back downstream to a big muckity-muck yacht club by the old Wentworth resort and picked out our own personal “post-lottery winnings” yacht.

    It was a wonderful day!

    Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/…5490/

  • Pearl Street Playground

    [Pearl Street Playground, Essex Junction, Vermont]
    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    Pearl Street Playground, Essex Junction, Vermont

  • Travel: Downtown Portland, Oregon

    last day in portland, oregon. it’s a gorgeous place… i will miss it wildly. which got me thinking…

    i’ve been trying to move to get out of DC pretty steadily since 1998. i tried very hard to move to Oregon early in my failed marriage (she would have none of it) when I worked for a company out of Eugene. closer to the end of my tenure there, i was a week away from relocating when it turned out that a position I was jonesing for — in Eugene — wasn’t actually available.

    not that oregon has a monopoly on my desires to get out of DC. i almost pulled the trigger twice on Vermont, once while working for Bernie Sanders — Vermont’s Representative in the U.S. Congress — and once shortly after my divorce.

    being on vacation outside of the political, type-“A” rat-race that is DC has reminded me how much i still want to get out of here before I start firebombing politicians.

    downtown portland, oregon
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclevanya/sets/…7890/