A long walk

Our house in Lander sold, R took a last long drive out to Portland, OR and then Bozeman, MT to deliver some things to L and H, and then flew to DC. After two+ months, we're in the same zip code once again. Hurray! Being alone, every weekend I tended to tuck in and watch Netflix, drinking tea and eating shameful quantities of cookies. Not really healthy - for my waistline or my psyche - so it's doubly wonderful to have R back.

Yesterday we decided to go for a long walk to "earn" our lunch. We ended up doing just over 11 miles.

The Mount Vernon trail is very near our apartment building, so we followed it for two miles. We probably won't do that again anytime soon. The trail itself is very nice and the views of the Potomac are great, but the sheer volume of aggressive bicyclists on the path makes you feel that you're risking your life by walking there.

We meandered over the George Mason Memorial Bridge and skirted the Jefferson Memorial:

Stopping a moment to marvel at the architecture, I remembered Jefferson's words inscribed inside:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him as a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

In light of the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, I felt very proud to be able to incline my head in silent acknowledgement to Jefferson and his words. I feel privileged to be in Washington at this time in history. Times change. Society must adapt.

R and I walked on, past the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, to the Mall. On a whim we decided to keep walking to the Capital so that we could have lunch at Tortilla Coast. A word to describe this restaurant: Yum.

After an incongruous combination of salad and beer, we were on our way to the Metro to head to the zoo. But first, we passed the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court.

Library of Congress.

Supreme Court

Supreme Court

Supreme Court

And then the zoo!

Panda, snacking on bamboo. Pandas are adorable no matter what they're doing.

Parrot giving me the stink eye.

Peacock pretending to ignore me, but actually thinking, "That's right. I'm gorgeous."

We did our version of "speed zoo" (after all, it was nearly 5:00 in the afternoon and the zoo closes at 6:00) and then wandered back to the Metro for the trip home. Did we "earn" our lunch? I do believe we did.

48 hours later

And now it's 48 hours after my second final exam in Spanish, in which I finally achieved the elusive benchmark of 3/3. A bit of an understatement to say that I'm relieved.

It's been a very challenging eight months. You know that Greek myth about Sisyphus perpetually rolling that damned rock uphill? That's what it felt like. Same thing, over and over, with no end in sight, and no way of telling if I was improving. An aggravating and humbling experience.

The upside? I can speak and read Spanish! (At least a little bit, any way!) Which makes all the effort worthwhile, of course.

A throwback photo from my trip to Ireland in 2012 with R, but the sentiment is certainly appropriate:

Belleza natural

A few weeks ago a friend and I hiked a short way through Great Falls Park:

Taking the advice of the park's website, we got to there around 9:00 a.m. - ahead of the crowds. In all, we hiked about five miles in the fresh air just 20 minutes from the city. It's so easy to isolate yourself in your day-to-day activities (read: Spanish studies), that you forget there's a whole other world out there. This little expedition allowed me to remind myself that the world includes much more than verb conjugations.