Washington D.C. x 5

I call Masha my little sister-cousin because even though she is the daughter of our close family friends, I feel so much unconditional love and care for this girl that I think of her as some sort of sister-cousin hybrid. Also, it is funny to say "sister-cousin". She's been visiting New York on and off for a month at a time since 2006. We've got a 10 year age difference but it feels much smaller because we talk (or Whatsapp message each other) about life and all of it's twists and turns. Anyway, she'd been to New York 4 times but never outside of it, so this August we went to Philadelphia (and visited Philadelphia's Magic Gardens) for a day and Washington, DC for a weekend. It was the 4th time I went to D.C. in the last 4 years (and 5th time in total) and I got to see a different side because Masha and I stayed with some friends of mine who lived there! I thank them all (J.C., Sean, Crystal) for their kindness and hospitality. Here are some photos:

Nice building situation.

National Gallery of Art

Masha and J.C. looking at busts at National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art

Ladies at National Gallery of Art

Predictably, I love impressionism.

The National Museum of American History is a strange, random collection
of bits of American history.

Essentials at the National Museum of American History

Essentials at the National Museum of American History

Masha met the Obamas.

Isn't she just so cool!?

Masha and Dasha and Abe

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

Facts.

After about 8 hours of walking, I was tired and needed a lap to curl into.

Jefferson monument

Token poses.

Casablanca

Group hang by night.

Group hang by day!

Crystal and Sean <3

Collection of pretty houses.

I really enjoyed walking about these neighborhoods.

We made it to the Capitol Building.

Look at the pretty houses.

Pretty colors for a house.

Crystal right after she had some sort of a heatstroke. Because D.C. in August is HOT.

Bucket o' tater tot farewell.

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

The Russian-Ukrainian Team

My favorite pseudo-sister-cousin Masha came to visit New York this summer for the umpteenth time. This time around we ventured out to the beach in New Jersey, a day trip to Philadelphia, and a weekend in Washington, D.C. The trip to Philadelphia was a very Russian one as it was my Russian brother, his Ukrainian girlfriend, her Germany livin' Ukrainian cousin, Masha for Russia, and me Dasha from Russia. My wonderful brother drove us down there and we spent about 12 hours walking around the downtown area, visiting the Franklin Institute, walking around the Rodin Sculpture Garden, seeing the old cartways, and eating dinner with a Brooklyn friend. One of the places we all loved the most was Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens (PMG) is the creation of mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. Zagar has been mosaicking murals in Philadelphia since the 1960s, and in 1994 he began the Magic Gardens in a vacant lot near his studio. This was back before companies bought up property, lots, empty space to build condos and other such monstrosities. Zagar worked on this labyrinth of a garden, complete with staircases and much to see and explore, for 14 years. In 2002, the owner of the lot wanted to sell it due to rising property values. An amazing, unique thing happened instead - the artist community and those who love Zagar's work united and supported Zagar as his mosaicked lot became a non-for-profit and officially turned into Philadelphia's Magic Gardens. When you're in Philly next time, I highly recommend you visit this place. For a small fee you can spend a few minutes or a few hours walking around and noticing the different pictures, words, ideas mosaicked into the walls.

Sibling art

My brother's awesome girlfriend, Stefaniya.

Joyful at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens.

Mashusya

Not so little brother.

Ladies. Very tough ladies.

Team

Bonticou Crag Hike and Rock Scramble

It begins. 

In the last post I described the super fun Hudson Valley weekend road trip I took with my dad. The only part I saved for a separate post was the short but great Bonticou Crag rock scramble and hike we did near New Paltz, NY.

Hike Length: 3 miles
Hike Time: About 2 hours, but we sat at the top for an hour eating and enjoying the views.
Peak Elevation: 1,194 feet (364 meters)

We followed the driving directions provided on my favorite New York-New Jersey Trail Conference website to get to Monhonk Preserve and then the entrance to the trail. We paid the fee at the entrance and dropped it into the box as there was no ranger there to collect our dues. The hike starts in the woods and goes through some open fields. Due to the rain that happened before and after our hike, the visibility was not excellent but we could still slightly make out the Catskill Mountains in the distance.


The rock scramble itself allowed us to work all of our muscles and stretch our gams. The path is clearly marked with white arrows, making it simple and convenient. The NY-NJ Trail Conference website marks this hike as strenuous, but I don't know if I would agree. While it is difficult to scramble up and requires you to pull yourself up in one specific spot, it's a short scramble which to me makes it less strenuous. The rock scramble at Breakneck Ridge is given a 9 out of 10 and also marked strenuous, but I don't agree with that either, even though the scramble there is much longer, it is not as much work. I guess I judge these scrambled based on some sort of length of time and level of difficulty ratio that I cannot explain to y'all.

I would love to do rock scrambles on a weekly basis, so if anyone has any other recommendations, please share them!

Token hiking shot.

The rock scramble begins!

Enjoying the silence.

Chompin' on fresh, raw corn from the field we slept in the night before.

I wonder what we were pretending to look at.

How does one even find a path here without arrows?!

Side note: I did this hike with my good friend Igor back in the fall of 2007 and have wanted to do it again ever since. This is the 2007 - 2015 comparison of me always sitting on the edge of things. Note the Catskills were visible on that clear day in 2007.: