Water lily Pond

I visited Longwood Gardens in the fall but never got a chance to post a blog about it.  My favorite part if this visit was the water lily pond.  I think I could have stayed there for an hour or so.  And don't tell anyone, but I couldn't resist touching a few of them!  (I also had an urge to stand on them, but I refrained from trying that.)

There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The display at Longwood has more than 100 types of day and night-blooming tropical waterlilies, hardy waterlilies, lotuses, giant water-platters and other aquatic and bog plants.

Water lilies improve the quality of lakes and ponds in a few ways. They provide shade, shelter and cooler water temperatures for fish and invertebrates living in the water. And they are able to filter and detoxify the water by removing metals. They are also nutrient rich and can attract local wildlife such as deer, beaver, ducks, porcupines and muskrat to the pond. They feed on the seeds, roots, leaves and flowers of the water lily. 

D.C Area Bucket List

Happy New Year!  I've been slacking on my blog posts but will try to do better.  A new year brings New Year's Resolutions...dun dun dun. Some people love 'em, and some refuse to make them.  What are they exactly?

res·o·lu·tion

 

noun

1.

a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usuallyafter voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club,or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.

2.

a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

3.

the act of resolving or determining upon an action or courseof action, method, procedure, etc.

4.

the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

5.

the act or process of resolving or separating into constituentor elementary parts.

Number two seems to fit best.  But I kind of like numbers 3 and 5 because they involve planning and breaking things into parts--which makes success a more likely outcome (or so they say).  Personally, I don't think you should save resolutions for January only.  I tend to make them throughout the year if I feel myself slipping into habits I don't like.  And if I don't stick to them, ah well, life goes on.

I'm not sure how long I'll be living in the DC area, but I want to make the most of it while I'm here.  So instead of a list of resolutions for 2012, this is my bucket list for the area--and the best part is that most of these places are free!  If I can do it all in a year, that will be great.  I've already crossed a few off, and will continue to do so throughout the year.  (I like crossing things off lists so much that I tend to add things just to cross them off).  Food/restaurants not included--those go on their own list.  :-)


National Botanic Gardens
National Arboretum
Arlington National Cemetery
Air and Space Museum
National Zoo
American History Museum
Ford’s Theatre Tour and Performance
National Cathedral
Lincoln Memorial
Natural History Museum
Washington Monument
American Indian Museum
Jefferson Memorial
National Christmas Tree
US Capitol
White House
National Aquarium
American Art Museum
Breakfast at Eastern Market
Library of Congress
National Archives
Newseum
National Museum of African Art
Holocaust Museum
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Ice Skate at the National Gallery of Art
Great Falls Park
The Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage
Meridian Hill Park drum circle
National Gallery of Art
Rock Creek Park
Union Station
Hike or bike a section of the C&O Canal Towpath
National Cherry Blossom Festival
Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Shenandoah

The name Shenandoah is of Native American Algonquin origin and means "spruce stream", "great plains", or "beautiful daughter of the stars".

Shenandoah National Park lies along the Blue Ridge Mountains in north-central Virginia. The park was authorized in 1926 and fully established on December 26, 1935. The park is best known for Skyline Drive, a 105 mile road that runs the entire length of the park along the ridge of the mountains. The drive is particularly popular in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail are also in the park.

It was the first National Park I visited--and it inspired me to make the goal of seeing them all. That was so long ago I took the pictures with a film camera! :-) This fall I went back for the first time in many years, for a backpacking trip with friends. We had a great time--saw a bear in a tree, beautiful mountain views, the start of fall colors, and covered ~15 miles of trail.

We visited Corbin Cabin (photo below) -- a log structure built by George T. Corbin in 1909 in the Nicholson Hollow area.

The views are amazing!

The FUNcercise craze

What is FUNcercise, you ask?  Well, it is exercise that is fun. Simple enough.  I did not come up with the idea (it was from a friend of a friend or something like that) or the name (a friend did)—but it’s been very successful among my friends so I wanted to share. 

I’ve traveled so much in the past few years that all my friends live in various states.  This makes it extremely hard to find an exercise buddy-- so I created a virtual exercise program for me and my friends rather than joining one with strangers.  I created a Google Docs spreadsheet to record daily exercise minutes and I asked a group of friends if they wanted to join, and so far it’s been great!

Multiple people can edit the Google Doc at the same time, and its updated automatically which makes it extremely easy and user friendly. There’s even a little bar graph showing each person’s minutes (see photo below).  Any kind of exercise counts as long as it gets you moving and gets your heart rate going.  The individual goal is to reach 1,000 minutes of exercise per month (easier than it sounds)—but it’s also fun to race each other and see who can get the most minutes.  It’s simple enough for anyone to do—no matter what fitness level or what physical activity works for you.  And you can make up your own rules for your group--maybe instead of minutes you want to record miles or steps per day.


Our group currently consists of 10 women who reside in 9 different states.  And some of us are clearly FUNcercise addicts (which is a good thing!).  Good friendly competition!  Give it a try with your friends if you need some motivation to get some exercise this winter.