They said it was going to rain. My custom is to ride my bike if it is not actually raining when I set off, no matter the weather prediction. It turned out to be a beautiful day.
I was going to Washington to listen to a “First Monday” lecture about public diplomacy outreach to North Korea, sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Council. I am not really interested in North Korea. I took some notes on the presentations, but I like to attend these meetings more to see old colleagues and ride my bike.
Anyway, it was a great day, one with the kind of soft air, that kind of balmy but pleasant weather you experience only in spring and fall, warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough that the warm sun feels good on your back.
My first two pictures are slightly different aspects of the Capitol. Next is Grant’s monument. I felt a little trepidation posting this photo, lest some protestors see the beard and the Civil War uniform and seek to pull the statue down. Last is a big Japanese zelkova. I used to run around the Mall and this was part of my running trail, so it feels familiar. Grant and the Capitol have not changed much, although they cleaned up the Grant monument recently. The zelkova has grown a lot in the last ten or fifteen years. It is bigger, but I liked it better before. At one point in its life, it had a wonderful grace, a kind of hourglass trunk. It is still nice, but now it is just generally thicker.