Gravelly Point Fall Family Portraits

The expansive greenery and waterfront at Gravelly Point in Arlington, Virginia, provides a picturesque backdrop for portrait photography with its stunning views of the iconic Washington, D.C., skyline.  The proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport adds a unique and dynamic element to the shots, capturing the energy and movement of planes taking off and landing against the cityscape.

Take a moment to enjoy some recent family portraits I captured this past fall for this family’s Christmas cards, and a small set of senior portraits for their graduating avgeek soon heading off to college.

Ben's Chili Bowl's 65th Anniversary at Reagan National

August 22, 2023 marked a milestone for one of DC’s most loved institutions: Ben’s Chili Bowl.  Three days later, the Ali family joined everyone at Ronald Reagan National Airport to celebrate Ben's Chili Bowl's 65th anniversary.  After words by the airport and Ali family, the party started with the soulful beat of "The Real DC: Go-Go & Ben's" by DJ Mello T, and the rhythmic vibes of Sirius Company.  While passengers and airport employees alike jammed out to the concert with some half-smokes, the Ali family met fans for pictures in front of their airport location.

Ben’s Chili Bowl also used the occasion to announce their partnership with Giant Foods, where patrons can now buy the famous half-smokes and chili to enjoy at home, and their newest upcoming airport location at Washington Dulles International Airport.  The legacy of Ben's Chili Bowl at Ronald Reagan National Airport is not merely about gastronomic delights; it's a living testament to the blend of community, culture, and the indomitable spirit that continues to define the heart of our nation's capital.

SARS-CoV-2 - Then & Now (2021)

At the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (2020), I documented impacts at several locations.  This past Spring (2021), I returned to those same spots to capture how things have changed in a year’s time.

An Important Note About Timing

Although I’m posting this Then & Now in late Summer, all of the “Now” photos in this post were captured in April and May of 2021, to compare to those images from “Then” in the same months of 2020.  I’ve been behind in posting to my Blog and social media accounts, so although I captured and edited these photos earlier in the year with the intention of posting immediately, work and life got in the way and I’m catching up and sharing this comparison with you now.

Please keep this in mind, as some things have changed, locations have updated even further, and more retailers have reopened in the months between these pictures being captured in Spring, 2021, and being posted in late Summer, 2021. Because of this gap and the rapidly changing landscape in the midst of COVID-19, pictures in this post from 2021 may already be out of date and not accurately represent current operating status - please refer to the appropriate respective website or physical location for the most up-to-date information.

In my original 2020 posts, I documented the shelves at numerous local retailers, but I’m not including a Then & Now comparison for these in this post because this is a well-documented difference everyone witnessed to some extent or another.

Fairfax County Neighborhoods

In 2020, I captured several local playgrounds which had been closed following national, state, and county level guidance and executive orders closing parks.  Although orders to close were mandated by Governors, state health departments, and local governance and property owners alike, many people flagrantly disobeyed, tearing down barriers and signage to access parkspaces and playgrounds.

A closed Fairfax County playground in Spring, 2020.

Today, these parks and playgrounds have been reopened, the barricades removed, and temporary signs replaced with permanent signage displaying rules for use including social distancing, and waivers of liability.

A reopened Fairfax County playground in Spring, 2021.

Airports

Washington Dulles International Airport

Airports across the World were hit hard as travel became unsafe and oftentimes impossible with sweeping flight cancellations and suspension of air service for many carriers.

Washington Dulles International Airport was hit especially hard as almost all international travel was halted for the majority of 2020.  At the Main Terminal, the normally bustling Departure Level had no cars present whatsoever.  Inside, all ticket counter stanchions had been stowed to open up a the freshly cleaned terrazzo floor.  All but one security checkpoint was closed due to so few travelers passing through and needing to be screened.  An eerie silence filled the spacious building as background music had been turned off to save on licensing fees, and the only people present were a handful of employees.  Only the drone of HVAC filled the space.

With very few flights scheduled, FIDS screens were replaced with guidance on proper handwashing techniques.  Social distancing signage was hastily printed and posted on Travelers Aid desks, but the now-ubiquitous 6ft spaced floor stickers were only present at the lower level Starbucks.  No guidance on masking was posted anywhere at this very early point in the pandemic, although I was already wearing an N95 at this time.

Downstairs, the Arrivals level was somehow even more vacant.  Signage pointed United employees to a dedicated temperature screening area, mandatory for each employee to visit prior to starting their workday; remember, this was even before COVID testing had been developed, let alone rolled out en masse.  At the time of photography, this screening station was unstaffed, as vacant as the rest of the lower level.

Washington Dulles International Airport in Spring, 2020. Security checkpoints close and passengers are scarce as airlines suspend operations at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Today the departure level is once again bustling, with traffic wrapping all around the “racetrack” in the afternoons (although this isn’t shown at the time I photographed this follow-up set), and passengers crowding the interior during morning and afternoon banks such that social distancing is frequently an impossible task.  International air travel has resumed along many air routes Dulles serves, and in some cases new domestic and international routes have been added in as demand has changed - the entire aviation landscape has shifted in a year’s time.

FIDS are still not completely filled like they were pre-pandemic, but are well above the 50% mark once again, with the dead space now showing directions to retailers that are currently operating.  On all entranceways, permanent signage has been added displaying that all persons entering are required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status.

The lower level was even busier, with visitors once again awaiting loved ones aboard resumed international flights, and passengers gathering their luggage from baggage claims.  Mirroring the social distancing stickers placed on the Departure level floors at ticket counters, each baggage claim how has decals asking travelers not to crowd around the belts as luggage arrives.

Washington Dulles International Airport in Spring, 2021. Security checkpoints reopen and passengers return as most airlines resume operations in 2021.

Ronald Reagan National Airport

When SARS-CoV-2 surged in Spring of 2020, DCA was similarly impacted.  Upon arriving, the first indication that this wouldn’t be a normal airport experience was the empty parking garage.  Inside, National Hall wasn’t strictly vacant like at IAD, however the only people present were employees.  Airlines that had suspended operations had dire messages reading “Closed due to COVID-19” displayed on their check-in counters.

All information desks were closed, with signage simply stating Shopping & Dining retail hours had been adjusted, but with no further details.  On a nearby column, a “COVID-19 Hand Sanitizer” dispenser was placed, and nearby ad space instead displayed messages encouraging social distancing as a lone unmasked passenger walked by.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2020. Passengers are scarce as airlines suspend operations at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Since DCA is a smaller and much more densely laid out airport, it was even more visually apparent seeing all concessions closed together, many still decorated for the Cherry Blossom Festival which had come and gone several months prior.  Many showed evidence of their hurried closure, with signs hastily printed and posted crooked on storefronts.  Some had more permanent signage on display.  Most had no signage at all, including some which had just newly opened several months before the pandemic.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2020. Restaurants and retailers close as a safety precaution and as required by law at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Most striking was the closure of security checkpoints and the entire concourse behind them.  As many airlines cancelled flights, operations were consolidated to other terminals, cutting back on manpower to screen passengers and maintain sections of the airport.  Stanchions were stowed away opening up the terrazzo floor’s design in the sunlight as CDC guidance displayed overhead promoting proper hand-washing.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2020. Security checkpoints close as airlines suspend operations at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

Today, DCA’s parking garages are almost as difficult to find a spot in as before the pandemic, and National Hall is once again filled with people; masked passengers trickle in to departures, and flock through terminals as flights arrive.  Some airlines are still not operating, though most have resumed operations or are near original operating capacity; some have even added new routes.  Check-in desk signage has been updated to the much more succinct and less ominous “Closed.”

Travelers Aid desks have reopened, with the early-pandemic signage replaced by airport-wide mask usage advisories.  Some things have remained the same; hand sanitizer stations are still present and still branded with COVID-19 labels, and some of the original social distancing signage remains - that was good advice from the beginning.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2021. Passengers return as most airlines resume operations in 2021.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, some of the retail stores and restaurants have not reopened.  Some that have remained closed still bear the same printed paper signage, though someone has come along to straighten or update the “temporary” notices.  Others, sadly, are completely gone a year later; vacant and awaiting a new tenant.  Since I’ve worked closely with the concessions programs at IAD and DCA for almost the last decade, photographing every single store and restaurant at both airports, the sweeping closures have been truly saddening to see, but it’s hope inspiring to see the majority of concessionaires one again open and serving passengers after witnessing last year’s necessary pause in operations.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2021. Most restaurants and retailers reopen, though some remain closed for a variety of reasons in 2021.

Most concessions, however, have reopened, and construction has completed on an entirely new terminal with new concessions gradually opening inside it the rest of this year.  At Terminal C, which was closed in 2020, the TSA screening checkpoint has reopened in 2021, with the same CDC hand-washing signage still cycling overhead as passengers stroll toward their flights.  The picture below was taken just one day before the new Terminal C expansion was opened for public flight operations, so the dustwall shown below is now open to public at time of writing.

Inside the new 14 gate Terminal C expansion, departure boards are filling up quickly as the new gates are already being utilized by American flights.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Spring, 2021. Security checkpoints reopen and passengers return as airlines resume operations in 2020.

XpresSpa & XpresCheck

The XpresSpa & XpresCheck retail space merit a closer look.  This is a location I didn’t specifically capture last year because when I captured my Before pictures in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, XpresSpa hadn’t transformed into the clinical testing chain it would become later in 2020.

XpresSpa opened at DCA in 2015, offering massage, mani / pedi, and other relaxing services to pamper yourself before or after a stressful flight.  The interior featured massage chairs, manicure stations, and two private massage suites, as well as cosmetics and personal care items for sale.

These images were photographed in 2015 upon XpresSpa’s opening for marketing and press release purposes.

Today, the entire XpresSpa has pivoted their business to COVID-19 testing, and rebranded as XpresCheck.  In 2020, XpresSpa had locations at 80 airports across the nation; flash forward a year, and only two XpresSpas are currently open - all others have closed or converted to one of the 13 XpresCheck COVID-19 testing clinics located at 11 US airports.  XpresCheck at Reagan National is equipped to handle 300 tests per day, and 500 per day at Dulles.  At $250 for a Rapid PCR Test, the move that took a mere 75 days to execute from inception to deployment not only saved the brand in a year where the personal care industry was upended by the need to social distance, but in fact is more profitable, even with less than 1/5th the locations.

These images were photographed in March, 2021 upon XpresCheck’s opening for marketing and press release purposes.

Inside, XpresCheck has 4 private screening rooms, and offers Rapid Molecular NAAT Tests, Standard Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Tests, and Rapid PCR Testing.

Rapid tests are processed on-site, with results delivered within an hour; crucial for travelers en route to national hotspots and foreign countries with entry requirements including negative COVID-19 tests.

You can read more about XpresCheck’s services and schedule an appointment on their website.

These images were photographed in March, 2021 upon XpresCheck’s opening for marketing and press release purposes.

Like at DCA, the XpresCheck testing clinic at Washington Dulles International Airport is also pre-security, so individuals do not need a ticket to be screened for COVID-19.

XpresCheck at Washington Dulles International Airport, Spring, 2021.

Final Thoughts

Everyone can agree that 2020 was not a normal year; the pandemic changed everything in Spring, 2020, but a year later, although the World is different, it has adapted and risen to the challenge. 2021 has shown that although change can be big and fast, and things may be different, we can achieve and overcome almost anything with a bit of time and ingenuity, even if things aren’t quite what we imagined a year prior. Just like the shelves at our local supermarkets that were once empty, in 2021 the World has adapted and created solutions to 2020 problems.

Rhode Island: Summer 2017

Foreward in 2021

This is a blog post and collection of photos from my first-ever visit to Rhode Island that I’ve had in my personal backlog to edit and write about for several years; the photos have been done and waiting to be posted for almost three years, and I even completed the entire photo layout design and part of the copy on a flight two years ago… since then, it’s all just been sitting, sadly collecting dust.

The reason this happened is for several reasons; I put all personal work on the backburner until paid work is done, and by time these photos were done being edited, I had already gone back to Rhode Island to visit Alyssa once again, with an even larger batch of photos to edit, post, and blog about. The intention was to get those photos done as well, and post both blogs and photosets back-to-back.

Well, that’s essentially what’s happening now - I just recently, two solid years later, finished editing the last of my Rhode Island photos from 2018 (it was a much larger, more daunting set - I might be breaking it into multiple blog posts - you’ll why see, in time), and now I’m circling back to compose posts, and do what I should have done years ago, but sticking with the original plan of posting both sets at the same time.

Most of this post was composed in 2020; you’ll see the time of writing denoted in the post itself to account for any changes in context or subject matter resulting from the time passed.

So, it’s 2021, but these photos are all from 2017, long before COVID-19 was ever a worry.  And this 2017 trip had long-term impacts on me that still affect me to this day, so perhaps it’s good I’m writing about it so much later (read about it below).

So, after many years of anticipation, here is my 2017 trip to Rhode Island, which includes airports, islands, scooters, and boats.

DCA - PVD

NOTE: Everything from this point until denoted below was written in 2018.

For the last several years, Alyssa has come down from Rhode Island to visit with me, typically during my birthday week, but the opportunity to visit her hadn’t conveniently presented itself until this year - naturally I chose her birthday week, since it was becoming an unofficial tradition.

The last time I flew out of DCA the A Concourse was strictly JetBlue, which should tell you how many years it had been since I flew out of DCA.  Now it is exclusively Southwest; this would by my first trip on WN.  I’d always heard Southwest is either love / hate, so I wanted to try it for myself.  Anytime I fly I like to arrive early enough to grab a meal, a coffee, and catch up on emails in a relaxed timeframe.  It just happened that my travel date unfortunately had some of the worst weather the East coast had seen that Summer.  A severe thunderstorm spanning the entire length of the coast was rolling through the region, causing ground-stops at multiple airports including DCA.  My flight out was delayed by over 4 hours.  Not a big deal given how good Page’s (DCA Concourse A) food is.

Once the storm had finally passed through, flights boarded and began departing normally again.

Upon entering PVD’s airspace, I could see during our approach they were doing some night work on one of their runways.  I ended up getting a pretty good nighttime aerial view of T. F. Green International Airport because this also turned out to be my first go-around flight.  Our aircraft had to go-around when a departing flight on our arrival runway failed to depart when cleared.  This added about 5min to our flight time to climb back to altitude while turning sharply, and rejoin the approach pattern.

It made for a long and interesting day of travel.

Newport Winery

NOTE: Everything from this point forward was written in 2020, despite being photographed in 2017.

Alyssa had taken the entire week off for birthday festivities, and although we didn’t have a plan for every single day I’d be in town, we did have some plans in mind.

First up was wine tasting in Newport; anytime Alyssa comes to DC I take her to a new winery, since we have a lot of them.  Now it was her turn, and she chose Rhode Island’s largest vineyard which is also widely regarded as its most elegant.  I found it very similar to Virginia’s Stone Tower Winery, which is about as near to a Napa Valley vineyard you can get without leaving the DC region.

We had booked a reservation for a winery tour, to learn about the vineyard’s history, see its winemaking operations, and taste a selection of the 32 wines Newport Winery makes.

You’ll also notice in all photos of me that I’m wearing a knee brace - this trip was three months after my patellar dislocation, and two months before undergoing MPFL Reconstruction surgery, so the knee brace was there to help prevent another excruciating dislocation, and provide at least some stability until I got my knee fixed.  I’m happy to report, today, that my surgery was totally successful, and after a 6 month recovery, I’ve now been running half-marathon distances problem-free and in respectable times for two years, an endurance milestone I had never reached before the initial injury.

A fog rolled in while we were outside enjoying glasses of wine we’d ordered after the tour and two rounds of tastings; beside the people I hold dear in Rhode Island, the coastal fog is possibly my favorite thing about the Ocean State.

Block Island

The next day, Alyssa’s family had planned out an overnight trip to Block Island to celebrate her birthday on the beach.  I didn’t know what Block Island was except for “it’s like Martha’s Vineyard, but smaller;” having never been to Martha’s Vineyard, that description didn’t help me one bit.

Just after sunrise, we headed to Galilee, Narragansett to catch the high-speed ferry to Block Island; about a 30min ride on a hot rod boat with 4 engines and 4,400 horsepower.  Unbeknownst and unfortunately for everyone, the ocean offshore had become very choppy, with waves in excess of 10 feet, which for a cruise ship is jostling but fine, but for a 99ft catamaran, it’s a bucking bronco.  I’ve only felt motionsickness twice in my life, and this was one of those times; somehow, unlike most passengers aboard, I somehow managed to not vomit.  The ride was so rough you had to hold onto your seat to keep from being lifted from it, and anything not sitting on the floor at the start of the journey had been thrown to it by time we reached the island.  Even the crew was caught by surprise how much it picked up since their last run an hour earlier.  The few pictures I have while on the water are from by the shore when it was stable enough to stand - my stomach was still spinning an hour after disembarking.

We’d originally planned on eating upon arrival, but that was out of the question for obvious reasons.  Instead we decompressed on the beach for a little, and then head into town to pick up scooters Alyssa had reserved once the ground didn’t feel like it was spinning anymore.

So here’s the part that still affects me to this day.  Each of us driving a scooter had to demonstrate competency driving the scooter before being allowed to take off on one.  Alyssa… was given a hesitant pass after her wobbly solo demonstration; we were sharing a scooter, and the staffer said, “ehhh, why don’t you let him drive you around as a passenger on it for a while first.”  So off we went, Alyssa riding along behind me as our pack of 3 scooters explored the island’s twisting, foggy roads.  After a while of riding, stopping here and there to check out views of the cliffs and shoreline, Alyssa decided it was her turn; “it’s my birthday, it’s my turn!”  So after reminding her how to start the thing (which should have been red flag number two), I hopped on back behind her, grabbing onto the bar very firmly, as I was scared of somehow reinjuring my knee.  Alyssa gave the scooter some gas to creep up the shoulder to the road, but gave it a too much, lurching the scooter forward.  She panicked and mixed up the throttle and the brake, pinning the gas; I yelled “ALYSSA,” but it was too late - I got thrown off the back, landing on my tailbone and crashing my head on the ground, and she launched herself and the scooter into a ditch dense with bushes.

The helmet did its job and I didn’t feel a thing up top - I laid on my back for a few minutes gathering my self from the shock and the wind that was knocked out of me, though my tailbone was sore for weeks afterward.  What wasn’t evident until much later was what happened to my neck.  Several weeks after this incident, once back home, I started experiencing an ongoing pinched nerve down my left arm; it kept happening - it would slightly improve, then overnight blow up again.  This started in the week before my knee surgery, so I wasn’t allowed to take anything for it, and I wasn’t about to delay the surgery any longer.  I successfully had my knee surgery and made a full recovery, but this problem kept getting worse and worse while rehabbing post-op.

Without going into an even lengthier amount of detail, this incident created a recurring slipped disc and subsequent trigger points for the last 3 years since it has happened, and landed me in physical therapy twice now.  The slipped disc seems to be healed, and it’s been a slow battle against chronic trigger points for about a year now.  I have a really good PT, and the goal is to get my neck and shoulder totally under control so it doesn’t keep spiraling into severely seized muscle spasm; we’re pretty close as of this writing.

I don’t blame Alyssa one bit; it was an accident, and I didn’t even tell her the cause of my shoulder pains until she was in town two months ago as of this writing - she’s one of my best friends, and I knew she’d have felt too guilty until now.

So, I got knocked off a scooter, Alyssa launched herself into some bushes, and her birthday wasn’t really off to a good start.  Oh, and now the scooter wouldn’t start once her family dug it out of the bushes - we think it was just oil pressure or something from being flipped over, because after letting it sit upright for about 10min it finally started back up.  Once it was clear I was okay, everyone, especially Alyssa, agreed she wasn’t driving it at all, and I’d drive it the rest of the day.  The small crowd of concerned onlookers that had gathered dispersed when Alyssa and I hopped on and slowly got back on the road - I drove us probably not even a mile, just regathering my bearings, and then we stopped to check out a lighthouse.  But first, we got a picture of Alyssa with the scooter since it’s what she’d been looking forward to all week - if you look closely, there is actually blood on the side of it from where she scraped her ankle.

I told Alyssa she wasn’t supposed to take “you’re a pain in the ass” so literally as we gingerly walked to the foggy lighthouse; my tailbone throbbing, her ankles skinned.

Interestingly, there was a September 11th memorial bench nearby the lighthouse; one of two 9/11 memorials on the island.  There is no information about the memorial on the island beyond the memorial’s own engraving, but this bench is dedicated to Catherine Carmen Gorayeb who moved from Boston to New York and perished in the World Trade Center collapse where she worked.

At this point, our group of six broke off our own directions in pairs.  Alyssa and I’s next stop was nearby Mohegan Bluffs to stretch our legs a bit, although we didn’t hike all the way down to the beach; the rough surf we’d endured to arrive on the island was starting to roll in, and we had reserved a beachfront spot on a calmer, more protected section of shore on the other side of the island - later.

One more stop with the scooter; I found out Block Island has a small airport, Block Island State Airport (BID), and I wanted to check it out.  It’s a GA airport, but does have some commercial aviation.  It had been, quite clearly, a VERY long morning, and our stomachs were finally stable and starving, so it was time to return the scooter and grab some lunch.  I never turn down a lobstah roll, so naturally:

While we were eating, some bikers parked their choppers out front.

It had been a long morning, and we still hadn’t done anything on the beach yet.  It was time for a drink… or a few.  This was my first time drinking from a fruit, and just relaxing with a drink(s) on the beach!  Not many pictures of the beach since we kept the pineapple Long Islands flowing and went swimming a few times with the cameras safe from the sand.

It was getting late, and we weren’t staying on the island, so it was time to catch the ferry back - no high-speed ferry amplifying the surf this time; hell no.  Even-though the morning’s high-speed experience was an outlier according to everyone (including the crew, and Alyssa and her family who all go to Block Island several times a year), we weren’t in any mood for that chance again, so we took the much larger, regular speed ferry back to Narragansett.  Not a good sign: we spotted vomit on the deck when we boarded, but the 1 hour ride back was just fine.

There’s little reason I would have known about the project on my own, but the return trip gave a fantastic view of the Block Island Wind Farm; a five turbine offshore wind-farm that serves as a demonstration of oceanic wind power generation, and became the first commercial off-shore wind farm in the United States when it became operational in 2016.

Neither Alyssa nor I made the hotel reservation, but we stayed at the diviest hotel I’ve ever been to in my life.  I only have a photo of the parking lot, which had a small (read: Hitchcock-esque) seagull problem mirroring the rest of the motel.

The room keys were punch-hole keycards which I don’t remember ever seeing except maybe once as a young child in the early 90s.  The faded room number was Sharpied onto the card, indicating the motel reused the easily duplicated keycards.

This motel permanently shut down a few months after our stay.  Like most beach hotels, we used it as a place to wash the sand off and crash after spending all day out, but still, wow.

Everyone got back together at night to get some Rhode Island specialties for Alyssa’s birthday dinner: Rhode Island clam chowdah, clam cakes, and fried whole-belly clams.  New England hands-down has the best seafood; Maine is for lobster - go to Rhode Island for clam (I also got raw oysters; yay!).

Afterwards, some of us went barhopping until the wee-hours of the morning and every bar in Galilee closed down.

Narraganset

The next morning Alyssa and I had a lazy, no-plan day exploring Narraganset, stopping by Point Judith Lighthouse and the rocky shoreline.

Of course, lunchtime came around, and I never turn down a lobstah roll; I got another helping of Rhode Island clam chowder too.  Monahan's Clam Shack happens to be rated the second-best lobster roll in the Ocean State by Buzzfeed, and makes their Top 25 list in the country.

Stopping by Sunset Farms’ farmer’s market, we said hi to their goats and gave some love to the owners’ elderly Irish Wolfhound sheepdog (who has sadly since passed away).

While there, I happened to catch a rare car spot.  At under 100 examples ever produced, I caught the WaterCar Panther as it pulled in to load up - I *think* it was the farm’s owner’s(?).  This amphibious Jeep conversion is WaterCar’s more practical successor to its Corvette-powered Python, capable of launching itself and reaching speeds of 85mph on land and 45mph on water.

PVD - DCA

The next morning, this trip was at an end on a cool, drizzly morning that lended for some aerial views of the bays and rivers that only appeared as inky-black splotches beneath the low cloud cover on my nighttime flight into PVD.

Stay tuned several more posts including photos from my 2018 trip to Rhode Island.  My stay in 2018 was longer and more involved, and really makes most logical sense broken into separate posts given some of the places I went and things I did.

2018 National Night Out with the MWAA Police Department

Until only a few years ago I had never even heard of National Night Out.  I still don't know when it is until it is happening as it's not something that's usually on my radar.  That was the case again this year, when I went to DCA to photograph a newly opened store; though I knew the MWAA PD and FD would be participating in National Night Out whenever it was, I didn't realize it was that day until I arrived in the afternoon and they were just getting started... directly in front of the store I was on site to photograph.

After asking a few officers to kindly get the hell outta my shot, I completed the photoshoot I was there for, and then proceeded to stick around and check out the booths MWAA PD had set up.

Why yes that is a $10,000 thermal scope.