Watering Washington Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Union Army during the Civil War, was the brains and driving force behind the creation of the 12-mile long Washington Aqueduct system which supplies water to the city to this day. The 9-foot diameter brick and mortar conduit begins near Great Falls on the Potomac river […]

A basic tenet of guiding is that, with a few exceptions, if the client wishes to venture forth, we do. Many is the day I have looked outside from my glassed-in porch and breathed a sigh of relief that I was not “out there in that.” Friday was not, unfortunately, one of those days. In […]

The Vietnam Veterans Wall, opened in 1982, is a shade under 500 feet long with over 58,000 names of those killed or missing etched into its shiny black panels. While other war memorials also list names, the Wall stands alone for its enveloping design and enormity. The names take center stage, a tidal wave of […]

This past Wednesday was a glorious day here in Washington with the sky cloudless and the temperature a sweet 75 degrees, a superb day to be out and about. Those familiar with DC will know that the city is full of trees and lushly landscaped with special spring and summer plantings and a huge variety […]

I toured with fifth-graders and their parents the other day and we concluded with an evening visit to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. (The Pentagon was struck by a commercial jet on that day and 184 people were killed either in the building or on the aircraft.) With the attack now 16 years ago, it is […]

Yesterday afternoon was the end of a 4-day tour of Washington, DC, with thirty of the most exuberant seventh grade boys ever collected into a single group, I think. I hollered myself hoarse saying, “Please walk on the right”– on the left they went. The attention span of a seventh grader must be measured in […]