I left my hotel at 6:30 a.m, ran down the street leading to Hoan Kiem and saw hundreds of people walking, stretching and sometimes running in a counter-clockwise direction around the lake. It’s that counter-clockwise direction that surprised me the most at first. Until I ran out there, I hadn’t realized I expected to run clockwise. Those Communists, they have to do everything differently. Hehehe. Better to go with the flow than get run over.

Any exercise you can imagine people might do around a lake, people were doing it. Most people walked while chatting with friends or family. About a half dozen men ran (no female runners except me). Most people wore loose clothing but there were a few groups of young girls wearing tight tank tops and shorts. There were old people in pajamas pushing their wheelchairs. Several groups of about 25 women performed synchronized calisthenics to music, including the Muzak version of Que Sera. Barechested old men swung their arms to and fro while walking at a brisk pace. Lots of people stood around moving their hips in circles, like they were hula hooping without the hoop. There were about 10 women dancing while balancing plastic balls on small tennis rackets. Several couples waltzed to classical music blaring from a portable speaker. I saw one older man stretched out on a yoga mat and one woman walking backwards. There was even one enterprising lady sitting with a small scale, so you could check your progress after your morning constitution.

By 7 a.m. the fun was pretty much over. The exercising ranks had thinned to almost nothing and the motorcycle traffic had picked up considerably. I wish I were around for another morning of running and people watching around Hoan Kiem!

One night in mid-November I decided to walk from Union Station to Dupont Circle via Massachusetts Avenue. It’s about two-and-a-half miles, and I usually walk portions of this route during my daily daytime routine. As I walked I thought about how the two-and-a-half miles as a whole is a walk I never would have done when I lived in DC 13 years ago. Back then, Mass Ave. between Union Station and 11th Street was decrepit with little reason to stroll at night, unless you wanted to be mugged. Since then, all the downtown neighborhoods adjacent to Mass Ave. have blossomed (or fallen to gentrification, depending on your view.)

Walking along Mass Ave. last month, I was surprised by how many things I saw that I never notice during the day: a sticker on the ground, a shadow on the wall. I became especially enamored of the trees, which glowed in the street lights like sea-dwelling plants you’d never want to tangle with. (I’ve posted only one tree picture here so you don’t get bored by all the other ones.) I might make a habit of walking down all of DC’s main arteries at night and photographing what I see.

3rd Street

8th Street

5th Street

4th Street

14th Street

4th Street

Snowmageddon journey in DC from Laura Elizabeth Pohl on Vimeo.