Walking On a Stomach Ache

I don't recommend walking when you have a stomach ache. I started feeling ill last night, but I hoped to power through it. I tried to do that today, and it wasn't very much fun. After not having walked very much last weekend, I really felt like I needed to spend some time exercising today. But the heat and my stomach did me in, and I only covered 7 miles. So much for a long walk! But I did remember to bring my camera and took a bunch of pictures around the neighborhood.

The sun was burning brightly, high overhead when I began my walk early this afternoon. This has been such a hot summer . . .I already long for the fall!

Walking westward on Washington Boulevard, I passed by some lilies in one of the yards along the way.

As I walked past the intersection of Washington Boulevard with North Dinwiddie Street, I stopped to take a picture, because the Dinwiddie name has always amused me. I first heard the name at the beginning of my freshman year at William & Mary, where the dorm right next to mine was named Dinwiddie. Both the dorm and the street in my current neighborhood are named after former Virginia governor, Robert Dinwiddie. (My freshman dorm, Nicholson, was named for another former Virginia governor, Francis Nicholson, who was also one of the original trustees of William & Mary.)

Interestingly (to me, anyway!), Dinwiddie's actions as Virginia's Lieutenant Governor are often said to have precipitated French and Indian War. Apparently, he wanted to limit French expansion into the Ohio Country, which was claimed by Virginia. Furthermore, the Ohio Company, of which Dinwiddie was a shareholder, had built some small settlements in the area, making Dinwiddie that much more reluctant to see the French expand their presence in there. In 1753, after Dinwiddie learned that the French had built a fort which he saw as threatening to Virginia's interests in the Ohio Country, he sent none other than a young George Washington to warn the French to withdraw. I know how the rest of the story goes, and you probably do, too. The French refused to withdraw, and the rest, as they say, is history. But I'd had no idea that Dinwiddie had played a role in the events leading up to the war until I decided to take a picture of this street sign today and then decided to figure out who, exactly, Dinwiddie was.

A few blocks farther west, I walked by Lacey Woods Park, one of the many green spaces that dot Arlington County. The park includes picnic tables and an ornamental garden, as well as a basketball court which is almost always occupied by players, given that it has night-time lighting.

Just to the west of the park, I stopped to take a few pictures of some of the flowers I saw along the street.

Right up the road, I walked by Swanson Middle School, one of five middle schools in Arlington. Swanson is the oldest junior high/middle school in northern Virginia, having opened in 1940 to relieve crowding at nearby Washington-Lee.

Southwest of Swanson Middle School is the Madison Manor neighborhood, and as I walked along its main street, I stopped to take pictures of the flowers along my route.

Reaching the top of a steep hill and turning east on Wilson Boulevard, I soon arrived at my favorite rose garden and enjoyed a short stop there to admire the pretty flowers. And then I went home and took a nap!