Brightwood / Rock Creek Park (May 30, 2020)
On a beautiful late Saturday afternoon, we walked up Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park and back down 16th Street, dropping into a couple of side streets along the way.
The park was definitely more lively than it has been of late but still very tranquil. It appears that people are tiring of staying at home. There was no evidence that just a few miles down 16th Street, chaos was at the same time erupting outside the White House. In the Park, it was all peace and serenity. There were many groups having picnics and one person who even brought their own hammock.
We came across this massive petrified crocodile.
Rock Creek was picturesque, as always.
We liked these two Spanish style homes in the Brightwood neighborhood.
Some of the houses in Brightwood back onto Rock Creek Park Golf Course, an eighteen hole public course owned by the National Park Service.
The first nine holes of the course were opened in 1909 and it was expanded in 1926 to become a full eighteen hole course. The course has survived a number of plans to close it, the most recent being in the 1990s. However, a new master plan for Rock Creek Park that was adopted at that time included the course. So it appears that the course will be with us for the foreseeable future.
As we have previously mentioned, 16th Street is the home of various religious denominations. Here are two more that we passed: the Washington DC Center for the Baha’i Faith; and the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist.
Finally, we stopped by the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center, where the major tennis tournaments are played in Washington DC. The stadium, which holds about 7,500 people, is currently home to the Citi Open. Fitzgerald was a Washington-based philanthropist who served at one stage as United States Ambassador to Ireland. The stadium was locked up but one enterprising tennis player was making good use of its front wall for some practice.
Walking The District 