The Day After Tomorrow

Some months ago, I had a reader request on what to do with family on the day after Thanksgiving, or National Throw Your Relatives Out of the House Day, as my associate Lauren Kahn refers to it. I posted a few ideas at the time, and I've since reached out to DC Like a Local's Facebook Fans for some more

But first off, why is this even an issue? I thought you said that Fall was a great time to come? Well, it is, but the Smithsonians, National Zoo, and the other popular sites will be mobbed the day after Thanksgiving. Year after year I fall for it, to the point where I almost want to go visit an actual mall to avoid the crowds. So let's look at a few options. Many of these require a car, but overall traffic should be fairly light as no one will be working. Or almost no one.

• Great Falls - A wonderful place to explore about a half hour drive up the Potomac from Washington, DC. While no Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, its a great place to bring a picnic and spend some time.
• Theodore Roosevelt Island - In the Potomac between Georgetown and Virginia, Teddy Roosevelt' official memorial in Washington. Fittingly for the man who started the National Park Service, it's an 88 acre island with a couple of miles of walking trails and a statue of TR. This is accessible on foot from the Rosslyn Metro station on the Blue and Orange Lines.
• National Arboreteum - The U.S. National Arboretum is perhaps my favorite off the beaten path place to explore. In Northeast DC, it is accessible by mass transit, but you'll have to take a bus (it's doable, trust me). I know of no greater place to take kids to run off steam.
• Mt. Vernon - If you're looking to do more than just walk around the woods, visit George Washington's home just south of DC. More than just a plantation house, it hosts a top notch museum and educational center as well as a demonstration farm with heirloom animals and period interpreters. Mass tranist options are available, if difficult to use.

There's dozens of more places to visit on Black Friday, feel free to post more in the comments. But whatever you do, stay away from Natural History and Air and Space unless you've lost a bet.

Wildlife of DC: Bald Eagles

photo by Eric Kilby

Not so long ago, the only chance of seeing America's National Bird live in DC was a visit to the National Zoo. While still your best shot of seeing a live bird, the Bald Eagle is becoming widespread in wild around the Washington area, and if you keep your eyes open, you might see one.

What once was a sight to tell you kids about, has become almost commonplace. Just this weekend I saw several of them along the Potomac about an hour south of DC. And it's not unusual to sight one inside the city limits, either. Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac is a popular place for sightings, and others have been seen throughout the city. My wife, who has no reason to lie, has even claimed to have seen one from our front porch on the eastern fringe of Capitol Hill, near the Anacostia River.

And as stirring as the sight is, it may become even more common in coming years. From only 417 nesting pairs in the Continental US in 19563, the population has rebounded so strongly that the Fish and Wildlife Service recently delisted them from the Threatened Species list. However, before you go out and grab a trophy, remember the Bald Eagle is still protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. I'm looking at you here, National Harbor. So, with Federal protection and something like 10,000 mating pairs alive right now, can it be long before seeing a Bald Eagle is about as exciting as seeing a Squirrel?

Now, if you are not hung up on seeing a real one; catching a glimpse of a statue, engraving, picture, or some other impression of a Bald Eagle is hardly a challenge. In fact, the real difficulty may be taking a picture in DC without one. Thanks to their symbolic status, they're a very common design motif throughout the Federal City. My personal favorite: just up the way from the Bald Eagle Refuge at the Zoo, near the Bird House, is one of only fourteen original Eagles that once adorned Penn Station in New York City. And if anyone knows the story of how it ended up here, please forward it along, I've been wondering about that one for awhile now.

And no, before we close, Benjamin Franklin never proposed the Wild Turkey as our national bird, nor does the Bald Eagle shift his gaze on our Great Seal in times of war. But we'll talk more on that when we revisit urban legends later in the Fall.