My Iowa Commute

[HungLikeJesus]

SG -- I'll post those pictures as soon as possible.

... and PM me the rest of that story. I need to know what happens next!

[glatt]

I like seeing everyone's commutes, so I thought I'd join in as well. These are all on my Flickr page, so you can see larger versions there if you like. My commute will look a little different, because I walk. It's about 1.5 miles of total walking each way.

We start off at my house, where I just took out the recycling:


Then I go down the street. There's a mixture of small older houses, and silly enormous McMansions. See the tall building in the distance? I'm walking about three blocks past that to enter the MetroRail system:


I cut through the playground of this elementary school, but it's OK since no kids are here this early:


This street of older houses hasn't seen any new McMansions pop up because the houses are all duplexes. To tear one down, you would have to buy out two families, and I guess the developers think it's too much effort:


I walk along this bike path for a short distance. You can see I'm starting to get into a built up area around the metro station:


It looks like I'm in the city here, but I'm still in the suburbs, just a few blocks from my house. The metro station is three blocks ahead:


Here's the elevator down into the ground to catch a train:


This is my Metrorail station. I just missed a train, so the platform is pretty empty. It will be packed like sardines in just a minute or two. The glowing sign on the left says the next train will be here in 4 minutes:


The train! You can see it's become more crowded on the platform:


I know where to stand on the train so I'm one of the first off and through the gates. This is coming up out of the ground in downtown Washington D.C. There's a huge mob of people right on my tail, so I take a quick picture and head up the escalator:


Have any of you seen one of these R2-D2 mailboxes for the Star Wars 30 year anniversary?


I cut through Franklin Square Park:


Go past this old stone church and a new construction site. There's construction everywhere in this city.


This is the Washington D.C. International Youth Hostel. It's right next to an abandoned building being used as a billboard, and on the other side is a brand new building that is going to be a hotel or condos or something.


I bought a Christmas postcard from this place to send to Billy. It's right across from my building.


And here's my building! I actually went across the street to take this shot. I don't normally arrive from this direction. I normally come in a back way and sneak through the loading dock:

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by glatt

There's a huge mob of people right on my tail, so I take a quick picture and head up the escalator:

You're lucky nobody thought you were trying to take an inappropriate photo of that woman!

[HungLikeJesus]

glatt -- it must be nice to be able to walk to work.

I really like this picture:

This is my Metrorail station. I just missed a train, so the platform is pretty empty. It will be packed like sardines in just a minute or two. The glowing sign on the left says the next train will be here in 4 minutes:

[glatt]

Originally Posted by HLJ

I really like this picture:

Thanks. I knew I had 4 minutes to kill, so I took a moment to actually compose a shot instead of taking snapshots like I did for the rest of them.

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

You're lucky nobody thought you were trying to take an inappropriate photo of that woman!

I know which websites you visit.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by glatt

Have any of you seen one of these R2-D2 mailboxes for the Star Wars 30 year anniversary?

Yup! There's one in the touristy Harbor District in Baltimore. It's the background on my phone... If I remember my camera I'll take a picture when I'm down there tomorrow (and some others, and post them to another thread).

[glatt]

I took some commute pictures today, because it was all pretty with the snow. I'm going to post them next to the same locations I took pictures of in the late Spring a couple years ago. Just for fun.

Originally Posted by glatt

I like seeing everyone's commutes, so I thought I'd join in as well. These are all on my Flickr page, so you can see larger versions there if you like. My commute will look a little different, because I walk. It's about 1.5 miles of total walking each way.

We start off at my house, where I just took out the recycling:

Originally Posted by glatt

Then I go down the street. There's a mixture of small older houses, and silly enormous McMansions. See the tall building in the distance? I'm walking about three blocks past that to enter the MetroRail system:

Originally Posted by glatt

I cut through the playground of this elementary school, but it's OK since no kids are here this early:

Boots are very helpful here.

Originally Posted by glatt

This street of older houses hasn't seen any new McMansions pop up because the houses are all duplexes. To tear one down, you would have to buy out two families, and I guess the developers think it's too much effort:

Originally Posted by glatt

I walk along this bike path for a short distance. You can see I'm starting to get into a built up area around the metro station:

I'm loving the boots.

Originally Posted by glatt

It looks like I'm in the city here, but I'm still in the suburbs, just a few blocks from my house. The metro station is three blocks ahead:

You can see the bollards they finally installed to keep cars from driving on the sidewalk. I was tilting at windmills to get them to install those, and they finally did. Don't know if I had anything to do with it.

Originally Posted by glatt

Here's the elevator down into the ground to catch a train:

Originally Posted by glatt

This is my Metrorail station. I just missed a train, so the platform is pretty empty. It will be packed like sardines in just a minute or two. The glowing sign on the left says the next train will be here in 4 minutes:


The train! You can see it's become more crowded on the platform:


I know where to stand on the train so I'm one of the first off and through the gates. This is coming up out of the ground in downtown Washington D.C. There's a huge mob of people right on my tail, so I take a quick picture and head up the escalator:


Have any of you seen one of these R2-D2 mailboxes for the Star Wars 30 year anniversary?

I didn't take any pictures in the Metro this time because it was a clusterfuck down there with the bad weather, and I didn't want to call attention to myself. And the R2D2 mailbox sticker is gone.

More in the next post.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

I cut through Franklin Square Park:

Originally Posted by glatt

Go past this old stone church and a new construction site. There's construction everywhere in this city.

...

Originally Posted by glatt

And here's my building! I actually went across the street to take this shot. I don't normally arrive from this direction. I normally come in a back way and sneak through the loading dock: