1. Woodley Park

Shortest distance: 0.7
Distance run: 2.11

I'll say one thing about running from Woodley Park to Cleveland Park: It's easy. Google maps clearly suggests the shortest route in its walking directions, but let's face it - that's not always going to be the most interesting route or the most scenic, and in this case it definitely wouldn't have even counted as a run. Rather than running directly up Connecticut Avenue for three-quarters of a mile (as exciting as that section of the Conn Ave corridor is), I decided to make things a little more interesting.


My route:



The only real drawback to my route was that I didn't run past the zoo, but I'm sure one of my other runs will take me THROUGH the zoo, so have no fear. What I DID see:

Maret School, a private school on a very historic plot of land. The school itself is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Part of the school building used to be a grand estate known as "Woodley," which was actually a "summer white house" for more than one president (Back in the day, Cleveland Park was actually considered pretty far out from the city, and was dotted with large estates on acres of land. Some of them remain, but they have largely been re-purposed, as in this case.).

It was busy there this morning, with all the kids being dropped off for school, and I felt uber-creepy standing outside the gate with a camera, so I moved on...

I saw a nice, fuzzy view of the National Cathedral as I ran up Woodley Rd. I swear it wasn't this fuzzy in real life.

I run this route from time to time when I'm not running home from random metro stations, and today it gave me another occasion to feel like a complete creeper when I ran past another cool site. John Eaton Elementary School is up on 34th Street, and recently had the most awesome playground renovation I've ever seen. If I were a kid, I would be dragging my parents up there on a daily basis. Of course they keep it padlocked, providing me an opportunity to take more pictures of schools through iron gates. Someone walked by me at this point, and I've never been more thankful that I am a 20- something female, cause I'm sure I looked highly suspicious.

Lastly, I saw something I see all over in my part of NW DC: random patches of bamboo. I don't know why they are here, but I think they're pretty incredible, and I'm waiting for the National Zoo to decide that this little patch by my house is the perfect home for its next panda cub.