Western and Southern Open, Day 2

[Composed 8/20/2021]

We started our second day of the Western and Southern Open by settling a long standing question: where's the best place to sit in a small stadium when watching tennis? Too close and part of the court may have an obstructed view; too far and you've missed out on the opportunity to get close to the action.

The answer: it depends if you're Me or Shira. If you're me, you want to sit as close as possible on either end. Ideally, close enough to hear the players chatter, and perhaps get hit by an errant bead of sweat or two. If you're Shira, you want to be on the upper edge of the stadium. Being higher up, you'll have a nice view of all the action and you typically have plenty of space to spread out and you may just be in the shade.

As a compromise, we started our first match of the day in our preferred spots. This was a doubles match where Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos took on Alex de Minaur and Cameron Norrie. It was fun being in the first row, snapping pics and Shira who was in top row, savored the tiniest bit of shade from the scoreboard. It was a win-win.

The theme of today seems to be: who can surivive the heat? After the first match, I moved up to sit next to Shira who's sliver of shade was now the most sought after location in Grandstand. While I love sitting close to the action, even I appreciated the relief from the sun.

Our second match of the day was between Kerber and Kvitova. While the first set started with some powerful rallies, Kvitova appears to have succumbed to the conditions. At one point, she fled the stadium in a hurry, probably to find a bathroom for who knows what purpose. Ultimately, she retired almost certainly due to the heat.

Moving from Grandstand to the main stadium, up next was Medvedev vs Carreno Busta. Without the shade, we found the heat pretty much soul crushing. Out of desperation, I tried leaning into the sun hoodie I was wearing. I put up the hood on and wore my large sun hat over it. To my surprise, the setup got warm, but was much more bearable than just having the sun beat down on me. I know that's how a sun hoodie is supposed to work, but I guess I didn't actually think it would be as effective as it was.

Do you know who wasn't bothered by the heat? Medvedev. He clobbered Pablo Carreno Busta in less than an hour. It was like a warm-up match for him. You don't have to feel too badly for Carreno Busta, he just beat Medvedev in the Olympics, so it's all good.

Next up we watched Stosur and Zhang take on Melichar and Schuurs. The match was entertaining, with Stosur and Zhang taking it in 3 sets. But that wouldn't be Stosur and Zhang's most impressive accomplishment of the day. That would come later, in a match we'd only catch the last few points of against Anna Blinkova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Blinkova / Sasnovich were ahead 6-4, 5-1 -- ready to serve out the last game, before Stosur and Zhang finally made a move. They came back to win the set and as we watched on our way out of the grounds, the match. Two matches, and one epic comeback in a day. Now that's impressive.

We closed out the evening with a night match between Tsitsipas and Auger-Aliassime. Tsitsipas looked like he was going to cruise to a relatively easy win, when Felix managed to save two match points. The match went three sets, and Tsitsipas was ultimately the victor. If anything, it showed how resiliant Tsitsipas can be.

There's no doubt that Medvedev and Tsitsipas are playing top tier tennis.

Caption Me: Epic Sunrise Edition

Picture Perfect Pumpkin Patch Picking

Yesterday, we hit up Burke Nursery with G and his Mom and Dad to find the perfect Pumpkin. Burke Nursery typically offers a somewhat extravagent fall festival, including pony rides and plenty of play spaces for kids to enjoy. Due to Covid, they've scaled things back this year.

G didn't mind one bit: there was plenty to keep him occupied. We roamed among the pumpkins and played on a pirate ship, train and tractor play structure. Much to everyone's delight, we indulged in fresh donuts and cider, which if G wasn't so dang precious, would have been the hightlight of the day.

Everyone got to pick the perfect pumpkin, and I got to snap countless photos with both my cell phone and DSLR. So yeah, a good time was had by all.

In another year or two, G will be ready to for a larger fall festival. But for this year, Burke Nursery was absolutely perfect.

Blockhouse Point Loop: Hunting for Pawpaws, Where The Water Ends and Other Sunday Morning Discoveries

A couple of weeks ago Shira found this list of 22 walks in the DC area. Last Sunday, the weather was perfect and we had a bit of time, so we decided to tackle one of walks on the list that we hadn't yet done: Blockhouse Point Loop. At 7.5 miles, I was confident we could knock this out in the morning and still have time to get some chores done in the afternoon.

We got to the Maryland parking area at around 9am and it was essentially empty. The conditions were a bit on the chilly side; something we savored as weather here tends to oscillate between too hot and too cool.

The hike starts with a trek through the woods down to the C&O Canal. The hike was quiet and there was no sign of civilization or other hikers. We entered the C&O Canal at Pennyfield Lock and saw our first walkers and bikers for the day. The stroll along the canal was delightful, with glimpses of the mighty Potomac and a number of blue herons willing to stand patiently while I snapped endless pics. We saw quite a few pawpaw trees, though no sign of any fruit. And we had one possible bald eagle sighting, though that could have been wishful thinking on my part.

It wasn't until Lock #23, when we left the C&O Canal that my mind was blown. Lock #23, or Violette's Lock as it's known seemed to fork off into two separate locks. Upon closer inspection, one lock was marked as Inlet Lock #2, and the other was noted as lock #23. Looking at the Inlet lock its purpose became obvious quickly enough: it was an inlet--as in, it let the Potomac water in to the canal. This answered two questions I hadn't really considered: (1) how do you fill the canal with water and (2) how do boats get into the canal? Why through inlet locks, of course. Inlet Lock #2 is used to keep 17 miles of canal filled with water, all the way down to Lock #5.

The other notable feature of Lock #23 is that the canal is filled in with soil at this point. Again, this is something I'd never considered. Apparently I've never been out this far on the C&O. I just assumed that the canal, like the tow path extended 180 miles. But this isn't the case. The water stops flowing at Lock #23, and that's only due to a massive Depression era CCC project that restored the first 23 miles of the canal. Without that project, there would be no working canal at all.

Hiking away from the canal and back towards our car, we continued to see pawpaw trees but no sign of fruit. That is until I found two perfect specimens  dangling on a tree, practically asking to be eaten. I grabbed them and ate the first fruit. It was perfectly ripe and quite delicious. Considering how tasty it was to me today, I can't imagine what a pleasure it must have been back when grocery stores and refrigeration were science fiction.

As we made our way back to the Blockhouse Point trail network, we saw an Isabella Tiger Moth larve, known as a wooly bear and a toad which kindly posed while I took pics. There was one short, steep climb to push through but other than that the hike was easy going. I was hoping for views of the Potomac from higher ground, but none materialized.

The hike was 7.5 miles as promised, and we arrived back at a full parking lot without issue. If I ever do figure out what season pawpaws appear, I'll have to repeat this hike in the hopes of having a massive harvest. And given the bird life along the C&O Canal, next time I may have to haul along the DSLR and telephoto lens. This hike is a winner.