Sunday, April 07, 2024

Bethesda, Maryland

During the month of March I made a couple trips to Bethesda, Maryland to photograph Walt Whitman High School's basketball playoff run. I passed through my old neighborhood as well as other spots. Here are some pics I took with my phone as well as some game photos at Whitman taken with my Nikon. 


   Always fun battling afternoon beltway traffic. Not really.


Glen Echo Exxon. Gas in Northern VA at the time was $3.29 a gallon


Homes on Cromwell Drive where I grew up. Note the expansion of some of these houses.






6201 Cromwell Drive where I grew up. 
No expansion, the house is pretty much the same as it was back when I grew up.

Kenwood Professional Building

Westwood Shopping Center. 
This will be redeveloped and renamed Westbard Square. It will be ready around 2027 and will feature new stores, restaurants, parks, townhouses and a senior living facility 




This was where Giant Food was. 



Back to my neighborhood, basketball courts at Woodacres Elementary. 
I spent a lot of time here playing hoops. 



The only part of Walt Whitman High School that was there when I was (Class of 1980)






Channel 20 Tower. Folks used to attempt to climb this back in the day, usually resulting in a bust. Not sure if anyone ever made it to the top.


River Road where Roy Rogers was back in the day. Roy's was great, it was a great spot during our youth after football games. Now as you can see it is a McDonalds and a cluster**** to navigate through. 


Talbert's still stands. Believe me when I say nothing has changed outside or in. 
Used to wait outside and beg folks to buy beer. I even tried using a fake ID here once as a junior in high school. It was unsuccessful as Bob, who ran the cash register busted me.




4914 Redford Road. I shared a house here with a couple other friends in 1986. The two chairs in the front yard "gifts" from Chevy Chase Club as my friend Gary worked on the golf course. I'm surprised they are still there at the house.


Chevy Chase Club entrance. I worked on the golf maintenance staff, inside the pro shop and also caddied there back in the Summers in high school and college. 




Chevy Chase Club golf maintenance building.



3804 East West Highway in Chevy Chase where my grandparents lived.


Back at Whitman, the gym. I miss The Dome (IYKYK)




Pregame camera settings test. 
Some familiar names on the banner from when I was there (September 1977 - June 1980)




Titian DeRosa #5 for Whitman. His father grew up three houses from ours on Cromwell Drive. 




Whitman won the Maryland Class 4 West Region title over BCC 59-54. The Vikings had an incredible postseason run, advancing to the Maryland Class 4 State Championship game. This was played at the University of Maryland and I got a photo credential for that game but the Vikings lost to Frederick.

I definitely plan to be back at Whitman when I can to photograph a few games next season.


Photo Galleries from the three postseason games I covered for Whitman




 

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Virginia Tech Visit

It's been a long journey since Ben was born in October 2005 and I started this blog. I haven't been active here in a number of years, opting to use other social media platforms to post pictures for friends and family. Maybe I'll use this more in the future. 

So here we are. College. 

We took a tour of colleges last Spring and Summer. Earlier this year Ben was accepted into Virginia Tech. We had not seen the campus so with decision time nearing, we took a Spring break road trip to check out the school.

We arrived a day before our tour so we were able to see the nationally ranked Hokies Baseball team in action (Tech beat Pitt 5-3). A couple shots via my phone. Really wish I brought my real camera.

Thursday March 28, 2024





We grabbed dinner after the game and saw more of the campus before heading back to our hotel.

Friday March 29, 2024

We were a part of Tech's Accepted Students tour and had a Q&A session followed by a walking tour of campus. Some pics I took along the way.










Virginia Tech is about a four hour drive from our house, not bad at all. We saw on the tour that students ride the bus from dorms and apartments to their classes and other places (you can see a bus in the last photo). There is an app that tells you the bus number, when it arrives and gets you to your destination. And they run constantly during the day. No real need for a car. Tech runs a shuttle to Roanoke Airport for folks to catch flights home. Since there are a fair number of folks from the DC/MD/VA area, they run busses from Roanoke Airport to Dulles Airport, which is close to our house. 

We believe Ben has found his home for the next four years but we will weigh out all options. Ben also wants to discuss his options with his high school guidance counselor. May 15 is the deadline but we will have our decision made by mid-April.

Overall, a great and productive trip! Beautiful campus. We really enjoyed ourselves.