Roosevelt Island

This is not part of my adventure but this showdown was awesome!

So on Sunday I bonded with nature again.  My partner in crime/nature Aliea was in town, and she had suggested we go to Roosevelt Island.  Neither of us knew much about it, but Aliea had some friends who had gone before.  We went out there with Maggie the dog, and it was surprising how quickly we were able to get there.  Roosevelt Island is only open for foot trails, so there were no bikers to run us over.  There were not a ton of people there, which was nice.  The island had many different uses before becoming a park-it was inhabited by Native Americans and then had belonged to George Mason’s family and then it was a Civil War refuge.  The park had plaques around the trail that described interesting thing about nature.  I didn’t realize how a fallen tree actually contributes to nature and wildlife, and how stone turned into soil.  The park had a long wooden bridge that crossed the swamp; we saw cattails, but no swamp like creatures, which was preferable.  I told Aliea that if we saw any snakes I would be terrified.  It was really neat, there was a path to the water and when we went out we were able to see right across from Georgetown Waterfront, and we could hear the music. 

We ALMOST left the island before seeing the monument of Teddy Roosevelt.  It was really nice, there were bridges and a humongous statute of Roosevelt.  There were columns that had different quotes about nature, youth, and statehood.  The lawyer in me really liked the one about statehood =)  The island was really nice though, it was small and uncrowded, and even though it was 97 degrees outside you could barely feel it since we were under the shade.  The only time it was hot was when we went on the water.  It took us about two hours to get around the island, so it was a nice but quick trip.  I would definitely go again.