Ask for a September run?, here you go.....

a "MINI Show-Off" run & Pix for fun.

Saturday, Sept 22nd. @ 8.30am.

Here is the meeting location:
Hains Point, East Potomac Park, DC.
Last lot, right before the Awakening.

8.30am. Meet up early in the morning, have fun with a photo session at the nice backdrop of Hains Point, East Potomac Park and the famous sculpture "the Awakening". (I might be there early to get a nice early sun light)

The Awakening might be moved soon, so this might be the last time to see it at this location.The story



9.30am. Start motoring on scenery roads, winding through DC, GW Parkway, McLean, etc. Then enjoy lunch @ the Buffalo Wings Factory, Ashburn, Va.

Buffalo Wings Factory and Pub
43761 Parkhurst Plaza #100
Ashburn, VA 20147
Location

After lunch, if interested, be a witness a MINI dyno challenge at Mach V Motorsports

 

I'll try to make it but I have family coming from overseas that weekend so might be hard to explain hehehe.

 

Bring them along, for a "City Orientation tour"......

 

The sculpture, The Awakening, is definately a major cultural attraction. Toss in a cruise around the monuments and the mall on the way down and you've got a tourist's dream car tour!

 

LOL....true true...good suggestions...

however they'd probably rather be sleeping due to the jet lag

 

Umm, isn't the majority of that road closed to traffic now? Last time I went through you couldn't go beyond the road between the north end of the golf course and the tennis courts.

 

We drove right by it during the 4th of July before the parade.

 

Maybe it's just certain days of the week, or over. My attempt was more recent than that.

 

Hmm.... I will check that out this coming Sat, before the MoS breakfast.
Thanks for the info.

 

That sounds fun....and it ends up right in our back yard ...what more could I ask for

 

I'm down. I haven't seen the sculpture before.

 

I never did ask you, was it open for driving down there?

 

Open dawn to dusk on the day.

 

Very cool! I would love to have some pictures by that statue. Did you see that Mark F. has opened up the contest for the 2008 calendar!!?? I see some photos going to that

 

Maxi,

Do you know how to do HDR photography? Can we try something like that?

I don't have much of a camera...but I do have nice Bogen tripod somewheres...should I bring it?

 

HDR, high dynamic range photography. Very interesting and very useful way to create picture. Here is a link about HDR photography

Actually, you can try at home taking 3 or more pictures of your house just before sun set with 1 stop explosure different on each shot (-1, 0, +1). Then follow the tip from the link by using CS2.

Easiest way to do, but not the best way, is to use D-lighting feature in Nikon Capture software. They use the same method, but from one original image instead of 3 or more, to create the effect, (usable result but not at the best quality).

We can actually do some experiment taking some sample images on the day.

 

Back to the topic.

The run will be ~45 miles long, total of 2 hours (included a 30 minutes break).

The route will go through parts of DC and VA, Potomac river, GW Parkway, Georgetown Pike, through twisty roads of the Great Falls area, parts of Sterling and Ashburn.

The run will end just in time for lunch at the Buffalo Wings Factory in Ashburn.
And if anyone interested, we will join our MINI crew to witness a dyno event at Mach V.

This is a casual run, no stress. It's also packed with interesting routes, especially, if you've never driven around local route of NOVA and Great Falls area.
You will love it.

 

This sounds better and better ! I think we'll stay in the middle of the pack this time instead of puttering along behind a certain green pseudo-MINI that's shaped like a mustang.

 

 

I might come out for wings and stop in at Mach V since it's 15 minutes from home

 

 

Oh,.... you beat me on that.

But I think, we might have got more MINI in the picture than that.

 

Chris, I'm in! What time are we leaving from Columbia???

 

A little early, I would say, 7.30am.

 

And from which location, that I'll probably have to ask for further clarification on after you announce it?