Union Station has long been synonymous in my mind with sunny days and warm nights.  It was a frequent destination in my 20’s, when I visited various Mary Washington College alumni for reunions of one kind or another.

The last of those arches you see to the left of 2015’s Christmas tree was my “smoking spot” after disembarking from an Amtrak train.  The spaces out front would occasionally serve as a staging area for a party weekend, as Sanjeev Malhotra would pick me up, then ready himself for several days in which he would endeavor, with varying degrees of success, to keep me out of trouble.

I was always used to seeing the Capitol Dome shine upon my arrival like a vast, upright egg; it was an image in a poem or two I scribbled down to commemorate my adventures.

Things were different Wednesday.  2015’s strangely mild new winter wasn’t quite cold, but it was blustery, cool, a little wet and quite gray.  That is indeed the Capitol Dome that you see in the third photo, but I discovered it darkened and under renovation.  And that slate sky’s color differed little from the dark monument marble you see in the foreground.  I need to spend a day in DC after a kinder climate finds it, I think.

I like the shot I got of that woman feeding the pigeons.