Intrepid Pup

The Writer’s Blog Tour

November 7, 2014 by admin

Introducing Eve Fleishman, our multi-faceted friend who nominated us. She’s a “forty-something, married, no kids, two cats, small apartment in the big city kinda gal” with a lot on her plate as a singer-songwriter-performer-blogger. Check out her interview on her blog, Alice and the Rabbit Hole.

Ever have a completely unremarkable week when out of the blue comes an interesting opportunity? Such was the case upon hearing from a long-time friend: the über-talented singer-songwriter (and newly blogging) Eve Fleishman! Hers was a nomination of Intrepid Pup to participate in a virtual Writer’s Blog Tour. Tag, you’re it! And while Intrepid Pup followers have probably noted that we don’t do (m)any blog hops, here’s one where we’re going all in to give that proverbial “peek behind the curtain” on the writing process and then paying it forward by spotlighting some fellow writers to continue the tour. Read all the way to the end to meet our two nominees.

But first, on to our Writer’s Blog Tour interview:

What am I currently working on?

Part of Team Tavish While I was lucky to be able to take vacation time from my regular job to get on some longer, really great road trips with Tavish this year, the flip side is that there unfortunately hasn’t been much time to write them all up. Anecdotes and good tips galore. And oodles (read: thousands) of photos to filter through! Bottom line…there’s a lot in the pipeline at the moment. Intrepid Pup fans can look forward to forays into literally new territory: an unforgettable few days of urban exploration in the Big Apple, hikes in first-time states for Tavish, and hey(!) in October, Intrepid Pup went international. So, there’s a border crossing and several days in scenic Canada, where, I kid you not, one of the first things we heard was, “So, you’ve got a super sweet dog there, eh?” Beyond that, come December, I’ll be prepping a couple of new installments for our seasonal feature (now heading into its third year) entitled, “The National Howl-iday Scene.” And I really have to go back and finish a couple of posts that have been rattling around for waaaay too long, including “Bark Ranger in the Port City” which will recount Tavish’s visit to a newly refurbished National Park site and his inaugural call out as a “celebrity.” They’ll be worth the wait—promise!

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

The blogosphere is increasingly made of up people posting about their pets. The millennia-old bond between canines and humans is cited in everything from scientific journals to reality TV. And given the growing, multi-billion-dollar pet services industry, cherishing one’s dog is hardly unusual. To tout Tavish as “the best” diminishes all the other great relationships people have so fortunately forged with their pets. Yet Tavish is my best, and I’m lucky to have found so steadfast a companion who also happens to serve as muse.

There are some terrific websites that have demystified the concept of traveling with one’s pet and immensely facilitated locating dog-friendly destinations and lodging. And while it’s easier than ever before to confidently decide upon a place and get there with your dog, I still don’t think there are a lot of detailed resources devoted to what activities you can actually do with your dog once you’ve arrived so that you’re both getting the most out of it. Sightseeing, exercise, learning, fun and spending time with your dog don’t have to be mutually exclusive activities. I feel that IntrepidPup.com’s niche is to sit squarely at the intersection of storytelling and authenticity, and I especially like that this blog has attracted crossover audiences among dog lovers, avid outdoorsmen, travel enthusiasts, and history buffs. It’s been gratifying to see how the Intrepid Pup has evolved into a brand influencer not only on the dog blog scene but also among museums, cultural and historic sites and national parks.

Why do I write what I do?

Tavish_TeamTavish IntrepidPup.com kind of just happened. Really. The one thing that people seem to universally comment on about Tavish is that he always seems really happy, and that rubs off. You can’t help but smile. A ready gift to share with others is how personable he is, and that’s something one can feel all the way down the leash and back up again. Lifestyle-wise—as the human part of Team Tavish—I’m an outdoor enthusiast and amateur photographer with a professional background in museums. Friends had been encouraging me to write and somehow combine these elements. When a job change a few years back meant I wasn’t doing as much writing and designing, I turned to developing IntrepidPup.com as a way to fill and nurture that creative void. I spent some time figuring out what my niche would be (as I mentioned earlier) and had some basic goals in mind but never anticipated IntrepidPup.com becoming the award-winning platform it is today.

How does my writing process work?

What’s my writing process? Well, the dog does the typing, so that’s a big time saver. *I wish*

Oh, it’s sooo easy! Says no writer. Ever. You know that expression about sausage? Where it’s best not to see it getting made? Well, usually, so too, is my writing process. It’s complicated. A little messy, even. I’ve always enjoyed writing and am a bit of a grammar and vocab geek, so the flow, precision and word choice aspects of writing are appealing. For me, writing is like assembling one of those maddening 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzles. I don’t write in order: I zip around, write a little of the conclusion, pop back up to the lede, scroll down to some random part in the middle, swap out sentences here and there. I’m that jigsaw puzzler who snaps together all the edge pieces and then plugs away at filling in the difficult bits. Because exploring with Tavish is the fodder for my written end-product, I have to make sure I’m making the time to get out there and explore in the first place. Since I’m pretty visual and also aware that I’m writing for an online audience, I’m thinking at the outset about how it’s going to look on the screen—from the layout to image selection with the number and size of the photos. With the Intrepid Pup articles, I frequently turn back to a brochure I picked up along the way or to (sometimes illegible and cryptic) notes I’ve jotted during an excursion. I always surprise myself with how much back-end research winds up going into a piece, even when I’m “writing what I know” from personal experience. I write directly on the computer but will never fully relinquish the material comfort of having scraps of paper and a pencil close at hand. I know when I’ve finished, and it’s akin to that moment when the puzzle piece you’ve already examined and touched a hundred times turns out to be the one that slips effortlessly into the final gap to complete the picture. Simultaneously satisfying and anticlimactic.

Continuing the tour…

My nominees to continue the Writer’s Blog Tour are Sharon Boston of Nerd Trips and Trevor Johnson and Ryan Pratzel, the creative team behind Travel at Random. I’m grateful for their friendship but also consider them trusted sources when it comes to informative, entertaining writing. Get to know them a little better for yourself with these introductions below, and look for their own interviews in the coming days:

Sharon Boston | Nerd Trips

Sharon Boston combined her natural curiosity about people, quirky sense of humor and interests in travel, history and architecture into a unique blog—Nerd Trips: Roads Less Traveled to Presidents, Poets & Other Historic Persons. Through a writing style once described as “breezy and informative,” Sharon transports readers to locations ranging from the O. Henry World Championship Pun Off and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery to Lincoln’s boyhood home and the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

On a Nerd Trip, you can stand in the room where James Madison spent months writing the Constitution, then hear a lady ask where Dolley’s dogs are buried. Or debate with park rangers about which president would win a foot race. And if you think Poe’s stories are scary, you should see the stairs in his house.

Nerd Trips are more than just learning facts about famous people, part of the fun is the laughs you have along the way, discovering small towns, local eateries and kooky characters. Come along for the ride!

Ryan Pratzel and Trevor Johnson | Travel at Random

Travel at Random shares the journeys of Ryan Pratzel and Trevor Johnson. We travel for business, we travel for pleasure and we travel for the fun of it. Our blog is a mix of reviews, travel guides, attractions and tips we pass along. Ryan has been traveling most of his life. A former journalist, Ryan owns a video production and marketing company. Trevor is the web developer behind the blog and contributor as well to the ever expanding content. We’re both avid travelers always seeking our next adventure.

TravelAtRandom.com has taken our readers from New York City to a remote glacier in Alaska’s wilderness, from Southeast Asia to Eastern Europe and everywhere in between. Our mission is to share our experiences and hopefully help and learn from fellow travelers along the way. Join us on our journey!

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Filed Under: Special Events Tagged With: blog, blog hop, bloggers, history, interview, Nerd Trips, reviews, tips, tour, travel, Travel at Random, why I write, writers, writing

A Day at the Bay

June 4, 2014 by admin

Glimpses from around the 18-acre campus of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. Clockwise from left: a) Goofing around with the cut-outs in front of the museum; b) In the boat building workshop; c) Surveying the shoreline with the Hooper Strait screwpile lighthouse in the background; d) A tasty view of the harbor from atop the 1879 lighthouse; e) Catching some rays on the pilothouse of the buy boat Thor; f) Exploring the history of Maryland’s crab fishing industry.

It was a beautiful spring day, and we decided to head to Maryland’s eastern shore to do some exploring in St. Michaels, a town known for its Chesapeake Bay breezes, traditional Maryland fare (think: blue crab and Smith Island cake, which are the official state crustacean and state dessert, respectively), and history (more about that later). To reach St. Michaels, you head for Annapolis which is a pretty snazzy dog-friendly stop in its own right, go over the Bay Bridge, and about 50 miles later (less than an hour, if the traffic gods are smiling upon you) wind up at your destination.

We didn’t set out with a real plan this time other than to savor the sights, the day, and okay…maybe some crab cakes. We followed Route 33/Talbot Street about a half mile into St. Michaels’ downtown and turned right to park in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s lot.

Tavish at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

What!? Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is dog-friendly. How cool is THAT?!

We of Team Tavish were trying to figure out where along the fence line was the best spot to photograph Intrepid Pup Tavish with the museum’s signature lighthouse in the background, when…. whaaaaat?? Wait. A. Minute. Just on the other side of the fence we spied a Mutt Mitt Dispenser! You wouldn’t have one of those planted there if dogs weren’t welcome, right? So we stopped into the museum’s Admissions Building and inquired. “Yes, of course!” the visitor services attendant replied. “You’ll need to keep your dog on a leash and clean up after him, but otherwise he’s allowed anywhere on the campus, except in buildings that have carpeting.” With that, we happily shelled out our entry fees (Tavish was free) and ended up spending nearly three hours there!

The museum was a real treat: unexpectedly dog-friendly and far more extensive than we’d imagined. There were only four carpeted pavilions Tavish couldn’t go into. For those, we just took turns while one of us waited outside with Tavish, who did his share of rolling in the grass and watching the passing boats. Tavish even spied a beautiful tabby keeping an eye on us from a scrub pine. We later learned she’s a former stray who is now the museum’s resident salty boatyard cat, Ms. Edna Sprit! As for places Tavish COULD venture into, there were many! We wended our way through the Small Boat Shed housing the nation’s largest collection of Chesapeake Bay watercraft. We explored a dredgeboat to learn all about oystering and clambered out on the wharf to the working waterman’s shanty, where we got to check the eel pots and clumsily experiment with using oyster tongs. And a real highlight was navigating a narrow spiral staircase and crawling through a hatch to reach the top of the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse!

An homage to Maryland’s state dog: Tavish sizes up this cast iron statue of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever outside the “Waterfowling” pavilion.

A bonus for dog lovers is the museum’s waterfowling exhibit chronicling a key element of bay heritage. While Tavish couldn’t partake of the fascinating display of hand carved duck decoys and tools of the trade, there was a stolid cast iron Chesapeake Bay Retriever statue outside with an interesting story (see photo at right). It just so happens that in 1807, Marylander George Law was sailing home from England aboard the Canton, when he intercepted a sinking British vessel and rescued its crew and two Newfoundland puppies. When Law arrived safely at port, he purchased the puppies from the captain and brought them home. He named the male Sailor and the female Canton. Since Law ultimately had to go back out to sea, he gave the dogs to two men who allowed them to breed with local dogs, probably coonhounds. Their progeny had dense dual coats, took exceptionally well to the water, and were prolific in their versatility and ability to retrieve waterfowl. The Chesapeake Bay Retriever as a breed was born, and in 1964, it was recognized as Maryland’s official state dog.

Dogging the Details

38°47’14.35″N, 76°13’13.73″W
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, Maryland

St. Michaels ranks a “2” on the Intrepid Pup’s wag-a-meter for being exceptionally dog-friendly and offering plenty to do for pup and person alike.

Hmmm. . . lobster I’m familiar with from living in Maine. You? Not so much!

If you’re spending the day in St. Michaels, you’ll need to grab a bite to eat, and fortunately there’s a quintessential Maryland-y option that’s also dog-friendly: The Crab Claw Restaurant. This is definitely fair-weather casual dining, because with your pup in tow, you’ll be eating outside on the partially covered, spacious deck. Be prepared to wait a bit for your picnic table, since lots of people will have this very same idea on sunny weekends. It’s worth it, however, for the good food and spectacular view of the bay. Truth be told, the people-watching is equally entertaining, as folks pull up in boats of all shapes and sizes. After noticing a young couple a few tables away too full to finish off their dozen crabs, we decided to order the less messy and labor intensive option: crab cakes. Tavish was acting particularly winsome that afternoon, and it wasn’t long before the woman from the couple came over to pet and take pictures of Tavish. And. . . somehow we ended up with the remainder of their steamed crabs! Tavish is a shameless charmer and seemed both intrigued and pretty smug about this turn of events (see photo at left). Unbelievable.

Talbot Street in St. Michaels caters to dogs with this complimentary, walk-up watering hole: the Broken Rudder Doggie Bar.

You’ll want to walk off your lunch, and St. Michaels’ Talbot Street/Route 33 is lined with plenty of shops, including a pet boutique named Flying Fred’s. If you pause to read historical plaques along the way—or fancy ducking into the St. Michaels Museum at St. Mary’s Square—you’ll learn that St. Michaels was where young Frederick Douglass lived as a slave from 1833-36. You’re also bound to hear how the resourceful residents of St. Michaels “fooled the British” during the War of 1812. With the British fleet approaching in August 1813, townsfolk hung lanterns high in the trees at the outer boundary. The British fell for the ruse and aimed their cannons such that most overshot the village, ultimately sparing it from a worse fate. We encountered many dogs along our walk, and several local businesses had treats for dogs and bowls of fresh water outside.

At this point, you might have worked up a thirst of you own, so a stop at Eastern Shore Brewing is in order. This local microbrewery opened in 2008 and operates out of a historic mill complex right on South Talbot Street. They have a couple of year-round offerings and a half dozen seasonals on rotation. We tentatively poked our heads into the entrance just to survey the scene, assuming we’d have to come back another time minus our dog. No sooner had we done so, however, than one of the brewery staff spotted Tavish and hurried over to greet us. “No, stay!” he said. “If your dog’s friendly, we’re dog-friendly. Heck, most dogs are better behaved than some of our patrons, so come on in!” And with that, we were swept inside to where a live band was playing and there was already a healthy crowd gathered for mid-Saturday afternoon. The bartender immediately brought over a bowl of water for Tavish, who promptly settled himself into a care-worn overstuffed leather chair (and got his photo taken by a few smartphone-wielding guests), while we tried a couple pints.

From there, we crossed Talbot Street and headed down West Chew Avenue to San Domingo Park, scenic green space that overlooks San Domingo Creek. If you bear to the right, you’ll see a trailhead and a covered bridge. The short paved trail runs more or less parallel to Talbot Street but through residential neighborhoods. A fifteen-minute walk will deliver you to Railroad Street, and you can hang a right to re-connect with North Talbot Street again.

On our next visit, we’ll definitely take the narrated, 70-minute sightseeing cruise aboard the two-level, 149-seat Patriot. We simply ran out of time that afternoon to fit this in, but in talking to the Captain dockside, we learned that the cruise is pet-friendly at his sole discretion. We’ll be back! Also nice to know is that even though ours was just a day trip, St. Michaels boasts several pet-friendly lodging options, from motor lodges to inns to vacation rentals.

Filed Under: Cultural Heritage, History, Museums, Nature, Uncategorized, Wag-A-Meter=2 Tagged With: bay, Broken Rudder Doggie Bar, Chesapeake, Crab Claw Restaurant, crabs, dog-friendly, Eastern Shore Brewing, Edna Sprit, Flying Fred's, lighthouse, maritime museum, Maryland, oystering, retriever, St. Michael's, trail, Wag-a-meter=2, waterfowl

Game On! Intrepid Pup Bracketology: The 2014 Edition

March 19, 2014 by admin

This Intrepid Pup Bracketology is serious business!

Yep, it’s that time of year again when Intrepid Pup Tavish goes out on the proverbial limb and makes his predictions for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. If Tavish’s consistently inconsistent bracketology prowess is news to you, we unabashedly refer you to our 2012 and 2013 editions where his highly entertaining (and completely unbiased!) process is explained and even shown in action. To briefly recap, though, Tavish does not watch endless hours of game footage. Nor does he use some mathematician’s code-based matrix.

Nope, Tavish relies entirely on his gut.

And this year, his gut had lots of itty bitty pieces of spinach-flavored, shamrock-shaped homemade dog treats that somebody baked him for St. Patrick’s Day.

So what did his gut say? Let’s just cut to the chase:

Click the image to open a larger PDF version

Three years into this whole Intrepid Pup Bracketology escapade, we’ve finally fine-tuned the methodology to where Tavish can make his 68 picks in about 40 minutes–considerably less time than it takes Greg Gumbel and crew on CBS’s Selection Sunday.

Every year, Tavish’s gut reminds us that it’s very fickle indeed. He always seems to conjur up an early Cinderella to beat Duke (Way to go, Mercer!) and certainly champions his share of underdogs (Here’s lookin’ at you, 12-seed Stephen F. Austin, wherever you are). But just when you think you see a pattern emerging with teams with dog mascots (Go, UConn Huskies! Rock on, Gonzaga Bulldogs!), Tavish gets all conventional and advances some very solid teams (That’d be YOU, Creighton). Only very rarely does he hesitate, but there was a brief instant of introspection (or maybe just inattention?) before deciding the fate of his Dayton/St. Louis final in favor of the Billikens.

After Intrepid Pup buzzed through his choices for this year, one member of Team Tavish looked over his completed brackets and remarked disbelievingly, “Sheesh, there sure aren’t going to be many people with these picks!” That, friends, is the point. There won’t be ~~many~~ any people whose brackets look like this. And Tavish still has the same 9.2 quintillion-to-1 odds of winning the Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. Delightful, isn’t it? Welcome to the madness of March. How do your brackets stack up?

P.s. Several of you commented last year on how nice it was to see Tavish’s elusive housemate (Hobbes the cat) get in on the picks. We tried to rekindle that again this year, but Hobbes couldn’t have cared less. Picking brackets is for the dogs! 🙂

Filed Under: Sporting Events, Wag-A-Meter=1 Tagged With: bracketology, Bulldogs, Cinderella, dog, Huskies, March Madness, men's basketball, NCAA, picks, Tavish, underdog, vizsla, Wag-a-meter=1

Tavish: Faster than a Speeding Airplane?

January 3, 2014 by admin

Faster than a flying Orville? Why, yes! Tavish covered the famous “first flight” distance of 120 feet in about half the time it took Orville Wright to fly it — without even breaking into a pant.

In this post we’re seeing if Intrepid Pup Tavish is faster than an airplane. Well, not just any airplane. More specifically: whether he’s faster than the first airplane. And to do that, we head to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, where brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright first achieved powered, controlled, and sustained human flight on December 17, 1903 at 10:35 AM.

The site was a relatively remote coastal area when the Wrights were here more than a century ago, and they’d specifically chosen it because they could experiment without a lot of distractions and—presumably—prying eyes. The dune environment also afforded fairly consistent breezes and sandy landings to boot. After all, laying claim to being the first in flight was very much a risky venture!

Today Kill Devil Hills is a big draw for beach-goers to the Outer Banks, and the Wrights’ humble proving ground is now managed by the National Park Service as the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

A short distance from the Visitor Center is a large granite boulder commemorating the spot where Orville took flight. A pathway extends from it, and four markers along the way show the ever-increasing distances the Wrights successfully flew that momentous morning. To better Orville’s historic first flight, Tavish would have to cover 120 feet in less than 12 seconds. Complicating matters was that 1) park regulations dictated that Tavish needed to remain on a leash, and 2) a preponderance of prickly pear cacti in the field meant he also had to stay on the straight and narrow! In fact, Tavish had already managed to step on a prickly pear earlier in his visit, so he wasn’t eager for a repeat.

With one member of Team Tavish holding the leash and the other standing at the 120-foot mark with the stopwatch app primed on a smartphone (my, how far technology has come!), Tavish was literally straining to get going. But could he do it? In a word? Yes. Handily. The Intrepid Pup didn’t exactly break the sound barrier that pilot Chuck Yeager would end up doing a mere 44 years after Orville severed the bonds of earth…but, boy, did Tavish hustle! Final time? 5.89 seconds. And Park Ranger Shafer even handed us a little card to record the achievement (see above). Mission accomplished. Actually, seeing Tavish sprint across aviation’s sacred ground really put things in perspective: only a handful of generations ago, powered flight was inconceivable and now we don’t even think twice about boarding an airplane and jet-setting around the globe.

Tavish gets an Orville-eye-view of Kill Devil Hills from Stephen Smith’s life-size sculpture, December 17, 1903.

In March of 1917—more than 13 years after his first flight and just five after his brother Wilbur’s untimely demise from typhoid, Orville got a dog: a St. Bernard named Scipio. (We always knew Orville was a cool guy). Fortunately the Library of Congress has 13 marvelous photographs of Scipio, and it leaves us to wonder: Did Scipio ever sense his owner’s lofty achievements? And could he, too, run faster than a flying Orville?

Dogging the Details

36° 0′ 51.20″ N, 75° 40′ 4.40″ W
Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina (milepost 7.5)

A visit to the Wright Brothers National Memorial scores a “1” on the Intrepid Pup wag-a-meter for providing a fun, outdoor experience on a very historic site. There’s a nominal park entrance fee, but there’s waaaay more to do than just test whether you can outrun the first airplane. Take in everything the park has to offer, and you’ll easily cover approximately 1.5 miles with your dog.

A reconstructed replica of the Wrights’ hangar provides some welcome shade for the Intrepid Pup.

If you’re going in the summer months—as we did—be aware that the grounds are exposed and can get very hot. Bring along water for your pup; there are restrooms and drinking fountains onsite for a refill. Shade is hard to come by, but Tavish found some in the replica of the Wrights’ hangar. Be sure to trek up Big Kill Devil Hill to get a panorama of the park but also a view to the sea. This promontory was where the Wrights logged thousands of glider flights testing their theories on how best to control pitch and yaw. It’s topped by an impressive 60-foot granite shaft erected by Congress and dedicated in 1932. By the time we got to the monument, it was high noon and pretty toasty, so Tavish’s Ruffwear Swamp Cooler ™ Vest provided him extra comfort.

Crowning Big Kill Devil Hill is a monument to the Wright brothers’ crowning achievement, “the conquest of the air.”

Before turning back to further explore the Visitor Center or catch a ranger program, head downhill beyond the memorial. At the apex of the loop road is a five-ton bronze and stainless steel sculpture group by Stephen Smith entitled, December 17, 1903. It captures that exact instant of first flight preserved in a photograph known the world over. In fact, it makes for a pretty great backdrop for taking some photos of your own (see below).

Finally, there are even more places to explore with your pup within easy distance of the Wright Brothers National Memorial. Check out the Intrepid Pup’s earlier post, “Summer Fun: 5 Dog-Friendly OBX Destinations” for a few suggestions!

The hand of “Wilbur Wright” holds the leash that includes the Intrepid Pup in this now-famous scene. Sensing that they’d be successful on December 17, 1903, the Wrights wanted to photograph the instant the flyer left the ground. They set up a tripod, and Orville asked bystander John Daniels if he’d man the camera. (No pressure, there, right?) The rest is history. Better yet? It was the first time Daniels had ever used a camera!

Filed Under: Aviation, Cultural Heritage, Museums, National Monument, National Park, Statue, Wag-A-Meter=1 Tagged With: airplane, dog, first flight, flyer, Kill Devil Hills, National Park Service, North Carolina, St. Bernard, Tavish, Wright Brothers

National Howl-iday Scene, Part VI: President’s Park

December 25, 2013 by admin

Tavish beholds the National Christmas Tree from the Pathway of Peace in President’s Park. The national tree has been illuminated by GE since 1963–originally with thousands of incandescent bulbs and now entirely by eco-friendly LEDs. The lighting design changes each year.

Intrepid Pup Tavish has been in dogged pursuit of the best of the national howl-iday scene. In Christmases past and present, he’s sniffed out “Season’s Greenings” activities at the U.S. Botanic Garden, Christmas at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, yuletide preparations at The Biltmore, and much more (see the blog index for the others). His next stop? The National Christmas Tree!

The tree lives year-round on the grounds of President’s Park, 82 acres maintained by the National Park Service and encompassing the White House itself. For much of the year visitors take little note of the evergreen on the Ellipse, but come December, it becomes the focal point of the park. Fitted with a mantel of LED lights, the tree is officially turned on by the President during a televised ceremony complete with a concert.

Tavish in President's Park with the 2012 National Menorah

Lighting of a national menorah was a tradition begun by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 in nearby Lafayette Park. The 30-foot menorah was incorporated into the President’s Park festivities in 1987. Here’s Tavish in 2012 on the final night of Hanukkah.

President Franklin Pierce is credited with putting up the first Christmas tree inside the White House in 1856, but it wasn’t until 1923 that President Calvin Coolidge lit a national tree outside for the benefit of the American people. For more than 90 years, the storied tradition of a national Christmas tree has continued. Early on, the ceremony took place either on the White House lawn or in nearby Lafayette Park, and various trees were designated as the “national community Christmas tree.” During WWII a national tree was decorated but never illuminated. When the ceremony permanently moved to its existing location on the Ellipse in 1954 to better accommodate crowds, the National Park Service began annually cutting and transporting a tree to the site. By the early 1970s, however, they returned to having a planted tree, and there have been 5 since. The long standing 1978-2011 tree was removed after irreparable storm damage. Its replacement lasted only a year before succumbing to transplant shock. The current National Christmas Tree—a 28-foot-tall Colorado Blue Spruce—was planted in October 2012.

Just as the trees have changed, so too has the pageantry at President’s Park evolved. Various elements have been added, such as a menorah (1987), a model railroad (1993), and Santa’s Workshop (2008); others have fallen by the wayside like the Yule Log (2012) and live reindeer. Performances by local choirs and musical groups occur nightly (except Mondays) following the initial tree lighting ceremony and continue all the way up until Christmas Eve. What has remained a constant since first introduced on the Ellipse in 1954 is the Pathway of Peace, a walkway lined by cut Fraser Firs to flank the National Christmas Tree each December. The Pathway now contains 56 tree representing all 50 states, plus Washington, DC, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each is decorated with distinctive ornaments handmade by schoolchildren and artisans from that region.

Dogging the Details

38°53′41.57″N, 77° 2′10.98″W
The National Christmas Tree, President’s Park, Washington, DC
Annually, early December to January 1 ( site is accessible 10 AM – 10 PM)

The 2013 National Christmas Tree with the White House in the background.

President’s Park ranks a “1” on the Intrepid Pup’s wag-a-meter for being relatively easy to get to and for providing a unique experience once you’re there. If you’re coming with your dog, plan on doing some walking as you can’t bring your pup on the Metro system. Metered street parking is available, though, and we’ve found that it’s usually a little easier to find a space in the blocks west or north of the White House. Timing your visit for during the week or early in the evenings also helps.

Leashed dogs are permitted on the grounds of the National Christmas Tree, and admission is free—no tickets or reservations are required. Be forewarned, however, that there are typically large crowds, which aren’t always every pup’s cup of tea. If your dog doesn’t like getting jostled or is otherwise prone to claustrophobia, simply forgo walking along the Pathway of Peace; you can still enjoy the tree lights from afar from various vantage points throughout the Ellipse. It’s also been our experience that visitors are so busy looking at the tree that they’re not necessarily looking down and may even be startled to see a pooch in their midst. For your and your dog’s comfort, we recommend visiting at an off-peak time. If you’re going at night, consider adding something reflective so your pet stands out and is visible to other passersby (Tavish’s Chilly Dog® jacket has reflective piping, and he sometimes wears his Nite Ize® SpotLit blinking LED collar light, too). Your best photo ops will come a bit away from the fray, where the Pathway leads south from the tree and opens up onto the Ellipse. With the tree and the White House as your backdrops in the middle distance, you also won’t be holding up throngs of foot traffic to get that perfect shot!

Filed Under: Historic Home, National Park, Special Events, Wag-A-Meter=1 Tagged With: Carter, Christmas, Coolidge, dog, Hanukkah, holidays, menorah, National Park, Pierce, presidents, Tavish, tree, vizsla, Wag-a-meter=1, Washington DC, White House