Friends of Cabin John Park picnic and ducky race

I was out for a walk on Cabin John Trail and saw a sign advertising the Friends of Cabin Joh Creek picnic and ducky race. It was on Sunday the 30th, and, since I can't resist a good race, I went.

They had hotdogs, hamburgers, pizza and sides at the picnic, and I signed up to have a rubber duck in the duck race.  To my surprise, there were several elected officials there, Sara Love, Maryland State Senator for the 16th district was there as well as Sarah Wolek and  Marc Korman both members of the Maryland House of Delegates for district 16,
 

 Here's a group photo of some of the people involved. In the pink shirt is Sara Love, the woman in the white shirt is Sarah Wolek, and the man with the net is Marc Korman.  The other woman is a candidate for a political office, though I didn't get her name.  The other people in the picture are part of Friends of Cabin John Creek.

The race was held in Cabin John Creek, so everyone made their way down the hill and cheered our ducks on.  It was a fast-paced race at the beginning with ducks shooting through the rapids, or, getting stuck on rocks. Later, it got to a calm portion and all the ducks slowed down.  My duck didn't win, I don't even know where it placed.  The top three finishers got a bottle of maple syrup as did the last duck to finish (duck number 7).

After ducks crossed the finish line, delegate Marc Korman scooped them up with his net, making sure none escaped or were injured.

Duck races are every bit as silly as you expect them to be, making it well worth my time to go there.
 

Democracy Center residential development

Democracy center is a cluster of three office buildings at the corner of Rockledge Drive and Westlake Terrace/Fernwood Road. It backs up to the I-270 Spur.  You probably didn't know this, but part of this property had a publicly accessible but privately owned park with basketball courts and walking trails.

In the above photo, one of the existing Democracy Center commercial buildings is on the left and beyond it the under-construction residential building. Rockledge Drive is in the foreground. 

That park-like part of the property is being developed into a seven-story residential complex with up to 386 housing units. There will also be a 1.3 acre privately-owned public open space between it and Rockledge Dr, as well a narrowed Rockledge Dr with tree pits installed in the existing right-of-way to provide for bike lanes on each side of the road. You can find out more at Montgomery Planning.

This is the current view from Rockledge Drive. The 1.3 acre open space will be where all the construction equipment and supplies currently are.

 

Side View

Here's how it looks from the side. This is from between the existing Democracy Center buildings.  The main entrance to the building will be in this area.

View from the I-270 Spur

This is what you see if you are driving north on the I-270 Spur just after Democracy Blvd.

 I took the bottom photo on Thursday, the rest of them I took on Friday.

 

 

Last night's Lunar Eclipse

 

Last night there was a Lunar Eclipse.  It wasn't total, but it here in the DMV it was pretty close.  Maximum in Bethesda was at 12:12 and I took these pictures about 10 minutes later, because, as Neil Sedaka's song says Waking Up is Hard to Do. 

It was quite rainy yesterday evening so I figured it would be overcast all night.  When maximum eclipse occurred there were thin high clouds so you could easily see the moon. However, there was also some light scattering by the clouds so the whole picture glows a little.  These two pictures were taking about a second apart, so the differences are mostly due to a slightly different exposure, but, about a minute after I took them, heavier clouds started covering the moon.
 

Bethesda Metro Station closed though September 6

 

From July 6 through September 6, the Red Line is closed between North Bethesda and Friendship Heights. That means Grosvenor-Strathmore, Medical Center, and Bethesda stations are closed. This is so that some track work can be done and so that the a mezzanine at the new south entrance to Bethesda Station can be built.

 Here in Bethesda, the escalators at the bus bays down to the station are blocked off and there are many signs directing you.  There was also a friendly person who gave me a flyer and told me where everything was.

Temporary shuttle stop

There are express buses that run from North Bethesda directly to Friendship Heights and local buses that stop at all the stations.  The shuttle stop southbound (pictured) is at Wisconsin Avenue and Montgomery Lane, where the metro elevator is located and near the old post office building. The northbound stop is at Wisconsin Avenue and East-West Highway, directly across from the station entrance and next to the building with a tunnel to the metro in it. 

Northbound shuttle stop

Here's a Red Line shuttle metrobus stopped at the temporary shuttle stop across from the metro station.  The two people on the left are there to help you find your way.  Not many people got on this bus but a number of people got off, this was on Sunday morning (today)

This was also this morning. The two yellow buses are express shuttles, the sign above the window would alternate between "Red Line" and "Express". on the left you can see a Metrobus that is being used as the Red Line Local shuttle.  This is Southbound on Wisconsin Avenue at Old Georgetown Road.

I took this photo on Friday before 9 am.  This is the temporary bus lane that runs southbound on Wisconsin Avenue.  The bus lane is only active Monday-Saturday, on Sundays anyone can use it. 

 

Kenwood Cherry Blossoms

 

Over the weekend, the cherry blossoms were at their peak.  No need to go all the way to the Tidal Basin, Bethesda's Kenwood neighborhood has blossoms a-plenty.  I went on Sunday, along with lots and lots of other people.

 

Carter sticks his tongue out at the No Barking sign (thanks Pete)

 

Driving through the neighborhood was possible, but slow and undoubtedly frustrating.  There were also "No Parking" signs posted on many of the streets (and about an equal number of "No Barking" but that didn't seem to be much of a problem. 

 Hundreds of people and families were out walking around, or sitting in the common areas enjoying the weather.

 

There were a number of places that kids were selling lemonade and this one humorous sign advocating a lemonade tax.

 

I also posted about the Kenwood cherry blossoms in 2022. 

 

 

 

 

Construction at 4725 Cheltenham Drive

 The Chetlenham is a new multi-family residential building being constructed on Chetlenham Drive where the old Midas car repair shop was.  It is next to the CVS and on the other side of Wisconsin Avenue from the Marriott headquarters in downtown Bethesda, Maryland. I first posted about this in May of last
year.

  

The back of the building.  There is an alley to the left of the building which will remain.

 

According to the plan, it will be a 76,841 square foot nine-story building with 102 units including 8 live/work units.  There will be no on-site car parking, however there will be 53 long-term and 2 short-term bicycle parking spaces.  There is a public garage (number 42) directly across the street. Cheltenham Urban Park is also next door to the building.  

 

This building is surrounded by the CVS parking lot. Here you can see the CVS in the background to the left.

 

Back 'n Side

The view from near the CVS entrance at the back and one side of the building.

Long-term roadwork on Eastbound Democracy at Fernwood

 

The work area west of Fernwood Rd

 Pepco is doing some emergency utility work on Westbound Democracy Boulevard at Fernwood Drive. This closes the right two lanes of Democracy Blvd, so only a single lane gets by.  This work could take as many as four months to complete, though the variable signs along the road say they will be done by mid-May.

  Pepco will work 7 days a week from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm but 24 hour work may be needed some of the time.  As you can see from the photos, they have put up jersey barriers in the construction area, so the lane closures are 24 hours a day, even if they aren't working.

Westbound on Democracy before Fernwood Rd

 The lane closure starts on the east side of the Fernwood Road, There is a length of road closed of by cones, before coming to a crash barrier and jersey wall protecting the workers.  They are doing work on both sides of the intersection.

 Pepco is working on restoring a fluid-filled underground transmission feeder that is part of their transmission network supporting distribution facilities throughout Montgomery County.

 

The solution to the housing crisis?

 Pepco has built a shed in the middle of the road to make it easier to complete the work.  Or, perhaps, the county is considering converting the two right lanes of all major streets into affordable housing.

Working on the east side

 A bit closer view of the work being done at Democracy Blvd and Fernwood Rd. And, yeah, still snow after all these weeks.

 

Update March 16: It looks like they got done much earlier than expected.  I drove by today and everything is cleaned up and all lanes are open. 

 

 

 

 

 

New electric car chargers coming in Bethesda

I noticed that the public county garage on Woodmont Ave and Edgemoor Lane is getting some level 2 Chargepoint chargers.  This is officially Garage 49, the Metropolitan Garage, it is the one close to Bethesda Metro Station. Level G1 four dual-port chargers. (Oddly, it looks like there are two spaces in the middle that aren't getting chargers.) There is also a dual-port L2 charger being installed at the handicap space near the Woodmont entrance.

 

Capital Crescent Trail, after the snow

 

I took a walk on the Capital Crescent Trail between River Road and Downtown Bethesda today.  The trail is clear to bare pavement the whole way there.  There were a lot of people out walking and a few people running or biking on the trail.  The county has done a very good job clearing it this storm. 

Capital Crescent Trail at Little Falls Parkway

 

 

Bikeshare Bike

This bikeshare station along River Road at the Capital Crescent trail has been visited by the bike angels post-snow storm.  There were two red bikesare bikes and one electric bike at the station and the wheels were on top of the snow (and you could see tire tracks on top of the snow) so they were clearly added post-storm.

River Road in the snow

The road itself is clear, but the bike lanes and sidewalks are not.  People have to walk along the partially cleared lane, or, like the guy at the top, run down the suicide lane in the middle.

Breakdown

Two people were putting gas in this bobcat in the suicide lane on River Road.  Not sure if that was the only problem or if other issues were also there.  Notice that the right lane in both directions is full of snow and not passable.

 

I saw someone on a side trail skiing.

 

 

 

 

Bethesda Metro Station construction

 Bethesda Metro Station is getting a new south entrance and connection to the future Purple Line light rail.  Work has been going on inside the station for a while.  On Wednesday I took photos of the status.

 At the far (southern) end of the station a wall panel is removed and you can see the real walls behind it.  The area is open behind the red plywood.  When the station was built they envisioned a future south entrance so left a knock-out panel for it. 

 To give you a sense of scale, at the very center of the plywood is a full-sized door, so I think the opening is 12 feet tall.  It seems a bit close to the tracks for a bridge over the tracks but I guess not. 

False Walls

I never knew the curved concrete walls of the station were removable panels and the real station walls weren't curved.  Here you can see the gap between the real wall and the apparent wall.

The new entrance will be located on Elm Street near Wisconsin Avenue and  will only have elevators, no escalator to the metro station.  A mezzanine will be built over the south end of the platform to allow access to the trains.

 

Fossil extension cord

I can't be 100 percent sure, but it really looks like when they poured the original concrete station walls they left an extension cord there and it left this serpentine outline.

 

Station in July 2025

 Here's how the station looked last July, the concrete panel that has since been removed was still up on the right side of the picture and they were still building the work areas on the platform. 

 

More information:

•  WRA page about their work
•  Montgomery Planning page about the entrance
•  Bethesda Today article about escalating costs

Strathmore View construction

 

Strathmore View office

 Strathmore View will contain 108 townhouses starting from the 1.2 millions and 17 single family detached houses. It is located on Strathmore Avenue near the Academy of the Holy Cross Catholic girl's high school.  In fact, the development is on both sides of the entrance and takes up some of what was the school property. 

Townhouses under construction

 This also replaces St. Angela's Hall which was owned by the Sisters of the Holy Cross and was a group home for retired nuns. The original project was supposed to include a senior living home, but I don't see that on the current plan.  

Single family house 

The first of 17 single family houses has been completed. Most likely this will be the model home. 

Construction of homes

 The Montgomery Planning pdf for the development has more details.

White townhouses

The townhouses in this section have been covered with the Tyvek moisture wrap but haven't been finished yet.

The west end 

The west end of the property along Strathmore Avenue, still bare dirt where more houses will go up.  On the left is Strathmore Ave.

Bethesda Community Store expansion

Bethesda Community Store porch

 

Call Your Mother moved out of the parking lot of Bethesda Community Store ("Browns") a while ago. For some time the lot was empty with a fence around it, but now they are expanding the original building. Now the building is being significantly expanded. The new version will be over double the size of the old. (Of course, the old building was really, really small)

The wood flooring and supports for the front porch are being replaced.  There isn't very much left of the original building. 

 

Expanding Browns

The original building is just the porch and the left section.  They took out the walls on both sides (and the back I believe) leaving only the floor, front wall, porch, and roof as original.  The rest is entirely new.

The lot

 The store is situated on the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Greentree Road (incidently, Latitude 39 degrees runs through the parking lot). Here is the lot as seen from the parking lot entrance on Greentree Road. Picnic tables and a shed are at the back right and the store is back left. The part with a white roof is all new construction.

Browns from across Greentree

Here is the view from across Greentree road. The black clad construction fence obscures most of what is going on.

As a kid my parents would sometimes take me to Browns to get lunch. I always got a Ham, Lettuce, and Tomato on Rye, it was the best. The store seemed really small even (and it had gray trim, not red). It was really just the deli counter, some snacks, and the cash register.  That version of the store has been long gone and the building has been unused since 2016, Call Your Mother deli had a food truck/trailer in the parking lot starting in 2020 but that's it.
 

Electric car charging at Cabin John Park

There are now chargers for electric cars at Cabin John Park near Cabin John Ice Rink and Shirley Povich Field.

The chargers are run by Pepco and branded "EVsmart Life, Fully Charged". They don't have the power level on them, and Pepco's website doesn't list it either. I think they are 50 kw DC fast chargers. That may seem like it isn't very powerful, but, I think they are geared for people who are going to be around for a while enjoying the park facilities.  Not only is the ice rink and baseball field (where Bethesda Big Train plays) just across the parking lot, there are also tennis courts and the Cabin John Trail right there.
 

There are two charging pedestals, each one has a CCS plug and a CHAdeMo plug.  You need to use the SWTCH mobile app or RFID card, or call a phone number to start the charger. 

For those of you who want to charge more slowly, or who can't charge with CCS or CHAdeMO, there are also two Level 2 J-1772 chargers available.  The Pepco website lists the cost of the Level 2 chargers at $0.18 per kWh which is a reasonable price. It doesn't give the power of the chargers, but based on the information they do provide, they appear to be 7.25kW chargers. 

There are four parking spots reserved for charging, 2 for the DC fast chargers and 2 for the Level 2 chargers.  The DC fast chargers cost $0.34 per kWh which is cheaper than most fast chargers (but they are also slower than most fast chargers).  Based on information on their website, these fast chargers have a power level of 45kW, but the nameplate capacity is probably 50 kW.