22 January 2008

Sun of a Son of a Sailor

Today’s post comes from my son. We were talking the other day, and he asked me “Daddy, what house is the sun house in Columbia?” Intrigued, I pushed for more info, “What is a sun house?” “The sun house” he replied, “is the first house that sees the sun in the morning.”

Beyond the “Where does a four-year-old get this” line of questioning running in the back of my brain, I think it’s a pretty cool question. What house in Columbia sees the sun first? An obvious start would be in the Eastern half of the city. Given the topography, most of Kings Contrivance is in the Patuxent River stream valley. The ridge of the Owen Brown neighborhood of Hopewell is a good prospect, as well as the Eastern parts of Long Reach (Kendall Ridge and Snowden Overlook).

The Spring Equinox is coming up pretty soon, which I think would be a good date to mark the path of the sun (as well as the autumn equinox and the solstices). Is anyone willing to do some pre-dawn excursions with me in March?

1 comment:

How I see it said...

That is a cool question, and I'd offer to help do the pre-dawn excursions were it not for me not being a morning person (when my son was on a crew team and needed a lift to the boat house in Baltimore at 4:30 AM, I dropped him off at a rower's house in Columbia and went back to bed!). Let me know what you find out, though, and maybe write an article on it for The Flier!