We took a drive to National Harbor in Maryland and were amazed at how it has developed. It used to be one hotel/convention center and a big parking lot, but now it’s like a good sized town on the Potomac, with myriad restaurants and shops lining the streets along the river, residential buildings, several hotels, parking garages and even a Ferris wheel.

The real reason we went, though, was to see this sculpture, titled “The Awakening,” by J. Seward Johnson, Jr., which I had photographed in 2008 when it was installed at Hains Point in Washington (see picture below). Before we left for Budapest in 2010, it had been dug up and moved to National Harbor, but we had never seen it in its new home. Personally, I liked it better in DC, but at least more people can now enjoy it in this tourist destination.

There was simply no way to get the kind of perspectives I got years ago of this powerful work of art, but I was told by a shopkeeper that it looks quite impressive in high tide, when the sculpture is partially immersed in water.

“The Awakening,” located at Hains Point in Washington, D.C., captured in 2008: