I checked out the progress at the Boilermaker Shops on Sunday, and of course have posted a slew of new images, which show some pretty striking changes to the building's exterior, including large glass panels at Bluejacket's space on Tingey near 4th, along with marketing banners to let passers-by know what's coming after the building opens later this year.

As you look at the photos, you'll see the banners for Willie's Brew and Que sports bar, Wells Dry Cleaners, Huey's 24-7 Diner, Buzz Bakery, and Bluejacket Brewery.

What you don't see, however, are banners for Austin Grill Express and brb ("be right burger"), and this is no oversight. Forest City has passed along word that the leases with Thompson Hospitality for those two food outlets have fallen through. But work continues to find replacement tenants, along with others for the spaces not yet filled.

It's still expected that the building will open later this year, although Bluejacket is aiming for an early 2013 opening.

(If you haven't gotten enough of Yards construction photos, here's the hole in the ground still being dug for Twelve12, the Teeter/apartments building at 4th and M. And bless whoever cut a few camera-sized holes in the fence along 4th Street.)

With the arrival of the trees and some initial streetscaping now in place on the portion of L Street that runs through the park, you can now see how narrow the street is going to be in order to work to slow vehicular traffic as it crosses the park. (The completed streetscape will also give a visual cue to Slow The Hell Down.) K Street will get a similar treatment.

So check out the slew of progress shots on my Canal Park project page. And I do also recommend a run through my Expanded Canal Park photo archive, to make a time-traveling virtual visit to the park's three blocks, which will get you comparison shots like these:

(Southeast corner of 2nd and K. I love the first shot, from nearly nine years ago, with lots of school buses and without USDOT.)

The official Canal Park web site can also give you more information, along with these slides from a presentation at last month's ANC 6D meeting. Though, judging from the people who chatted me up while I was poking my camera through the fences, we're long past the "what" stage and deep into the "when" ("WHEN!?!") stage. An opening in November is still the target.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Quarter's last block, framing has now gotten underway on 4th Street, with bricking and painting finished on the houses on the 3rd Street side. My suggestion is to scroll through the Capitol Quarter Phase 2 Expanded Photo Archive, because I can't imagine at this point the before-and-afters need much narration.

(Southeast corner of Third and L, in December 2004 [through the windshield!] and today.)

Here's a gallery of 11th Street photos, including explanations of what's going on. The pictures also show the work underway to get the final demolition and clearing done so that 11th Street can become two-way all the way down to the new local bridge. (Though this can't happen completely until the ramp at N Street to the old outbound bridge is demolished, which is why I imagine the new bridge is only "partially" opening, enough to route outbound traffic onto it so that the final demolition can be completed.)

I also added images to my main 11th Street Bridges photo page, but you may also be interested in the more complete before-and-after sets of 11th and M, 11th and N, and 11th and O.

But there's also this view from O Street east of 11th, looking southward, which, in comparing November 2005 to now, shows one heck of a change:

Once the local bridge is open, the next big milestone will be the completion of the ramps from I-695 eastbound to DC-295 northbound, and from DC-295 southbound inbound across the freeway bridge, both of which are traffic movements that did not exist before this project. (No more dealing with the left turn on Pennsylvania Avenue, or taking New York Avenue outbound, to get to DC-295 from Near Southeast, Capitol Hill, and the Southeast Freeway.)

UPDATE, 5/21: DDOT has just sent out a release saying that the 11th Street Local Bridge will open "on or about Thursday, May 24." It is indeed a partial opening: "There will be 2 lanes for inbound traffic and 1 lane for outbound traffic towards Anacostia. There will also be a temporary 6-foot separated walkway for pedestrians and cyclists. (The local bridge is scheduled to be completed this fall with 4 travel lanes and a permanent shared pedestrian/bicycle path)." The release also says that the new ramp from southbound DC-295 to the inbound freeway bridge will open in about six weeks, and that the new ramp from 11th Street to the westbound SE Freeway will open by July 4. Click the two images for maps of the temporary routes and patterns.

Note that inbound traffic from the new bridge will be routed up 12th Street SE and then through the 11th and M intersection. The designs for the new bridge have always shown 11th Street becoming two-way, and the work up to M Street would seem to indicate that's still the plan, but the release doesn't say anything about the 12th Street routing being "temporary." Guess we'll have to see.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Nah, as I've been saying all along (such as in Saturday's photo gallery), the 12th Street routing for inbound local bridge traffic is just temporary.

On the ballpark's western side, overlooking South Capitol Street, there's now the Camden South Capitol apartment building rising out of the ground, more than four years after the lot was cleared in preparation for construction. While technically this new 244-unit building is outside of my boundaries, I've taken enough photos of the western side of South Capitol Street over the years to maintain a pseudo-project page, where you can get the basics on the development and some before-and-afters but where I'm not going overboard in documenting the building's arrival. The photos above were taken from the ballpark's northwest viewing platform, and you can see the other images I've taken from that perch since my first visit there in September 2007.

If you want some additional views to the west, I have a series of before-and-afters from the small opening at O Street near the elevators, including these looking straight out O:

Meanwhile, on the ballpark's south side, there's two changes since last summer worth getting photos of: the completed Riverwalk bridge between Diamond Teague Park and the Yards Park, and the clearing of the Florida Rock site. And, since my 2007 "before" shots are from the time that Potomac Avenue and First Street were being reconstructed, and long before the waterfront started getting spiffed up, the transformation is pretty striking, though you can tell that I had my wide-angle lens in 2007 but had to settle for stitched-together images this time:

You can browse my many variations of these before-and-after Anacostia River views, both to the southeast and to the southwest. And, note at the top of these pages the links to other "on high" photographs from various rooftops around the neighborhood.

(PS: Apologies for the site's extended outage on Thursday--a botched move by my hosting company to upgrade the hardware of my shared server resulted in what to you was a nearly seven-hour outage but to me was the equivalent of a couple of ice ages.)

It was a little more difficult than it looked like it would be (and had a bit of a crazy finish), but the Nats got a win for their sold-out 2012 Home Opener, winning 3-2 in the 10th thanks to a wild pitch.

It's not hard in this world of social media to find photos from Opening Day, but that doesn't mean I can pass up the opportunity to post my own, for those of you who weren't there (or even if you were).

I have two galleries for you browse through: my shots from around the stadium (both looking inside and looking out), along with images from the opening ceremonies. (I leave the photos of the game itself to others.) And now I think I shall take a bit of a breather!

UPDATE: Shoot, meant to include links to my previous Opening Day galleries (and more), if folks wanted some memories....

This morning I got a quick tour of the inside of the new Fairgrounds space just north of Nationals Park this morning, where the work is buzzing along to get the area ready for Thursday's Nats home opener at 1:05 pm. I talked with Bo Blair of Georgetown Events, and these are the tidbits he passed along:

* The Fairgrounds will open by 11:30 am, with about two-thirds of the footprint being used.

* There will be 10 to 12 food trucks on site.

* Three bands will play throughout the day.

* Ten or so vendors will be set up within the containers on the north end of the block.

Blair expects to keep the larger area of the site open through Sunday (since there are games each day), at which point probably only the main area on the north end of the block (the old Das Bullpen) will be open daily until crowds pick up as the weather (and the team?) improves.

If you haven't been following along, check out my post about the new venture from when it first came to light back in February. The north end is expected to be open daily through the end of the baseball season, while the larger area will open up for bigger events (such as Truckeroo, and the DC Challenge on April 28).

In the meantime, check out the photos, while keeping in mind that it's still kind of messy, and the overcast skies weren't exactly conducive to images that "pop."

UPDATE: The lineup of food trucks: @bbqbusdc @bigcheesetruck @curbsidecupcake @DCEmpanadas @TaKorean @LobstertruckDC @TheFicelle @gofishtruckdc @Sinplicity1 @Dougthefooddude and @surfsidetruckdc. And Fairgrounds's Facebook page says these will be among the vendors: "[B]aseball inspired painters, photography, cool clothes, even baby clothes, crafts from around the world, handmade jewelry, soaps, and great produce, popcorn and pickles! in the farm stand by Half Street."

The framing and Tyvek-ing is underway on 3rd Street south of L, in the shadow of the 300 M Street office building, as Capitol Quarter continues its march toward completion. I also took a lot of photos of other CQ Phase II blocks, so spend some time in the Capitol Quarter Phase 2 Expanded Photo Archive (and scroll down a bit) to hop through the many (many!) before-and-afters.

Then there's the Boilermaker Shops at the Yards, where some work was being done even on Easter Sunday. The walling off the interior space for the different tenants has begun, with the studs visible--and some drywall has even gone in on the mezzanine level, as seen at right, in a view from 4th Street, through what will be the Bluejacket space.

The work is on-going at Canal Park, but continues to not be terribly exciting from a photographic standpoint, unless you're wowed by images of new curbs. But the Canal Park Expanded Photo Archive can take you for a walk around the park's perimeter to see the current views, if you don't see it every day. (I also like my barbed wire shot [above right], the result of desperation after being without photos from the east side of 2nd and L for a very long time now. But, no, I didn't jump the fence.)

I also enjoyed being watched very closely by a USDOT security guard with a clipboard as I took photos of the park's progress from the south side of M Street. "What are you taking photos of?" she finally asked, trying to sound stern. "Stuff," I replied, as I smiled and kept walking.

There's also updated shots from 225 Virginia/200 I (seen at right), with the landscaping now starting to go in.

If you want to see today's entire batch (213 of 'em), here they are, remembering to click the fun little icon if you want to see the entire range of photos for a certain location. If you want even more new-ish pictures, here's photos I took around 1st and Half Streets on Tuesday, to get the Fairgrounds exterior into the official archive.

Now I need to go find that peanut butter bunny. I think I earned it.

I had an opportunity on Monday to make a trip to Viera for my first-ever Spring Training game, to see the Nationals beat the Houston Astros, 7-4. While sitting in the warm Florida sun for a few hours watching baseball was the top priority, I did arrive with camera in hand, and so couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures of the Nats' other stadium.

So, here are two photo galleries that might be of interest: looking around Space Coast Stadium, and action photos from the Nats-Astros game.

The Nats will be back at their real ballpark one week from today, for an exhibition game on April 3 against the Boston Red Sox. The home opener is now just a smidge over two weeks away, on April 12 against the Cincinnati Reds.

What a gorgeous spring day we appear to have on tap today! Wouldn't it be a lovely day for a nice stroll along a riverfront? Near Southeast, Southwest, and Capitol Hill denizens (plus a lot of the #bikedc crowd) are familiar with the neighborhood's portion of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, but now that the bridge between the Yards Park and Diamond Teague Park is complete, giving the main portion of the trail a connection to Nationals Park, non-residents should get a reminder to experience what is a path unlike any other in Washington.

The Foundry Lofts building is all but done, with only the retail spaces left to be built out, so I took a bunch of "after" photos that will probably last for a while. But that new Potbelly sign sure stands out! I also pressed my nose against the glass to peek inside the sandwich shop's space--it sure doesn't look far from opening.

Embarrassingly, I haven't had a camera in hand on the Navy Yard's portion of the Anacostia Riverwalk since 2004. (I'm always worried they're going to toss me in the brig as a security threat, especially after a run-in a few years back where I was chased down by both a gate sentry and the DC police after taking photos of the Hull Street gate from across M Street.) But I pushed forward yesterday and got a bunch of new shots that I've added to my Navy Yard page, taking care to demonstrate to the many security cameras that I was photographing the river and not the installation. (Don't miss the especially cool before-and-after of the gate to the Yards Park.)

I will probably be creating a separate Riverwalk page before too long, but not today.

Along 11th Street at N and M, photos are more notable for what's not there anymore, as the demolition of the embankment for the old outbound RFK ramp is done, and the path of the new ramp from M Street for traffic headed to the outbound 11th Street Bridges freeway traffic becomes more obvious. Also see this picture of the work on the 11th Street Local bridge, showing the demolition of part of the old outbound bridge approach, which has to be done before the new local bridge can hook up with 11th Street. (You can see it as well in my O Street before-and-afters, if you figure out what to look for.) Check my 11th Street Bridges photo page for more images.

Then there's Canal Park, where I mainly took some new photos of the pavilion under construction near M Street, since photos of digging and ground work don't quite rise to the level of "interesting." I also hit most of the angles for the Boilermaker Shops, as well as for Capitol Quarter Phase II, where the security guard expressed concern about my actions (I need a laminated Photography Approved card or something). And I wandered the 225 Virginia/200 I perimeter.

If you're a glutton for punishment, you can browse the 267 pictures from this trek that are now in my Photo Archive, using the links to see before-and-afters.