Washington DC can be very drab in the winter.

I spent a few days there before heading to Malawi, and the first few hours out in the cold and sleet left me feeling very depressed. An idea started forming in my mind. I called it “Ichabod” (the glory has departed): lifeless monuments, bleak landscapes, and an overall feeling of a city that has grown hollow with bureaucracy, crime, and corruption…

But then the rain got so bad I hid out in the National Conservancy. And as the rain poured down on the skylights, I wandered through forests, deserts, and jungles. And slowly, my perspective changed for the rest of my time there. The glory hadn’t left Washington. It just doesn’t dwell in halls and rotundas, bills and legislations, people and their promises.

As I learned, Washington DC can be very beautiful in the winter.

Want to see more Washington? Check out the complete gallery here.