Dec 28-Almost done in DC

Today we tried to finish up visiting all the memorials along the Mall. We walked a long ways in the process! We started at the Washington Monument, but all the tickets for the day had been given out before 9:30 am. Guess we'll skip that. All the flags in town are at 1/2 staff now out of respect for the passing of Gerald Ford. We visited the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. After all that we had sore feet again and were ready for food. Too pooped to walk, we took our first taxi of the trip, up to Georgetown so that we could eat at Martin's Tavern. Caroline and Marc gave us a gift certificate for dinner there. Martins was built in 1933 and evidently lots of presidents have eaten there. We had the two dinners that they are famous for--Gene had a Delmonico steak, and I had crab "lumps" (nasty name for crab cakes). Both were delicious, thanks kids! We even sat in booth #3 -The Kennedy Booth-a.k.a. The Proposal Booth. The little sign on the booth read, "On Wednesday, June 24, 1953, having returned from covering the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth for the Washington Times Herald, Jacqueline Bouvier accepted John Kennedy's proposal of marriage" in this booth. No proposal tonight...but there is exciting news. The real excitement of the day came from Caroline and Marc...but I can't spill it here. You'll have to call them if you want to find out what I'm talking about. Suffice it to say its even better news than the free dinner on the kids! Gene and I are lucky folks! PS One of the pictures I posted was of me in front of a cherry tree in bloom. The weather in DC has been oddly warm and we've seen a few trees and even some daffodils in full bloom. Looks odd with the crunchy fall leaves underfoot!

Photo Gallery! Arlington and Ford's Theater

Dec 27 Mr. Fix It

Gene has been working all day on the toilet problem. First he rented two HUGE fans and a dehumidifier. We've had the heat up to 90 all day so its like a sauna in here! Looks like this is going to work, WHEW! Now he's got the toilet in pieces all over the floor. I keep running errands for him to pick up the parts he needs. I now know where Home Depot and the RV repair shop are. I've been cooking and cleaning all day...so I'm REALLY bored. Maybe I can get the blog up to date.

While I was gone Gene got some help from our House Representative's office so that we have been booked solid every day since I got back. Since September 11, you can't just wait in line to see certain things. You have to contact your Representative and give them security information at least 5 days in advance to have them arrange for your tour tickets. Thanks to Laura of Jay Inslee's office, we were given a fabulous tour of the Capital buildings, with her knowledge of everything being very informative. She took the two of us (that's right, just us!) through the tunnel from the offices of the Representatives, under Pennsylvania Avenue, and into the Capital. We really gave us the personal attention. She toured us through the Old Senate and House chambers, the Capitol rotunda, Statuary Hall, and then through some doors and right onto the floor of the House of Representatives. We sat right where the Supreme Court Justices sit for the State of the Union speech (maybe Jennifer will get to sit there someday). Gene mentioned that the first thing that came into his mind was FDR's speech of Dec 8, 1941 where he asked Congress to declare war on Japan...the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. There is an amazingly powerful feeling in the room even when its empty. We sat for quite awhile. Unfortunately, I noticed that under each seat there is a "evacuation hood" that is supposed to protect them in case of an attack. Spooky.

Inslee's office also got us White House tour tickets too. Aside from a little snag that our names weren't on the official list when we got there, it was great too. We just had to turn over our Social Security numbers, ID, and the letter and tickets from Inslee and, in about an hour, they let us in. The security here is VERY tight. You aren't allowed to take anything inside, no cameras, no purses, no stun-gun (there was a long list, and stun gun really was on it). The White House is magnificent as always--and really beautifully decorated for Christmas. It was a shorter tour than I remember but I assume that has to do with security as well.

Gene managed to somehow beg tickets to a production of "A Christmas Carol" at Ford's Theater. They were my Christmas present! The theater itself is amazing--we sat in the third row center, looking right up at the box where Lincoln was shot. The production was wonderful as well. Scrooge was fabulous, really nasty. Down in the basement under the theater is a National Park Service museum. They've got quite an exhibit of the assassination. The overcoat Lincoln was wearing, the gun Booth used, and Mary Lincoln's opera glass case that she dropped. Tons about the conspirators, the trial, and how they were tried and sentenced. Booth was killed when they caught up with him, a fire in a barn as I recall.

One night (I can't even remember what night it was), Gene and I were pooped and our feet hurt. We were on our way home but we wandered past the National Theater that had Billy Joel on the marquee. We love his songs and have seen him in concert so we wandered in to see if they had any tickets left over. Well, for $44 each, they did. We had to kill three hours before it started and after all that time we were REALLY pooped and our feet REALLY hurt. We couldn't wait to get to our seats and sit down. Funny thing was, the show was called Movin' Out (the name of one of his songs) and it turned out to be a musical using his songs--no Billy Joel at all! Totally funny. I did wonder why the tickets were so inexpensive, but it didn't click at all. I loved the show (I think Gene was nodding off). Some famous dancer (Tasha???) who danced with Baryshnikov (that may not be spelled correctly) choreographed this show that used 26 Billy Joel songs. The dancers were magnificent. Some ballet, some modern dance, some that looked more like gymnastics. Anyway, it wasn't what we were expecting, but it was great fun anyway.

We love the subways in DC. They are the cleanest and most efficient we've seen. Matt, I want one just like this in Seattle! No graffiti, no smoking allowed, no boom-boxes or cell phones. They are really well used. The train from our park to the Mall takes about 20 minutes. We counted the seats and figured that each train can hold 400 people sitting down...and a lot more with people standing. Most people are able to sit even during rush hour. The whole system is really easy to use. We just buy a ticket that lets us ride all day for $6.50, that way we can get on and off all day wherever we want.

We spent a day at Arlington National Cemetary too. Wandered all over, went into Robert E. Lee's home that is on the site. Actually it was his wife's home...he just got to live there! You can stand on their front porch and see right down to the White House and Capital which is all that would have been there when the house was built. Now you can see the Pentagon from there too. In fact, you can see the corner and side that were hit by the plane on 9/11. Spooky again. Watched the changing of the guard (Gene loved it), saw the Kennedy graves, the Challenger memorial, etc. It was starting to get dark when we headed over to see the Marine Memorial, the statue of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. I took this picture in the pitch black dark. No tripod so Gene and I stacked up all of our brochures, wallets, etc and layed down on our stomachs on the cold marble to get this photo. I hope you appreciate it!

Washington DC is truly wonderful. We've got a few more things to finish up our visit. We haven't seen the lecture at the Supreme Court (although we went in), we haven't been up the Washington monument, and we haven't been to Martin's Tavern where Caroline and Marc gave us gift certificates for Christmas. Thats my list...Gene probably has a longer one! We will probably be moving south soon as LJ and Hank may be coming to visit us in Florida so we have to get movin'. We have really loved it here though. Whew, I think that's about it. I'll try to choose a few of our best photos to post. Its been beautiful weather most of the time. Cold again today, but blue sky. We have been so lucky!

Elsie Speaks!

Yo, doggie family! Mom showed me this picture and I'm impressed. Jak, you da man! Sorry Charley but little dogs rule. You two are my people so stay tight and don't really bite. I'll be back to keep the peace (yeah, right) this spring. I'm busy keeping the deer in line in some place called Greenbelt, Maryland. Look how angelic I am in our Christmas photo.

Dec 26- The Big Flood

Things are all out of order on the blog...with both Gene and I posting we've gotten all confused. We'll just post everything and you can figure it out! We moved the RV from Greenbelt to a new (fancy) park yesterday. After we got set up we wandered the Mall again and finally finished the Archives. Whew! They have a wonderful exhibit right now that has first hand accounts of important events--some written by ordinary folks that witnessed the event, and some written by famous folks. Really incredible and even I wanted to read every one. I let Gene take me on the 10 minute tour of the Air and Space museum before we headed home, so I'm going to put up a few more pictures of the things that were interesting to me! This morning we are dealing with wet carpeting. When we walked into the rig last night the carpet was all wet and the toilet was flushing continuously. Yuck! Luckily the holding tank was empty so it was clean water. The toilet has been giving us trouble for the last month, but we thought we had it working. Guess not. It flushed so many times that it filled the holding tank (40 gallons) and then just spilled over onto the floor. The neighbors noticed the water runnng out under the door and turned the water off, but we were pretty wet. Its kind of a sauna this morning as we try to get dried out. Ooops. No photos of this event! Marc--the toy you gave Gene for Christmas made it to the Smithsonian! Evidently the Wright Brothers didn't invent it--someone gave them one as a gift when they were kids and it influenced their work. Cool. Gene has flown it inside the rig, but we need an open space to get the full effect!

Barb's Early Christmas in Seattle

I'm back to DC! What a wonderful trip home I had…family and friends, shopping with LJ, Portland with CK et al, walking with the Wednesday Walkers, cool windstorm, Marc on the roof, presents in the dark, salmon barbeque for Christmas a la Hank, marshmallow gun fights with my boys. Total fun. Couldn’t have been better unless Gene had flown home with me. We missed having him with us, but after two hours on the phone while we opened gifts I think it felt as if he was there. I loved watching the girls as he read them Twas the Night Before Christmas from D.C. I keep smiling every time I think of Matt yelling "this is the best Christmas EVER!"

My flight home was quite an event. Only took me from 6:00AM to 3:30PM to get out of Sea- Tac. Gene met me on the Washington D.C. MetroRail and it’s been a tourist whirlwind since then. I’m glad to be back on the road with my partner…and Elsie too.

Dec 20: Barb’s Finally Back!

Today was one of the best days of our adventure. I picked up Barbara at the airport for our return to normalcy – the trip continues!

The reunion was easy on my end. All I had to do was clean up the coach from 2 weeks of bachelorhood, fixing things, and scattering computer stuff all over the place – hence no pictures! Barbara, on the other hand, had to leave Seattle and make her own adventure in air travel. I’ll have her fill you in later, but suffice it to say that she had to change her (and my) plans quite a few times. I picked her up on the subway, and took her home for a nap while I went to Costco! We then went in to town and took a very quick buzz through the National Archives building which holds important papers, foremost being a couple of very big deal documents like the actual Declaration of Independence and the only ever original hand-written (on parchment) copy of the US Constitution, both in a very impressive display, in the safest building in Washington DC, guarded by many very serious people. I talked to all of them!! We closed the place up after going through a portion of additional displays an all sorts of historical events that we plan to revisit.

While Barbara was gone I had spent a major portion of a day making arrangements and getting tickets for the big “finale” to our Washington DC adventure. I will tell you all about these as we do them in the next couple of days.

The shortest days of the year truly are, especially when you live in a dense forest. We always get home in the darkest of dark to find to coach and Elsie patiently waiting for us for her walk. Our motorhome could use some automatic lights to come on when it gets dark to keep the traveling partner awake and happy. Oh, this roughing it is so rough.

We hope all is well with everyone and that your electricity is back on. How do you plan to read the blog without power??

Dec 17: Birthday Party with the Wright Brothers

Ever since I can remember I have always felt a connection with my birthday and the first heavier-than-air flight of the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on this date in 1903.

Though this trip has not (and really can not) have precise plans, I originally had the great idea of spending my birthday at that spot on those windy sand dunes of Kitty Hawk. Well, being way behind that schedule, I spent the day with the true star of the day, the actual Wright Flyer that made history at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

Some facts on the first flight that I find of interest:
1. The first attempt on the 17th, at 10:35 AM, with Orville at the controls, the Flyer was launched from its rail and sailed 120 feet over the sand in 12 seconds. That flight could have been made inside of a Boeing 747!
2. They made 3 more flights that day of 175 feet, 200 feet and its final and most significant flight of the day of 852 feet in 59 seconds which proved that the Wright brothers were capable of sustained and controlled flight.
3. The Flyer was damaged after that final flight of the day, being tumbled around in the strong wind, not from flying.

We have already learned (and reported to you in the blog!) that they then spent the next two years refining, perfecting, and practicing with their invention at their home in Dayton, Ohio flying in controlled circular flights around Huffman Field outside of Dayton.

Touring through the Air & Space Museum just proves how rapidly the aviation industry progressed in such a very short time. Though the Wright Flyer (and the rest of the artifacts from the event) was the start and highlight of my day, going through the rest of both Museums (one on the National Mall, the other near Dulles Airport, west of Washington, DC) was an amazing tour through the rapid growth of aviation.

They have it all from the first aircraft (the Wright Flyer), to the first plane to cross the Atlantic (the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindberg at the controls), to the fastest plane ever made (the SR-71 Blackbird, to the Mercury capsule that carried John Glenn into orbit, the Gemini capsule that witnessed Ed White’s first American space walk, and the Apollo 11 Command Module that transported Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to and from their first landing on the moon.

Other planes of (my) interest were (again, all actual real things!) the B-29 bomber named “Enola Gay” that not only dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, but also was the first to have many important improvements to airplanes, among them being a pressurized cabin. The original Boeing 707 (Dash 80) that changed how we now take airplane travel for granted was just sitting there with the memories of its antic over the hydroplane course in Seattle in 1955. Copy and Paste the following link to learn or re-live the event: http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=390

I was amazed, but not surprised, how often "Seattle" came up in the conversation in the progress of aviation.

The entire day was a perfect visit with history. If you were to visit either museum, I strongly suggest that you take the tours they have some real informative experts.

On the way back home I drove along the National Mall on this very dark but shirt-sleeve warm evening. I used a tripod to take some decent pictures of the Capitol and Washington Monument beautifully lighted. There were many people just strolling in the dark between these all sites, from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol building.

I left the motorhome at 9AM and returned at 10:30PM after celebrating a lot more than my birthday. It was a great day, except the getting older part!

A Great (Early) Family Christmas

I should have written this last night but the early family Christmas in Seattle lasted until the cell phones gave out around 12:30 my time here in Washington, DC. Listening to the chatter of family at (our) Christmastime via phone is not quite like being there, but will suffice under the circumstances. Caroline and Marc traveled from Oregon for the weekend, and Laura and Hank escaped from work long enough to join Barbara and Peggy at a very darkened Three Tree. Why Marc would have had his headlamp with him is a good question, but it helped having it while opening presents. The continuous chatter around several candles and the fireplace sounded great. As always, we took turns opening gifts, Elsie and I included with packages delivered by the FedEx sleigh. We even had to put a stop the action while I took Elsie outside to bark at some deer.

We have had an early family Christmas for a couple of years now in order to get everyone together with their work and travel schedules. It is a far cry from our 10-day journey to Hare 6 at SunRiver, but everyone makes the day and night very special. Laura and Hank went, of course, to Hunters Tree Farm to select and decorate the tree for Three Trees living room. One thing is for rock-solid certain . . . I know that Laura and Caroline have learned the importance of all of the traditions and importance of a true family Christmas Holiday. "Barb, we did good!"

This year's family celebration had a different twist, with Lentil in the oven. The child is already spoiled at the ripe old age of -5 months old! Oh, what next years Holiday season will be like! Can't wait to see Peggy jogging with the new stroller, occupied . . . and maybe some electricity!

It was a great family night with more coming tonight, possibly for more sandwiches. What disappointment you must have had "saving" the mint tarts with the freezer warming up. Such sacrifice. The cell phone will be charged up again for tonight, even though you won't be able to read this until the power returns.

The gifts you sent to me last night are wonderful and appreciated. The presents I opened up were also perfect. Thank-you for everything and, as I read early this morning . . . “MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL (THANKS FOR) A GOOD NIGHT!”

Thursday Night Lights... and Lights Out!

As per my previous post to the blog, Thursday was my first time onto the Washington DC subway and into the Capital area for a fairly quick look-see around. After a brisk walk on a very spring-like afternoon and a subway ride back in the dark, I got home to one of the darkest nights yet in the park.

I settled down all warm and snuggy to begin my blogging experience, to have some dinner with Elsie, and to watch the Seahawks on the NFL channel. As soon as I switched the channel, the evening became nothing more than flooded bubbles of floating plastic, a very poor showing from the home team, and the most naked of bootlegs since pee-wee football.

Fortunately for me most of the game time was spent trying to figure out this blogging thing, finally getting it posted around 11:30PM EST. No driving through "friday night" traffic during a dark Seattle monsoon for me or any sane person. Then I got the phone call interrupting the boredom of the game. Seems Caroline and Marc called asking for advise for a quick, safe, and managable route from the Seattle Center (at 5:30PM PST) to Bel-Square for a 6:00PM get together of real and near-real daughters. Everything was gridlocked and making a not-so-postive impression on Marc, I'm sure. At least, I figured, Laura had the sense to stay warm and dry at work (knowing she never leaves this time of year (Oprah, not Christmas!). that figure quickly vanished when I learned that Hank was given 2 tickets at the rainiest time to the hopeful game of the century. This must have been their last minute of sanity for the evening! Who would be so crazy to to give up their tickets on such a momentous night?

Just so you know that others had it bad too, Charlie and Kristine survived a big snowstorm, so big that he was chained so tight to his snowblower that he couldn't even discuss football stategy before the game! Of course, he also probably made himself a ski run in front of the house for Kloe.

I got up this morning to check in with the the Daily Evergreen, Seattle Times, KING, and KOMO to find out the entire region is laid to waste, everythings is flooded and, unless your batteries are charged, your not reading this anyway. I can only hope that things get back to normal quickly. Sounds like the utility crews might need some Christmas cookies and hot coffee to get the job done. Of course I can also only hope that the poplar trees blew down, but eastward.

Three Tree has stood up to many storms for a century now, but has hosted many, many more family events like this weekends "early" Christmas. Thanks to everyone for traveling to this family hub to enjoy the Season and each other. It felt right that I stay here to explore this vast unknown area, until right now. You'll have to celebrate the Birth with me in abstentia!

On closing:

1. Natural grass fields can get beat up and torn up, then repaired, but they never bubble up and attempt to float away.

2. Let's hope the Seahawks are better dressed for the next naked bootleg!

I hope everyone is still safe and secure . . . and, please, stay that way!

Finally, Washington…and I’m blogging solo!!

December 14, 2006

First off, please understand that Barbara could say all of this in 5 sentences!


We hope that we haven’t lost all of our faithful audience with this delay. Barbara flew home on Tuesday (12/5) to get her teeth tightened and to do some shopping without me around whining. Elsie and I are hunkered down in beautiful Greenbelt National Park, just 12 miles from “the” White House.

I am the only one in the entire campground during the weekdays with a couple of others here on the weekends. There were 2 sites – in tents – last weekend with the night temperature around 22 degrees, so I know I have plenty to be thankful for, including the proverbial “warm puppy”!

The first 9 days were spent on some minor repairs, starting with our internet satellite dish mount that I need in order to visit with you. Any blogging on that would have been unreadable and I wasn’t in the mood for taking pictures doing the job, but it finally did turn out perfect. I got lucky on another repair to the motorhome rear furnace, not that I fixed it but I got the $150 controller board I will need for $34 on EBay! The rest of the time was an easy purchase of a new laptop, followed by the frustration of having to get all the information from the old one to the new one. What a hassle!

The original plan was to spend these 2 weeks exploring as many sites in the capital area as possible to spare Barbara the agony of seeing all of this for the 3rd time. Obviously, being my first time here, the menu is long and delicious. Now I will be filling the next several days trying to eat it all up, so stay tuned.

My first day, today, was spent getting my feet wet on the DC Metrorail system. After Boston and NYC, this one was as easy and a bit nicer. From the motorhome, a 2 miles drive by Jeep put me in the Metrorail parking lot and on to the Green Line, 30 minutes from the center of the capital. I ended up taking an immediate side trip to the National Cathedral on the Red Line (more on that later) before returning to the Washington Monument area. I didn’t know that the monument was on a hill, but you can see most everything from the base. Notice in the pictures that we are still lucky on the weather with today just another great spring day with the highs bit above 60 degrees. I only had enough time to walk from there to the front of the White House while the sun set. Then back to the train and my patiently waiting partner. As with all of our evening walks (boy, it gets real dark here in the forest at 5:30 PM), Elsie gets to bark at a big bunch of deer that roam the woods and crunch the 4-6” deep dry leaves in the campground. She pulls like a draft horse when she wants to play with the “big dogs”.

Anyway, I’m back in action and hope to provide you with some idea of what I’m doing and what I’m seeing. After the feedback I’ve heard from many of you concerning Barbara’s blog descriptions and pictures I know that my style will be somewhat different. Please rest assured that she will return to full time action next week. Finally, a special thank-you to those who kept Barbara busy during her visit, except for the few who forced her into more shopping!

December 7-Seattle!!!

I'm home! Feels nice to see Mom, Laura, Hank...and Puget Sound. I've got a busy week planned visiting friends, shopping, and enjoying early Christmas with the family. Gene is in Washington DC, doing a few motorhome repairs. The first repair is on the DirectWay dish that we use for our internet connection. He has promised to blog as soon as he gets it fixed. Hopefully he'll get his work done and have time to visit some sites while I'm gone. Keep checking in! Love, Barb PS. The pictures that I posted for Gettysburg are a monument to General Lee, sitting on his horse Traveller. The other is a hole in a farmer's barn that was made by a cannonball!

Dec 2 and 3-Gettysburg, PA

We had to switch gears historically-speaking, because we just spent two days at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Moving from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War took a bit of adjustment. We’re almost a hundred years later. The country is divided over states rights. The South wants to be left alone and have each state govern itself (and allow slavery of course). The North favors a central Federal government. I’m not a civil war expert, this is just what I gleaned from two days studying…so blog me if I make an error! I believe that the fight at Gettysburg takes place in more or less the middle of the war and that the Union (North) wasn’t doing so well. There wasn’t anything to fight over at this particular location, just farmland and a town of about 2,400 people. It just happened that the two armies met here for three days in July of 1863. The Southern army (Confederates) were led by General Robert E. Lee. They’d marched through Virginia, into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lee’s cavalry (the do the scouting) was on a raid somewhere so he had no idea where the Union army was. It just so happens that they were behind him, led by Maj. General George G. Meade (Ulysses S. Grant was busy fighting somewhere else). The two armies touched by chance at Gettysburg on June 30th. The main battle started on July 1st, when the South attacked the North. The North was outnumbered, and was overpowered and pushed back to a place that’s called Cemetery Hill. There is a National Cemetery there now, and that’s where Abe Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. “Four score and seven years ago, our Fathers set forth on this Continent, a new nation…” But that doesn’t happen till later that year, November 19, 1863 when they finished burying the dead and were dedicating the cemetery.
Back to the battle! On the second day of fighting at Gettysburg, there were quite a few battles. One of the battles involved a fellow named Sickles, a Northern leader who was politically appointed and had no battlefield training. Sickles moved his troops without orders from Meade and left a huge gap in the Union line. Day two didn’t end any better for the Union than day one had. On day three though, Lee’s artillery let loose a two hour bombardment of the Union lines. Both sides had cannons at the time that could fire accurately at a distance of two miles. His plan was to finish them off the Union after 2 successful days of fighting. Lee (or an underling) then sent 12,000 confederate soldiers marching across an open field toward the hill where Meade and his army were. This was known as Pickett’s Charge and didn’t go well for the Confederacy. More than 5,000 soldiers became casualties in one hour. The Confederate army was overwhelmed and had to retreat to Virginia. The battle was over. Meade was criticized later for not pursuing Lee’s troops, but he is remembered as the man who won the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg is called the “High Water Mark” of the Civil War because it is the northern-most battle of the war.
Whew! Probably more than you wanted to know! We hired a private tour guide at the National Park visitor center. We all hopped in our jeep and he toured us all over, explaining the battle along the way. It was a great way to get a feel for the battle. There are a few buildings with cannon damage that are still standing. I’ll post a picture of a barn with a hole in it. There are monuments everywhere. The guide said that there are between 1,300 and 1,400 monuments in the park. We even happened upon a marker for a soldier from Michigan named Howe! I may have to post this from Seattle as I will be flying home in the morning. Gene is staying to explore Washington DC and promises to keep posting. I’ll see some of you in a few days!