More Washington DC (05-06-13)

Monument Day: The day we walked 5 miles to see all the monuments.  Ok, not all of them.  We didn’t walk the extra mile to see the Jefferson Memorial, but maybe we’ll get a chance before we leave.

We walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and dutifully took our pictures of the White House. 

We couldn’t get too close to the front yard- we could get closer in the backyard, for some reason.

I zoomed in really close and took a picture of the sniper on top of the White House.









We spent hours walking up and down the National Mall.  Don’t think stores- think Memorials and Monuments.  On the way there we passed through a really cool sculpture garden:

stainless steel tree

old fashioned typewriter eraser

 

The World War II Memorial is really well done.  I have an App on my phone that has a map of the Mall, and short blurbs about each of the monuments/memorials.  The amount of thought that went into the design of this one  is amazing.

  Every part of the monument has meaning, it seems. For instance, the 56 columns (stalae) represent the states, territories, and the District of Columbia, arranged according to when they joined the Union.

Each star on the Freedom wall represents 100 people who died in the war.

The Mall is a very busy place.  While we were there, an outdoor yoga class was taking place, as well as a celebration of Cinco de Mayo. I am not sure I’d be interested in a yoga class where the instructor is using a microphone with massive speakers, but then, I don’t do yoga.

   

The Lincoln Memorial is as massive as ever, really huge and somehow awe inspiring, with his immortal words carved into the nearby granite for all to read.

The view from beneath the columns of the Lincoln Memorial was pretty impressive as well.  It doesn’t show as well in the picture but behind the Washington Memorial is the Capitol Building.  The Washington Memorial is closed due to damage from an earth quake two years ago.  There is scaffolding surrounding the exterior.

  These larger-than-life stainless steel servicemen represent the Korean War veterans, trudging through the windy and cold terrain. 

My dad was in the service during the Korean War, although he was lucky enough to be stationed in Boston, his home town.












Most people are familiar with the Vietnam Wall, inscribed with the names of the 58,000+ service members who died in the Vietnam War.  Young schoolchildren wrote and left notes written to individual people on the wall, thanking them.

In addition to the “major” memorials, there are lots of lesser known ones.  We stopped by the Memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Every day, on the way in to town, we pass right by the U.S. Navy Memorial. We finally stopped today to wander through part of it, but we need to stop and take a better look.  It started to rain while we were there.

Snippets of Washington D.C. (05-02-13)

Every day at 4 pm, the RV park we are staying in has a seminar for new visitors.  They explain how the Metro works, give out maps, explain what there is to see around DC, give opinions on the best tours, hand out brochures, and answer any questions.  It sure made it easier and less overwhelming for us!  Since Washington D.C. is not a dually friendly town, it was great to learn that bus stops in front of the RV Park.

We wanted to get our feet wet, so to speak, so our first day, we ventured in on the Metro and went to the International Spy Museum. Walking around the city was fun in and of itself, looking at all the buildings, the architecture, and enjoying the hustle bustle of the crowds (made more enjoyable by not needing to find a parking space).

The Spy Museum is dedicated to all things espionage related. It was fun but would maybe be more fun for kids. You pick an identity when you first enter,  and have to memorize some basic information, which you are asked about later.

The first main room is Spy School, where you learn how to act like a spy.  This photo was about signals- there are 4 signals in the picture that could be used by spies to communicate that a task had been completed: the book in the back dash of the car, the white mark on the mail box, the pack of cigarettes on the ground and….I forget the 4th one.

In the “Hall of Fame” of spies, we learned about Juan Pujal Garcia (code name Garbo). He worked for the British during WWII, as one of the most effective double agents in history. He fabricated an entire network of make believe agents and contacts and convinced the Germans they were real. He played a large role in the invasion of Normandy, a hugely successful piece of trickery on the part of the Allies. Garbo helped convince the Germans that the invasion would take place at Pas De Calais.  If you google this guys name, his story is really interesting reading!

One entire floor of the museum is dedicated to James Bond.  I did not know that the author,  Ian Fleming, was a British Intelligence agent. One of the quotes from him essentially said that although fun to write, the life of James Bond is much more exciting than a real secret agent’s life!

Doing some basic planning based on the weather forecast, we had to focus on outdoor activities for a few days because the weather is going to take a turn for the worse.  We met up with my friend Steve, who I have been friends with since high school. Yikes! That’s 40 years that we’ve been friends!

 

Steve found a great hike for us at the nearby Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park.  The canal isn’t maintained anymore, but there is a museum about the history of the area. The trail was pretty rocky, which meant we had to watch our step, and we ended up turning around at the sign that warns that the trail is about to get a whole lot more difficult.  We weren’t prepared for that challenging a hike that day.

The Potomac River flows through the park, and there were great views of the waterfalls along the way.

After that workout, we decided we deserved Margaritas even though it was the 4th of May, not the 5th.  We went back to Steve’s place for Margaritas and tacos.  Yummy!

Paul and I also took a bike ride the other day.  There’s a bike path very close to the RV park (with tennis courts too, but I haven’t been able to convince him to play). We rode about 4 miles towards the city, and passed about 4 parks along the way.  One of them had a great set up with several workout stations, right along the bike path.

 

This pretty Cardinal keeps trying to fly into our living room, and of course, smacks into the window.

If nothing else, it sure does serve to entertain Dozer, who hopes in vain that the bird makes it into the room.

Stafford, VA (04-29-13)

This is a first for us- we are driveway camping!  Usually when someone offers for us to stay in their driveway, we decline.  Most people, even when we tell them we are 36 feet long, have no concept of how big we actually are.  But Charley and Deloris are RVers and have spent time in our rig.  We met them in the Florida Keys and when they heard we were headed this way, they offered their driveway to us. 

It still wasn’t easy getting in, but we made it, and we’ll be here for a couple of days before we leave for the other side of Washington DC.

In the meantime we are having fun spending time with them, and exploring this area.  I didn’t know that Stafford was the boyhood home of George Washington, but I do now!  There are a ton of civil war sites in this area, including a brand new park, 10 minutes from Charley’s house.  We went with them and their son Jake to opening day, when they had a re-enactment of a Union Winter Camp.

Charley and Jake were surprised to see that it was a Union camp, since so many of the sites around here are Confederate. 

After having our fill of the  Civil War, we ate at our first “Five Guys” hamburger place.  The burger was excellent, as were the fries.

The weather hasn’t been the greatest, probably because, as Charley says, we moved too far north too fast.  Since it rained the next day, Paul and I decided to head to Quantico, to the National Marine Corp Museum, so we could stay inside all day. This is a free museum, dedicated to all things Marine Corp, and it is very well done.

The Marine Corp was started in 1775 and has been a vital part of our Armed Services ever since.  On the legacy wall there are plaques with pictures and hand written notes from marines.  The notes answered the question “why did you join the Marines” and the answers ranged from the philosophical to “ I was bored after high school”.

There are numerous rooms with information from different eras, including some “immersion” scenes, where you walk into a room and are inside a battle scene, complete with audio and visual. This scene depicts the “frozen Chosin Reservoir” during the Korean War.

The scene below represents the Viet Nam War- you enter through the airplane into a room that is hot, noisy with gunfire, and depicts a medivac situation.

There was an entire room dedicated to the music of the Marine Corp. The Marine Band was established by Congress in 1798, but became more well known under the direction of John Phillip Souza in the late 1800s.  At this virtual stage, we could press a button and listen to the Marine Band play a Souza march. I listened to all 4 that were available, of course.

The last room was a memorial for September 11, 2001

There was a timeline showing the events of the day, and it was all mesmerizing to me.

 

Reading cryptic signs simply stating things such as the time each plane became non-responsive to air traffic control, or when each plane’s GPS tracking device was turned off, was chilling. That day is so etched in our collective memories, it was odd to listen to the conversation of some nearby young teens who were discussing how old they were when it happened. They were all too young to remember it. 

Even though the weather was wet, we only had one more day, so we headed to Fredericksburg to tour the battle sites there.  Fredericksburg was the site of one of the first urban battles.  It was literally fought in the streets and most of the town was destroyed.

Originally a Confederate town, the Union army, led by General Burnsides, arrived to seize Fredericksburg for the North.  Unfortunately for him, he made a few huge tactical errors.  The most costly one was a timing error. He needed pontoon bridges in order to cross the river, and they were two weeks late in arriving.

During those two weeks, General Lee was busy amassing his troops. By the time Burnsides was able to cross the river, the Confederate army was 85,000 men strong, and held the easily defended hillsides of the town. As a result, the battle was one of the bloodiest, one sided battles in the Civil War.  In one day alone, 7500 Union soldiers fell- some wounded, some dead.

With the battle still raging, Richard Kirkland, a confederate soldier, couldn’t stand the injured Union troops cries for water.  He filled canteens full of water and under enemy fire, brought the canteens to the wounded.  When the Union soldiers figured out what he was doing, they stopped shooting at him and cheered him on.  He is called the Angel of Marye’s Heights.

Fredericksburg was at the epicenter of many Civil War battles, and there are over 20,000 Civil War graves in this area.  Very few headstones contain names- most of them are unknown soldiers.