Our Nation's Capitol

It really is such a pleasure to visit Washington. It is such a beautiful city, beautifully laid out with the Mall and the Monuments. Most everything is free, too (our tax dollars "at work!") And the newer monuments .... Vietnam, Korea, FDR ... all add so much. What isn't beautiful is the climate .... we listened to (and believed!) the weather report last Monday (Columbus Day) which predicted that it would be lovely 70 degrees. We decided to just go in our T-shirt sleeves in the morning so as not to have to carry our jackets when it warmed up .... boy, were we sorry (see below). It didn't get higher than 55 degrees and was DAMP! But we were still really happy to be there.

MILEAGE:

Buster: 0 (no mileage this week; Buster took a breather this week parked in College Park, Maryland)

Bella: 240 miles

Total for League's Excellent Adventure: 10,725 miles

State count: 18 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia PLUS the District of Columbia!


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009

We set a tour of the capitol as our first agenda item for our adventure in our nation's capitol. We had contacted our representative, Tim Walz' office, Minnesota 1st Congressional District, and his assistant had promptly responded and arranged the tour tickets for us at 10:00. We negotiated the mass transit system taking a bus from Cherry Hill Campground (very well outfitted including life-size cutouts of our President for photo opportunities!) to the College Park Metro Station, and then the green line to Fort Totten, with a transfer to the red line to Union Station. From there we walked over to the Capitol Visitor Center.

It is in the lower level of the Capitol Building and has a number of beautiful exhibits including statues of Americans as diverse as Sakakawea and Gus Grissom. We once again had a very informative guide who shared with us the background of those beautiful paintings in the rotunda. Various statues are present in the rotunda, and just a couple of days before our visit, the State of Georgia (we think) sent a new statue for display: Helen Keller, the first time a child has been portrayed in the Capitol Building.


Our guide then led us to another domed (half-domed, actually) room where statues of prominent individuals from the original 13 colonies were present. I believe it used to be the House Chamber when it was smaller. Now, with 435 members, they need larger digs. The only additional statue is this bust of Lincoln. Sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, it is intentionally incomplete (absent left ear) because "Lincoln's life was incomplete." It is incredibly expressive and we were told that one of Lincoln's son has said that this sculpture represents his father's appearance better than any other likeness.

He certainly looks burdened, doesn't he? As he was.

They had a lovely cafeteria in the visitor center where our grazer, Elizabeth, had a little snack. And then it was time to meet Katie Zimmerman, a lovely middle school biology teacher in Northern Virginia who was Liz' summer nanny when she was two and three years old. Katie picked us up in front of the Capitol, and very expertly negotiated the One Way streets as we made our way to Georgetown where we found some yummy salads for lunch at a market/deli. Then she dropped us off at the National Cathedral. We were so happy to see her (she was getting ready to fly to Florida the next day to meet up with her family on a little excursion).

The National Cathedral looks like a real European cathedral. Built of Indiana limestone, it is the 6th largest in the world. It is an Episcopal cathedral "welcoming people of all faiths." It is gothic with the flying buttresses and long nave. It has gorgeous stained glass windows, as you can see:

We had a very warm day and so decided to walk to the subway station and make our connections on the Metro back to College Park. We ended up with over a mile trek, but took our time and made it. My knees were talking back a little, but it was good for Liz (and me!) to stick with it. We encountered the Breast Cancer awareness runners who were doing the first 20 mile leg of a 60 mile three day walk/run. They were inspiring!

The next day, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10th, we slept in a little and made a visit to Mt. Vernon, a short drive down the Potomac from Washington, our goal. Actually, we were glad to legitimately be back in the car again (at least I was). Mt. Vernon has undergone improvements and enhancements with a beautiful new museum and Visitor Center. We had lunch at the Tavern, and then took our tour of George and Martha's mansion. Gary and I have been more impressed with George Washington on this trip ..... actually we have been watching a History Channel set of DVD's .... Founding Fathers .... and learned a lot about Washington from this as well. He seems, almost uniquely, to be a man who realized when it was best to relinquish power. You will remember he resigned his commission from the military after the Revolutionary Way so he could return home to Northern Virginia and resume his role as a farmer. As alluded to in an earlier post, the fact that he had no natural children, only step-children, made him appealing as a choice for president because the temptation for an inherited succession would be eliminated.

And he was tall ... much taller than his peers. We also learned about some key moments as a General, and after the war, when he motivated his troops to continue for the greater good of freedom and liberty. In fact, there was a near insurrection in upstate (Newburgh) New York near the end of the war. The soldiers hadn't been paid, and they wanted General Washington to take command of the government. He was the voice of reason and was successful at getting the troops to accept that Congress would pay them and that they were, in fact, fighting for the noblest of causes: liberty. He seemed like he had the perfect temperment and leadership ability for the most important job in the new Republic.

Here are some images from Mount Vernon (that's Bo "the Presidential Pup" with Liz!)

I love the view of the Potomac from the Washington's "backyard." Fortunately somebody had the foresight to protect the land across the river (in Maryland) where a state park was developed. Imagine look out across the sweeping lawn of Mt. Vernon and seeing a strip mall across the Potomac! The Donald _. Reynolds Visitor Center was recently completed with many multimedia exhibits. One of the most interesting was an explanation of the scientific method that used images and likelinesses to form a 3-dimensional model of Washington's head, and then they used CSI type techniques to sculpt images of him as a 20 year old and 40 year old, as well as his presidential years in his late 50's and 60's. These full size models of him were placed in beautiful room-sized settings depicting important moments in his life and you really felt you could see the man over his lifetime. Also, there was a presentation about his three successful battles: Boston, Trenton and Yorktown, complete with rumbling and movement of your chair when artillery fired (!), and flashing lights of canons. Finally we saw his teeth: there was an entire exhibit devoted to his teeth. They WEREN'T wooden; they were actually the teeth of other animals. He was troubled by terrible dental health his entire life.

After our visit we connected with John Stinson, a patient of mine who is a consultant in Washington and has lived there many years. After dinner at Indigo, a restaurant in the marina on Dangerfield Island near the Reagan Airport, John drove us around the monuments at night so we could see them lit. It really is a beautiful site. He also took us around Arlington later in the week (see below). I didn't get a picture of him .... sorry, John. I wanted to put you in the blog!

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11

As we commonly do, we (not necessarily by planning) ended up with a looser day on Sunday. I think this is just the natural result of all of us, particularly Liz, wanting a little slower pace intermittently. So we slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and decided to take our chances at driving into the District. I had read in a guidebook that you should probably check about demonstrations, etc, on the Mall, but we had the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum as our target. We actually drove right there, and had little trouble finding a parking garage about two blocks away from Air and Space for the Sunday rate of about $10. In we went.

Liz really enjoyed it; we all did. Gary was particularly enthralled with the perpetual motion "art" pieces we saw in the gift shop, and we acquired two small ones. Not sure how they'll work out as we move down the road. He has loved them since he was a boy.

We saw the IMAX movie on the Space Station, and the various aeronautical displays. I didn't take a picture of the Mercury space capsule as it was encased in lucite, it seemed, and I thought it would just reflect. Here's a picture of the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Linbergh's lovely little plane that took him on his transatlantic flight.

It was a great visit, and we planned to drive out near Dulles Airport to see the new extension of Air and Space where actual planes and rockets are displayed in a hangar (unfortunately, we didn't get there!) It was PACKED in Air and Space and on the Mall, but we found a bench, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we watched America go by. Young, old, gay, straight all were out enjoying the Sunday afternoon in their capitol city. I say the "gay, straight" thing as it was clear there was a rally going on the Capitol steps for Equality, and ending bigotry and harm based on sexual orientation discrimination. Perhaps it had to do with equal rights in marriage, we weren't quite sure.

Also, on the Mall, was the Solar Decathlon. I actually had heard about this from our dogs' gracious hostess, Gael Entrikin, who is an environmental and solar advocate in Rochester. We were able to see the about 20 entries of model solar houses from a number of U.S. universities and some foreign ones. Minnesota was represented, and we went through their house which wasn't the most beautiful, but the systems made a lot of sense, and were very well described by the young people. One could vote for the "winner", and I subsequently have gone on line and learned that Germany won! It was very gratifying to see the interest people had in this, and the lines of people waiting to walk through these demonstration houses.

We walked back by and through the Smithsonian castle, and through it's lovely garden. We had in mind to try to find the Old Ebbitt's Grill for dinner, but it eluded us (we think it is near the Willard Hotel but couldn't quite find it), but decided to go into the Hay-Adams where we found the basement bar, "Off the Record." We tried to explain to Liz what this meant! As is often the case in a nice hotel, they had excellent food. I had sea bass to die for, so we were pleased with our substitute find.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, COLUMBUS DAY

Our plan for this day was to use the TourMobile and see a number of the monuments. It was another day to take the Metro in, and we had no parking fee at the College Park Metro station as it was a federal holiday. We got off at Gallery Place (named for the National Gallery of Art) and WERE FREEZING! This was the day predicted to be 70 degrees, but it never reached a degree over 55 I am certain. As we walked to the front of the National Gallery, where we could board the TourMobile, we passed the Spy Museum, a place we wanted to come back to. Fortunately, I think, the Museum Store was already open at 9:30 in the morning, so we looked for wraps. I got this Deny Everything T-shirt and Liz and Gary both got sweatshirts. We were much more comfortable!

We picked up the TourMobile and rode down the Mall to the Washington Monument. It was about 10:30 by this time, and unfortunately the daily tickets to ride the elevator to the top of the Monument were gone. They are available starting at 8:30; so we resolved to get there earlier the next day (and we did!). We rode to TourMobile to our first monument stop: The Jefferson. It is elegantly beautiful with it's columns and a beautiful statue of the man in the center. I hadn't remembered that so many of the selected quotes inscribed at the monument had to do with religious freedom. It's setting in the tidal basin is really very lovely.

The FDR Memorial, just a short distance from the Jefferson along the Tidal Basin is beautifully done. It was dedicated in 1997 by Pres. Bill Clinton, but somehow we missed getting this on our radar screen. It is designed as four rooms .... each one devoted to one of the terms of FDR's presidency. There are beautiful, lifelike sculptures of FDR and scenes (like a bread line) from his time, inscriptions, etc., set among beautiful fountains, rocks, and plantings. It is spread over about 7.5 acres, and lends itself to ambling through and reflecting. We loved it. Here is one of the pretty fountains, and a picture of Liz with FDR and Fala (with whom, of course, we had become acquainted when we visited Hyde Park 2-3 weeks ago!).

By then it was about 12:30, and time for lunch so we called Chloe Dybdahl, the very accomplished daughter of friends Judy Rittenhouse and Tom Dybdahl, who is an attorney at the State Department. She handles any legal questions about visa's for applications from Africa, Russia/Soviet Union countries, and related to children's issues. We met at the Lincoln Memorial, and then took a taxi for lunch at Clyde's in Georgetown. It was simply delightful to see her. Gary said one of the reasons it was so enjoyable is that she has all the intelligence and savoir faire of an young adult, with all the enthusiasm and charm of a child. We loved her! She also is strongly reminiscent of her mother, my friend Judy, and it was clearly the highlight of the day to spend some time with her .... and there were lots of impressive things that day!

Somebody (a stranger) did come up to me while I was at the Lincoln Memorial and said, "The first rule is: Admit Nothing!" I got a lot of interesting looks all day, and felt like I was communicating a more anti-social image that I really wanted to, but heck .... I was a lot warmer!!

After lunch we resumed our Monument experience and visited the Korean War memorial .... another one I had never visited. It is also very well done .... my cousin, Don Schuld, who lives in West Linn, Oregon, is a Korean vet, and I hope he has seen this. We plan to visit with them next spring when we make it to the West Coast.

As many of you know, the Vietnam Memorial is soberingly beautiful. The long stretch of black granite with every name of the lost etched into it is extremely. Earlier in the day, I had told Gary of the young man from my high school Glendale Academy in California, who had been drafted right after graduation and sent to Vietnam. I didn't know him well ..... Kenny Martin. And I learned that he had been killed. I was walking down the length of the monument, and decided to stop and actually read some of the names, and in the second panel I glanced at, I found the name of Kenneth Martin. I didn't confirm that this Kenneth Martin was from Glendale .... it seemed too coincidental to question. It is a beautiful monument to a great group of people who perished in the service of our country .... it's so hard because it is so difficult to say that they perished defending our freedom, as so many of their predecessors in other wars can be remembered!

The wind had died down a bit, and we had a comfortable walk up the Mall to the World War II Memorial which we had not seen before. It is beautiful .... and in my mind reflects that "Greatest Generation" (to recall Tom Brokaw's label) and what I imagine is their appreciate of order and symmetry. There is a column with a flag and wreath to represent every state, as well as other fighting units such as Puerto Rico and Somoa. On one end of a tower representing the Atlantic theatre, and the other end has the Pacific, with names of pivotal battles inscribed at the base. In the middle is a large beautiful fountain, and other inspirational inscriptions on the rock which encircles. I was particularly happy to see it as I have learned about the generous efforts of folks at home (in Rochester and elsewhere I imagine) to raise funds to take WWII vets out to Washington to see this. I believe 2 or 3 chartered planes have travelled from Rochester to carry these heroes out to Washington over the past couple of years ..... all funded by donations. It is such a tremendous thing to do for them, and I hear it means the world to them.

It was so fun to see the professionally inscribed "Kilroy was here" just to the side of the Pennsylvania monument in a stairwell going down to the base of the fountain! We finished the afternoon continuing our walk toward the Washington monument. Looking back was this great inscription at the entrance to the WWII Memorial:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13

This was the morning we were DETERMINED to make it to the top of the Washington Monument .... and we did. We left Cherry Hill Campground about 7:45, and had steady traffic into downtown Washington, but it wasn't bumper to bumper. We knew they started distributing same day tickets to ride to the top of the Monument about 8:30, and Gary and Liz hopped into line about 8:40 while I circled. They got three tickets (yeah!) and then we set about finding a place to park, literally for the day. We say a capital P (for park) sign at a beautiful new office building where we had to show ID and have our trunk searched before we could enter. It was the Ronald Reagan Building for International Development. It is a gorgeous building.

We had an hour or so to kill before our 10:30 ticket time, so we had breakfast in the Chez Park at the Willard Hotel. Fairly pricey, and not really better than IHOP.

The Washington Monument is 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches tall. You may remember (I didn't) that plans for it were developed in the early 19th century (Washington died in 1799, I think), and the cornerstone was laid in 1848. But that it was only built about 1/3 of the way initially due to lack of funds. It was completed to its total 555 feet and dedicated in 1885. Nothing in Washington can be taller than this. The Capitol dome is at the same height I believe. This makes for a relatively flat skyline it such marked contrast to New York City, for example.

My good friend Carolyn Madsen Hebbel, formerly of Glendale, California and now San Diego, reminds me that we climbed up all the steps when we were about 15 years old. Carolyn, my brother Jim and I were among about 90 Glendale High Schoolers that traveled the country for 6 weeks in two Trailways busses in the summer of, I'd say, 1964. We went MANY places (from Hoover Dam to Texas to Miami to Washington, New York, Chicago, the Bad Lands, etc) and she remembers we climbed to the top. I think I did it again when I was a senior in college visiting Juli Ling a college friend in Takoma Park, Maryland. Anyway, you can't climb up anymore. Apparently, too many people thought they climb the 500 feet (I guess 900+ stairs), but really couldn't, had chest pain/heart attacks, calls to 911, etc. So now you must take the elevator. The view from the top IS spectacular. See below looking toward the Capitol (with the Solar Decathalon exhibit in the foreground), and then the Lincoln Memorial below and on the right with the WWII Memorial in the foreground:

I was particularly pleased to see this quote at the Washington Monument as it seemed to capture what of the greatest attributes of Washington that we had come to appreciate after our visit to Mt. Vernon.

We spent the rest of the Tuesday visiting a couple more of the Smithsonian Museums and vowed that for future planning we would allow at least a full day for each museum. The Museum of American History and The Museum of Natural History are simply marvelous.

In American History we saw Dorothy's ruby slippers, a fantastic transportation exhibit (sponsored by Ford, I think), a printing demonstration (see below), the Inaugural gowns of selected First Ladies (Michelle Obama's wasn't on display, yet), a very interesting exhibit about the contribution of Jews to our history and nation, among the myriad of diverse and interesting exhibits. In Natural History Liz and I viewed another IMAX-3D movie, this one on the Wild Coast. It had amazing footage off the southeast coast of Africa where there are no inhabitants and, consequently, the sea life is unaffected by man. It is truly wilding active and thrilling to see with hundreds of birds diving into the water to compete with dolphins, and sharks, and turtles and some whales, and zillions of little sardines. They swarm in enormous schools and dart and turn in nano seconds to escape their prey. The photography was breath-taking and was so frenetic that you could hardly believe we were watching to much LIFE taking place. Again, there were so many terrific exhibits we felt we were just running through!

Liz and Gary wanted to leave time to visit the Spy Museum and so they headed over there about 3:00. I deferred and instead went to the Smithsonian's American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery which I thoroughly enjoyed. It has the portraits of many of those historical figures you've heard about so you can put a face with a name. One of the newest portraits is of Tommy LaSorda, the Dodger coach. We met up about 5:00, and had a low key dinner of pancakes at IHOP (which is how I can compare The Willard to IHOP!). Lizzie had never eaten at an IHOP. When she was about 3 to 4 years old, she didn't like pancakes (she's never been too much on breakfast), and we used to tease her when she misbehaved that we were going to take her to an IHOP to eat. She would fuss and be upset at the threat. But now, she LIKES pancakes (especially chocolate chip!), and was keen to go there to eat and try it. We all agreed, once about every 5 years is enough!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14

We decided to extend our stay another day so we could finish up with visiting some friends and seeing Arlington National Cemetery. Again, my patient and friend, John Stinson, has a driving pass into Arlington as he has family buried there. This allowed us to drive right up to Arlington House (I think it must have formerly been called the Custis-Lee Mansion, former home of General Robert E. Lee) and to the Tomb of the Unknown and the Kennedy graves. They are refurbishing Arlington House, and we got a glimpse, as well as some more exhibits about Robert E. Lee. Gary and I agreed that he is kind of a tragic, flawed figure. His early Army career after graduating from West Point was certainly distinguished. But he really didn't have the courage of what seemed to be his convictions. Writings suggest that he did not really support slavery (though he had slaves), and he was clearly opposed to secession of the South. But, to my reading, he couldn't separate himself from his family and friends. His dear ones held so strongly to their beliefs about state's rights to continue slavery, that he resigned his commission in the United States Army, and commandeered the Army of Northern Virginia in order to continue to align himself with them. He suffered greatly for this, of course, with his home and land being taken and made into a national cemetery where many of those whom his troops had slain are buried. He is buried in Lexington, Virginia, where he was associated with a University there in his final years.

But the scenes in Arlington National Cemetery are sobering and inspiring.

The two markers at the right mark JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy's graves, and you may remember that their two infant/premature children are buried alongside. RFK and Teddy (recently interred) are set a little farther away and marked by a simple small white cross. As we walked to the eternal flame, Gary happened to notice Harry Blackmun's and Thurgood Marshall's tombstones. We are always interested in Harry Blackmun .... he was a Minnesotan, of course, and was on the staff of the Mayo Clinic in the legal department before he entered the judiciary. I actually met him once .... I had been invited to an event at Buena Vista College in Iowa by its president (the event was a lecture by Margaret Thatcher, in fact), and Justice Blackmun was also invited. We had a little reception before the lecture, and I was introduced to the Justice. Then I circled the room and chatted, and ultimately made my way back to him. He had remembered my name (I think he was about 85 at this point), and then said, "I don't think 'Abbott' is the first name in the Mayo Clinic directory. What about Leonard Aaro?!" Obviously, I was amazed. I guess when you have a really keen mind, even when you start losing neurons, you've still got a lot left!

We really appreciated our visit to Arlington, and are so appreciative of John Stinson for arranging his time and taking us on an "insider's" visit. Liz didn't go with us, though. She had wanted to, as she has an somewhat curious interest in cemeteries. When we were in Gettysburg she wanted to make sure we went to the soldiers' cemetery there. At that time, I think she wanted to look for "Leagues", as Gary had told her about the large (>75) number of known Leagues who fought in the Civil War. But, she had a stronger pull at Cherry Hill Park. Over the few days we stayed there she had become acquainted with Alec and Riley, a 7 year old boy and 5 year old girl, and had played with them after our explorations each day. The Johnson's, from Colorado, are on a similar year-long odyssey around the country. We had gotten acquainted and were quite comfortable leaving Liz with them for the morning while we went to Arlington. She had such a good time, and so enjoyed being with the kids. It was definitely a good decision for her. As it started to drizzle she actually spent the early afternoon after we returned watching a Harry Potter movie in their motorhome.

About 3:15, I picked her up, and we found our way just a few miles to Spencerville Adventist Academy where we visited Becky Koeppen, their fourth grade teacher. Becky and I became friends during the year I was at Andrews University in Michigan, 1971-1972. She is originally from the Washington D.C. area, and returned there and has worked as a teacher her entire career in a couple or three Adventist schools I think. She is married, and has a grown daughter, and continues to have the brightest eyes and most engaging laugh. I've always enjoyed her company and was really happy to see her again. You can see her sparkle in this picture Liz snapped when we went for an after school milk shake:

It was a day for reunions from long ago. After having been born in Columbus, Ohio, while my father was on the neurosurgery faculty at Ohio State University, we lived in Worthington, Ohio, for 10 years until 1958 when my family returned to California. My best friend in the church grade school was Debbie John (now Rawson) and we stayed in some touch for a few years, but over the last 20 years had lost touch. But I was able to track her down through a Christmas card from her older sister Liz, and we met for supper at Sierra Cafe near Silver Spring, Maryland. Debbie is a nurse in the pediatric out-patient procedures area at NIH, and is just as quick and bright as I remember her. She has three grown children, and she brought her son to join Liz and me for supper. He has just finished a graduate degree in international finance (I think) at the University of Edinburgh, and was had SUCH a nice visit. It is always remarkable how easy it is to pick up with people you have known well from the past .... We loved hearing about Debbie's other two daughters one who is in pediatric residency in Virginia, and the other who is in California studying speech pathology. Ed, Debbie's husband, is a risk management expert for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Even though our joint past goes back 50 YEARS!!, we visited just like we did on the first sleepovers back in the 50's. Loved seeing you, Debbie!

(Liz cam! Pic a little blurry!)

All in all, our visit to the DC area was wonderful ..... personally, socially, historically, patriotically. Cherry Hill Park turned out to be a great base of operations, and though we didn't see everything, we felt our visit was definitely an Excellent Adventure.

Now we turn Buster and Bella south, where we fill focus on beautiful scenery and family visits. More Excellent Adventures!

Julie, Gary and Liz

Penn's Woods

We have been SO busy, that it's been a while since I've got back to my posting (and not keeping my seat on a trotting horse!) I'm going to do Pennsylvania and Washington separately was we saw a lot in both places. The Pennsylvania (the Woods of Penn) one will be shorter. Here goes ....

MILEAGE:

Buster: Andover, New Jersey to Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania (near Allentown) to College Park, Maryland, outside Washington D.C.: 348 miles

Bella: 600

Mileage from October 4 through October 15th: 948

TOTAL for League's Excellent Adventure: 10,485 (at John Krehbiel's suggestion we are drinking champagne to celebrate our first 10,000 miles!)

STATE COUNT: 16 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4

After a leisurely morning, we set out for the relatively short drive to Pennsylvania. We set Allentown as a central location as we hoped to connect with my good friend, Judy Rittenhouse who lives there. Judy and I were roommates in high school at Rio Lindo Academy in Healdsburg, California, and stayed in touch over the years, though we had lost touch in most recent years. She was an invaluable friend to me after my divorce, sharing her wonderful family with me on a number of great trips and adventures. She has been a writer and editor, and now is training tutors at a literacy center in Easton, PA after having done a stint through the State Department in Bosnia, teaching English as a second language. It was wonderful to see her again, and she gave us a wonderful dinner at her home of butternut squash soup, and a moroccon chicken and rice dish with poached pears for dessert. Tres elegante! We had the chance to catch up about her children, and we also connected later in the week when Liz and I visited her in Easton, had lunch, and went to the Crayola factory. She DID get away without a picture for my electronic scrapbook, but we hooked up with her daughter Chloe in DC (see later post), and there IS a strong resemblance which you can see in our picture with Chloe. It was wonderful to reconnect with Judy.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5th, was our day to visit the City of Brotherly Love .... Philadelphia. After New York, it was notable to us to get back to normal access to a city: we drove right downtown and parked a block from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Being in Philadelphia once again drove home the impression we have about what a great job the educational arm of the National Park Service has done at helping to make visits to our national historic sites as enjoyable and educational as possible. We had a particularly effective guide for our tour of Independence Hall. He reinforced for us the chronology of the 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses, and the Constitutional Convention. Between 1776 and 1787 the United States was governed by the Articles of Confederation, but that after the colonies lost their "focus", as our guide Stewart Little (!) said, it was difficult for them to agree to do anything together. When they didn't have an army to fund, and a revolutionary war to support, they wanted to keep all their resources at home within their own states. Being in the room where the framers of the Constitution debated how to form a government that would bind the states together, but still allow of alot of independent thinking and action for each state was tremendous.

Stewart Little reminded us of the imposing stature of George Washington, being 6 feet 2 inches .... VERY tall for the day, and how he quietly won the confidence of the group leading to his election as the first president. We also learned how he had no children (only two stepchildren ... Martha (Custis) had been married before and widowed), and so he was also an appealing choice as he had no direct heirs that might follow in a hereditary "monarchy." We were really surprised when we asked Liz when we visited Mt. Vernon later why George Washington might have been a good choice for president, and she pulled out this fact for her answer. We didn't think she was paying that much attention, but since she is supposed to be on an extended "field trip" we were very pleased.

Here is Liz in front of Independence Hall, the room where both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States were signed (on the right) and Liz in front of the Liberty Bell!

It was a bit of a drive back to Allentown, but we had a warmish evening, and so we acceded to Liz' wishes to make a fire. She has acquired a bit of a genetic "firebug" tendency. Here she is demonstrating a smoking branch, which Gary is watching Harry Potter on our outside DVD. It IS fun!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6th

Because we wanted to be around for my Wednesday morning confab with the Women's HealthSource (Mayo women's newsletter) colleagues, we went off to Gettysburg the next day. It was a couple hour drive, but through beautiful Pennsylvania Dutch rolling hill country. We arrived at the Visitor Center before noon, and began out visit, again, at a beautiful Visitor Center with a great big screen movie that perfectly set the stage for us to learn about those three days in July, 1863. After that, we had the privilege to see the beautifully restored massive painting now displayed as a Cyclorama. It is a 377 foot paining by Paul Philippoteaux of Pickett's Charge, completed in 1884. One stands in the center of a large room and has various parts of the painting lighted as the course of the battle is described. At the bottom of the painting, the countryside transitions from being seen in the painting to real ground and rocks which are formed up to the base of the viewing platform. It is really very impressive.

We elected to purchase an audio tour by TravelBrains (!) which we could play in our car as we toured the Battlefield. It was awesome. The historian, Wayne Motts, a Licensed Battlefield Guide, was very conversational and gave us wonderful background as we made our way from the western side of the battlefield and Seminary Ridge around Little Round Top to the Wheatfield, The Peach Orchard and up to Cemetery Hill. It probably took us 4 hours to slowly make our way among the beautiful memorials, hilly farmland and listen to what happened on July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. (see intro pic at top of post)

General Lee, leading the confederate army, was fresh off a resounding victory over the Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia. He thought somewhere in Pennsylvania he could establish a presence in the north and gain substantial position. He amassed thousands (I'm thinking most of the Army of Northern Virginia, 75,000 strong was at Gettysburg; the Army of the Potomac had a total of 93,000 troops) of troops and aligned them west of town. The Union general, defeated at Fredericksburg, had been replaced by General George Meade just 2 or 3 days before the battle of Gettysburg commenced. Meade devised a brilliant position called the fish hook where his lines would extend down the neck of the fish hook, but at the top, north of town, the line would loop around in the "U" of the fish hook so that retreats and advances could be accomplished without traveling such a long distance.

Many of the Southern troops were exhausted by the long march up from Virginia, and went into battle with no rest. They fought valiantly, and were advancing from south of town to a little elevation called Little Round Top which was undefended by the Union forces. However, General Meade's chief engineer, Brig Gen Gouverneur K. Warren (a former math teacher at West Point) spotted the Alabama troops and alerted Union troops to defend just in time. (His statue is below.)

Intense fighting ensued at the base of Little Round Top, particularly in a very rocky area called Devil's Den (seen by parked cars in left pic, and then close up)

and then for a number of very intense hours in the Wheatfield. Unbelievable casualties resulted, many units losing more than half their men. Lee then orchestrated the massive Pickett's Charge by 12,000 men in the open fields between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges, but the Union defended with Meade's artillery and fish hook line. Lee lost 5000 men in one hour. It is said Lee rode among them apologizing, saying the defeat was his fault. Overall, 51,000 men were killed, wounded or missing on both sides during the three days in Gettysburg.

There were so many dead, that the town of Gettysburg (2,000 population I believe) was overwhelmed with care of the dead and wounded. Public interest demanded a decent burial and the Soldier's National Cemetery was established. In November, 1863, some 5 months after the battle, President Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg to take part in the dedication ceremonies for the National Cemetery and, of course, uttered those unforgettable and inspiring words.

Gary's brothers have discovered that as many at 75 League ancestors fought in the Civil War, and over 50 of them fought for the Confederacy. While Gary has no sympathy for the Southern argument .... maintaining slavery as a states' right .... he has incredible sadness and sympathy for those many, possibly some kin, who lost their lives at Gettysburg. He also noted that we had to go to war 85 years after the revolution to defend the ideal that "all men are created equal," and abolish slavery. He says, "Thank goodness we didn't need another war to recognize women as full members of society."

It was an educational and emotional day .... I'm sure Gary and I were more impacted than Elizabeth was, but she was very interested in seeing the monument to the Minnesota soldiers that fought at Gettysburg. The Minnesota contingent, in fact, were the first members of the federal army as 1000 had been volunteered by the Minnesota governor when he was visiting the Secretary of War in Washington in 1861. Two hundred and sixty-two of these brave soldiers were fighting in Gettysburg; 82% of them were lost. They were right at the front and are credited with turning the tide against the assault of confederate General Longstreet south of town. We were really proud, especially Liz, to see the Minnesota monument.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7

We did our work on Wednesday morning, Gary searched out and found a place for Buster to be serviced, and have his oil changed, and Liz and I met our friend Judy in Easton. After our good lunch and our Crayola visit, we found our way along the back roads and rendezvoused with Gary and Buster in Wilmington, Delaware (acquiring another state to our log book) and camped without an electrical plug in at Lunds Pond State Park. It was very nippy that night and even with our propane heater, the temperature got down to 58 degrees in Buster. So we were happy on Thursday to make our way to one of the biggest and well-equipped motorhome parks in the country: Cherry Hill Park in College Park, Maryland, which would be our home for the next week as we explored our nation's capital. (... Gary continues to hum the song, "Mary Hill was such a thrill after dark .... in Cherry Hill Park!")

We'll say "bye" for now .... there's a lot to come in the next week!

Julie, Gary and Liz

League's Take New York!

Well, it wasn't easy, but we've done it .... attempting to tour New York City when your mode of transportation is a 40 foot motorhome IS a challenge. It won't surprise you that it wasn't easy to find a place to park the motorhome near the city, and, of course, logistics were a challenge as we knew there was no way we could think of driving it anywhere near Manhatten. So we left the beautiful Hudson River Valley last Tuesday, September 29th and headed the last 100 miles into the New York City area. First, the mileage report:

MILEAGE:

BUSTER: Rhinebeck, New York to Andover, New Jersey: 144 miles

Bella: (lots of driving on the tri-state (NY, NJ, CT) interstates: 441 miles

Weekly total: 585 miles

Total for League's Excellent Adventure: 9,537 miles

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28: We had actually planned to leave the Hudson Valley on Monday, the 28th, after spending most of Sunday doing laundry and "household" chores. Also, now that football season has started, we like to honor the tradition of trying to get a couple hours of gridiron watching in when we can. We don't have satellite TV, but perhaps half of our campgrounds have a cable connection. So it was a typical Sunday afternoon.

Then Monday, we focused on lessons a bit: Gary worked with Liz on math, and then they pursued their joint interest in "science": launching of air rockets.

I had been in contact with Dr. Donna Coletti, a medical school friend of Deb Rhodes, because of a little health problem I had in August. Donna has a medical gynecology practice in Greenwich, CT, and I wanted to check in with her when we went that way. UNBELIEVABLY, she was actually attending an integrative health meeting at The Omega Center where John of God, a healer from Brazil, had been invited to speak. The Omega Center is less than TWO MILES from Interlake Camping Resort were we had camped in Rhinebeck, and Donna drove right by our campsite on her way to The Omega Center that Monday. Talk about coincidences! I considered attending John of God, but couldn't quite allocate the $180 to pursue it out of our travel budget. When I got to talk to Donna later she said it really was very interesting and spiritual and I hope I didn't miss a real opportunity for enlightenment by choosing not to stay and experience John of God.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th, came and we tried to get a reasonable start on our way to New York City. Our destination was New Jersey, out Interstate 80 past Morristown to Stanhope and up 206 to Andover and Panther Lake Camping Resort. This seemed to be the closest and best choice to New York City and also to Greenwich for my planned visit with Dr. Coletti. We wanted to see a little bit more of the Hudson, so we crossed over from the east bank to the west bank at Kingston, NY, and made our way down 9W to West Point. We found ourselves at the somewhat unusual situation for us of wanting to go to something (the West Point Visitor Center) in a small town with our whole rig in tow. We ended up parking Buster with the tour buses and unhooking so Bella could go in the regular parking lot. We timed it right, and were able to join a tour within about 10 minutes of arriving. Private vehicles are not allowed on the West Point campus, and we passed the security check point in a bus. We had an entertaining and informative guide and were able to sit in the bleechers across from Washington Hall and see the cadets in formation entering the hall for lunch. I put a big picture in here so you can see the tiny cadets behind General Washington's statue

Our guide had a number of interesting anecdotes including one about General George Patton. Patton was a West Point classmate of Omar Bradley, and a number of other recognizable military names .... over 40% of their graduating class went on to achieve the rank of General or higher. I think it had something to do with opportunity, i.e. read wartime! But it took Patton five years to graduate from his class .... he opined that he could never find the library. Well, his statue was placed facing the library (ostensibly so he could SEE it!), and now within the last few weeks has been replaced in front of West Point's new library. See the statue of Patton in the lower right corner of the picture below.

There were gorgeous views of the Hudson from the cliffs at West Point which has been a military fortress for years (maybe the oldest in the country) guarding invaders from coming to the interior up the Hudson. The Hudson in this region is called the Highlands and is actually considered a fjord as it is an ocean inlet (salt water in center of river with fresh on the sides!) that is deep and narrow with high bluffs. It is beautiful and, of course, inspired the Hudson River school of painting.

We made our way over to the Cadel Chapel which was inspiringly beautiful.

The stained glass in the Cadet chapel was simply breathtaking, but I didn't get a good focused picture of the front glass pictured at the bottom of this grouping. But you may just be able to make out the writing on yellow background on the panel near the bottom: Duty, Honor, Country. This theme is palpable at West Point. It was moving and made us proud and thankful, once again, to live in this country with freedom as our core value.

Following lunch in town at a little tavern where the cadets "relax", we headed down Interstate 87 to Interstate 80, and west to Stanhope and on to Andover where we would park for 4 days while we used Bella to negotiate in and around NYC.

WEDNESDAY, September 30.

Liz had said that the most important thing she wanted to see in New York City was the Statue of Liberty, so we put that on the top of our list. Alice League had suggested we avoid going into NYC and Battery Park as the departure point to the island, and her suggestion to go through Liberty Park in Jersey City, NJ, was a good one. We parked easily, had no line (also in the off-season), and quickly were able to take the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. I've been to NYC 5 or 6 times (all very brief visits), and Gary has been 3 or 4, but I had never been to Ellis Island OR the Statue of Liberty. It was a GREAT day. I'm not sure when the visitor center at Ellis Island was redone, but it is now a wonderful experience. The Great Hall with tiled floor, walls and domed ceiling has been redone and it is here over 12 million of our friends and relatives entered this country largely from eastern and western Europe.

First we watched a movie, and got a good idea of the procedure and process most folks went through as they disembarked from steamships. Those in steerage were brought to Ellis Island for processing. They were given a "six second" check-up, looking for obvious skin ailment, trachoma (of the eye), and other physical and mental problems. If something was observed, a mark was placed on their coat/garment. Here is a display of the different marks that could be placed:

(Sorry it's so dark!) We read the story of one girl whose was seen to have a "wart" on the back of her hand. Because of this, she was separated from the rest of her family. Apparently seeing the minimal nature of the problem and the distress at the separation, one of the Ellis Island officials suggested she turn her coat inside out so the mark wouldn't be seen, and she was able to leave Ellis Island with the rest of her family. This brings to mind one of the recurring themes we learned there: the immigrants couldn't believe that there were uniformed officials there to help them. In almost all of the countries they came from a uniformed person was someone to be feared and dreaded. They could almost reliably bring terror or pain. Here, people in uniforms were trying to help them. It was part of the feeling described in the movie that was the most gripping to me: the very rapid transformation of a person moving through Ellis Island, coming from an oppressed, distressed, down-trodden, underdog situation, and on leaving Ellis Island, having the complete sense of FREEDOM .... to go where they wanted, to say what they wanted, to be whom they wanted. Of course, this was what motivated the courageous to endure the unbelievable hardships of making the journey. But what a glorious end of the rainbow! As one man was quoted as saying in the movie: "It was like a human being had been completely reborn ... it was a miracle!" It was really something to imagine a family exiting that building ... having been through the long journey, cramped, hungry, dirty, stinky, and all the unknowns on arriving, going from station to station in that huge building, feeling confused and anxious, not understanding the foreign language spoken to them, and then finally -- for most -- exiting a free person, able to go and do whatever you had enough money to do, knowing that if you worked hard, you could do anything. Unbelieveable .... this experiment in liberty is a miracle for mankind!

The visit to Miss Liberty was equally inspirational. Many of you know the original torch has been removed and replaced with one that is perpetually lighted. The old torch is on display:

So you can no longer go up into the torch, but you can go to the crown. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Liberty Park at 9:15 am, there were no more crown tickets available for the day. So we could only go up to the pedestal. That was enough for me anyway (156 steps up AND DOWN on my new knees. The crown would have been an additional 170+ each way. Liz WAS disappointed, though). The audio tour at the Statue was also very good and we had a nice stroll around the base where the very top picture was taken by a collegial fellow tourist (I don't think I did as good a job on her picture that I took!).

We had about an hour's drive back to the campground, hit some traffic, and then I saw a mall with Neiman Marcus, etc, and we stopped at The Mall at Short Hills (New Jersey). It had a lot of high end stores, and we had a little fun. It has been so long since we've been to anything like that it seemed like a totally new and somewhat foreign experience (this was a little sad for me to realize, but Gary was thrilled with my reaction ... it meant the minor shopoholic is largely on the wagon!) But we did a little damage to the Visa card, and Liz got (it was Gary's selection) a perky hat which has subsequently received compliments all over New York City. (see pic below at FAO Schwartz!)

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1

We got a real taste of tri-state (New Jersey, New York and Connecticut) driving this day when we went from mid-New Jersey, bypassing New York City, north and around over to Greenwich, CT. Donna Coletti had arranged a couple of tests for me, and we negotiated our way to the imaging center. Then an office visit and some blood work, and I am happy to say .... ALL IS WELL! This is a relief. It was so great that Deb Rhodes had this wonderful friend who specializes in just what I needed. Donna is obviously a very talented and compassionate physician, and I was so grateful for her kind expertise.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2

We were happy to get up and advance our adventure to the Big Apple knowing we didn't have any worrisome health concerns. We decided to take the train from New Jersey into the City ... we wanted to do it like real New Yorkers, and also didn't want to consider taking even the car in and parking it. So we did a little online research, got the train schedule for Denville, NJ, (west of Morristown) and also learned we could leave our car there overnight for $3 DOLLARS A DAY (this must be the parking deal of the year!). We made the 9:02 into New York City and arrived at Penn Station at about 10:15. We took a brief taxi to ride to our hotel, a Marriott we had booked with points at a great location at 40th and 5th. We found breakfast at Burger Heaven, and then began a pretty nice stroll down 5th Avenue. Rain was forecast, but it held off (until that night!) and we had a great walk. We stopped at Tiffany's and I was able to find out that a beautiful "gold ball studded with diamonds" earring Gary had given me that I had lost one of was still around (40 pairs in the system) and that I could purchase just the one! Yeah! Then we walked through Saks and on down the avenue to our "ultimate" destination ... F.A.O. Schwartz. I'm not sure Liz would have known about this, but her good friend Shea Hansen from home in Rochester told her this was not be missed on a trip to NYC. It is a treat .... from the piano you can play with your feet, to the gorgeous dolls, to the unbelievable Lego creations it is a toy wonderland. She had a blast, and ended up with a F.A.O. Madame Alexander doll that she designed herself (hair color, eyes, skin), with changeable wigs. She got a red, saucy flip and a light brown classic pony.

(note the HAT!)

We saw The Plaza, and then Liz picked our horse and carriage for our Central Park Ride:

Of course there are interesting vendors all around Central Park, and we were enchanted by a very talented letter artist who created a beautiful Elizabeth:

After a little rest at the hotel, we had a delicious dinner (surprisingly AT our hotel), and were able to walk the few (probably 6) blocks to Times Square and the New Amsterdam Theatre where we saw Mary Poppins. We had a little trouble deciding what to see: I wanted to see Jersey Boys, but felt the language, etc., might not be for a 9 year old. Liz thought Mary Poppins was going to be too babyish for her, but the thrill of the live orchestra and fabulous vocalists and staging was very entertaining. We all enjoyed it a lot. And it was sooo New York to come out of the theatre at 10:30, seeing just as many people on the streets as when we went in at 8 pm, and really felt safe the three of us walking back to our hotel even if it was in the rain and we'd neglected to bring our umbrellas with us to the theatre even though we hauled them with us everywhere else!



SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3

We relished a little sleep in, then showered (really enjoyed that hotel shower ... the force of water in the motorhome is one of Buster's deficits!), and then made our way to Rockefeller Center. We had a deli-type breakfast and really enjoyed seeing 30 Rock and learning about John D. Rockefeller's depression-era contribution of building this sky scraper at the height of hard times. The elevator ride to the Top of the Rock (69 floors) was great ... there is plexiglass on the ceiling of the elevator and a series of blue lights lines the elevator shaft ... it felt like you were moving through something in Mission: Impossible! The view, of course, was stupendous even though we didn't have the clearest of days. We told Liz she would have a better view of the Empire State Building away from it, and indeed she did.

We poked around in the mist and walked through Grand Central Station (seeing a bride and her wedding party there!), and then took our train back to Denville and our parked car. We didn't see everything, but we felt we got a good sampling of New York City.

On SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, we slept in, did some reading and clean up, and in the afternoon made our way to Pennsylvania staying near Allentown .... one of our designated mail stops. We'll post a short blog about Pennsylvania in a few days, and then devote a chapter to our visit to our nation's capitol. We're on our way to Washington, D.C.

Julie, Gary and Liz