8/31/09 Washington D.C.

Wow, what a day!! This morning, we took a taxi to the nearest Metro station and rode the train to Union Station in downtown D.C. We had purchased a two-day pass for a double-decker open-air bus tour of Washington D.C. that started at Union Station. This was a hop on, hop off tour with 26 stops. . . passing by almost every tourist attraction in the city.

The inside of Union Station looks like a very large international airport, with all the restaurants and shops you could imagine. The Metro trip was amazing. . . very, very fast and mostly underground. What a great way to commute to and from the city.

Union Station

Statue of Christoper Columbus in front of Union Station. . the three flags represent his three ships.

Other side of Christopher Columbus Statue, also a reproduction of the Liberty Bell (larger than the original)

Inside Union Station

Another view inside the station.

Our nation's Capital

United States Court

International Spy Museum (sounds very interesting to me)

Ford's Theater, where President Lincoln was assassinated

U.S. Treasury Building

Row houses in Dupont circle

Lots of D.C. streets are on the diagonal, so lots of triangle buildings

St. Alban's School with the National Cathedral in the background

National Cathedral

St. Alban's Parish

Vice President's home behind the trees on the property of the U.S. Naval Observatory

A portion of Embassy Row. . there are about 170 embassies in D.C.

Homes in Georgetown

More of Georgetown

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on the Arlington Cemetery property

Statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument and its shadow in the 2,000 foot reflection pool

Lincoln Memorial

A portion of the Vietnam War Memorial showing a classmate of Barry's name

Vietnam Women's Memorial

Beautiful weeping willow trees on the edge of the Potomac River

Look closely down between the two trees and you will see Marine One

Part of the Smithsonian Castle

National Air and Space Museum

And we end our day with another shot of our country's capital.

8/29/09 Hershey, PA

After visiting the battlefield, we drove to Hershey. We decided to take a riding tour to see how they make the chocolate, but it turned out to be a Disney ride. . all animated. We were hoping to see real people making real chocolate. A perfect place to take children. . . they have it all for their entertainment.

Now we are going to an Elk's Lodge in Arlington/Fairfax, VA. We will visit D.C. and surrounding areas.

8/28/09 Gettysburg, PA

We had an absolutely wonderful visit with the Lindstrom's, Suzanne, Jon, and Kari, but needed to move on, finally. We stayed in a huge campground in Gettysburg and spent one day housekeeping, again. Ugly necessity. The next day we visited the Gettysburg Battlefield by bus tour. We had hoped to take a double-decker open bus, but rain threatened, so an enclosed bus was provided.

Interesting note. . . Gettysburg was named after Getty, a tavern owner. The battle there was three days long, from July 1st to the 3rd, 1863. At the time, Gettysburg had about 2,400 residents, in town and the surrounding farms. There remain something less than 200 of the original structures, deemed to be preserved in the 1800s. All of the original civil war buildings are marked with plaques.

During the three day battle, 156,000 soldiers marched thru town. There were more than 51,000 casualties, which include dead, dying and injured. Traveling thru the relatively small area which comprised the battlefield, it was a stretch of the imagination to relive those days. There are more than 1,300 monuments of all sorts, informational and sculptural. We learned the the statues of generals on horses who had one leg off the ground were injured in the battle, two legs off the ground died during the battle, and all hooves on the ground survived. All in all, a wonderful adventure.

Most of the pictures were taken thru the closed window of the bus and, therefore, are not the greatest. Sorry for that.

Civil War Cemetery

The view from Little Round Top, overlooking The Devil's Den. Many solders, both Confederate and Union, were killed here. It was a draw.

Of the 15,000 Confederate soldiers who fought for only a few hours in the Wheatfield, only 150 survived. . . a Union victory.

Fences. . .

. . . fences

. . . and more fences

One of the many monuments.

A general who survived the battle.

One of the larger monuments.

Could this have been a relative of Barry's??

Some of the original cannons.

Refurbished cannons.

This house shows the hole from a cannon ball.

Double-click on this picture to see that this house has over 150 bullet holes still.

Photos of dioramas in the museum of various Civil War battles

8/25/09 Philadelphia, PA

We went once again to Philly to see several places we missed on the weekend. Lines were long on the weekend. We did see the Liberty Bell up close, but, somehow, I managed to lose the pictures. Grrr....

Elfreth's Alley, oldest continuous residential area in Philly. Many Irish immigrants lived here in the mid 1700's.

Another view of Elfreth's Alley

. . . and another view of the alley



A courtyard in and behind some of the row houses in Elfreth's Alley



Sign about the how the courtyard came about

Sign outside of the alley

Commodore Barry (whoever he was)

Glass mosaic mural made by Tiffany, size: 15'x49'. Double-click to see a better view of the work. All glass pieces with gold grout.

Information about the mosaic mural in the Curtis Publishing House