Day 5: DC part 2

Today was a long, long day. Full of seeing wonderful historical sites—but long, nonetheless!  With the grandparents still not feeling 100%, we left them at the campground and headed off on foot toward the nearest Metro station around 8 am. Our 1 ¼ mile walk began in the woods of the campground and we saw several deer having breakfast (and probably wondering why the heck we were disturbing them so early!!).  We arrived at the College Park Metro station and figured out how to calculate and purchase our SmarTrip cards and then waited about 15 minutes for the train to arrive. (Note: there are multiple announcements that the trains are running every 16 minutes due to maintenance—what kind of arbitrary number is every 16 minutes??  I am CERTAIN no Type A person came up with this schedule!)  The girls were thrilled to ride the train, having only ever been on public transit once before in their lives (this summer at the Peachtree).  We managed to change trains and find our exit at the Smithsonian station. (Side note #2: Heather—all the workers we encountered in the Metro booths were SUPER nice and helpful—don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it!).  First public transportation of the day successfully navigated—check.

Our first stop of the day was the Holocaust Museum.  Security here would be the strictest of anywhere we went today.  Bags and bodies were scanned... then I had to drink a sip out of every water bottle (five!) to show I wasn't hauling explosives... although, as Michael pointed out, if I was a terrorist intent on harm-- wouldn't I accomplish the same goal if I exploded myself?  Thoughts to ponder about security check points... some in the day seemed more about the appearance of security rather than actually looking for anything... interesting. Anyhoo... The Holocaust Museum does not allow photography so only a picture from the outside.

They do an amazing job of presenting the history of this event-- from it's subtle beginnings to it's ultimate horror... they address Hitler's rise to power and the lack of action from countries around the world as well as the Jewish responses at the beginning.  No one seemed to think it would EVER end the way it did.  This was not really a surprise since we had just studied this pretty extensively in history last year-- but it does leave you thinking as you watch the political landscape of today unfolding.  The museum is so well done.  It is very quiet and reverent.  The two places that really got me were the memorial hall-- a place of quiet reflection and lit candles... and a display of shoes of some of the victims-- hundreds and hundreds of them... that represent only a fraction of those murdered. It's a very sobering place... but so good to see.  

 

Next, we walked toward the Smithsonian Museums.  On our way, we were stopped by some nice representatives from Sabra Hummus-- giving large free samples of hummus and pretzels!  A nice treat!  I admit we were initially skeptical (another guy had tried to offer us a 'free' trip on his pedicab) but it was legit-- with coupons even!  We already had 2 hummus lovers in the family-- we now have one more who isn't opposed to it... and one who wouldn't even taste it.  I will leave it to your imagination to figure out who is who... the answers might surprise you!!

 

Despite our free snack, we were still pretty hungry, so our first stop at the Smithsonian Museum of American History was the Stars and Stripes Cafe in the basement.  The food here was actually pretty good (although overpriced, as typical of tourist attractions).  About half of this museum is under renovation-- which was good and bad.  It allowed us to see most of the exhibits-- but some of them felt like they weren't really as in-depth as I remembered.  Some of our favorites were Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz, the first ladies' dresses and china, Kermit the Frog, the history of transportation and the Stars and Stripes that inspired the National Anthem.

 

We moved on from here to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The girls enjoyed seeing the dinosaur from the "Night at the Museum" movies as well as the display of gems and minerals.  Abbie liked the Egyptian mummy exhibit as she has been studying that period of history this fall.  I enjoyed the Hope Diamond :)

Next on the agenda was the National Archives (via the National Sculpture Gallery/Display/?? I don't remember exactly what it was called-- it was outside and we walked through it on the way to Archives!  Abbie just informed me it was the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden... so there you go!) There were some pretty cool sculptures... and some that were just, umm... interesting.  At Archives, the girls were excited to use the gold elevators from the "National Treasure" movie as we made our way up to the Rotunda to view the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights.  The crowd was not large here (sadly?!)-- though it was getting later in the day... Even though these documents are faded and worn, it was still moving to see them in person and realize just what they represent.

After Archives we made the decision to do the other two 'must do's' on our list just in case our day on Monday needed to be cut short.  Turns out that would be an inspired decision.  We set out on foot for the White House (via a Turkish street festival.. that was kind of neat as its not something we see everyday!  Or ANY day for that matter!!).  Got pictures by the back gate of the White House and then set off to see if we could master the second round of public transportation for the day: the DC Circulator bus!  On the way to the bus stop, Michael realized that we were going by the front of the White House and he wanted pics of it--- the girls and I had very tired feet (Abbie described it as "like your feet were on fire and you were walking on rocks barefoot"!).  Even though he had run 14 miles in the past 2 days and walked all around the Mall, he walked over for the pictures.  We waited on a street corner.  When he got back, he informed us that he had chatted up one of the Secret Service guys (can you see that the police are quickly becoming a theme of this trip??!)-- I asked what in the world they talked about... the answer?  The weather!!!  LOL!!

Michael's picture!

The bus stop was a few blocks from the White House and we felt a little relieved to see that there were other people waiting for it, too!  Clearly we were tourists because I was clutching my Circulator Bus map and counting stops the ENTIRE trip.  But, hey, we made it!!  Our final destination?  Georgetown Cupcake (from the show "DC Cupcakes").  That was one of the first spots to make our list of 'must do's' in DC... I'm not sure if that's a reflection on our patriotism... or just our love of a good desert!!  Anyway, we were here.  The line was long-ish (probably a 40 minute wait) but we chose our favorites from their paper menus while we waited in line. 

 

By this time, it was beginning to get dark and we still had a long trek back to the campground (walking, bus, train and taxi-- I think that covers almost every mode of city transportation except bike and car!!).  It was dark by the time we arrived back to the Greenbelt Metro station and we knew we were going to need to call a cab.  Thankfully, there were some waiting there already so we were spared that step.  The next few minutes I felt like I had stepped into "The Amazing Race" where they are trying to tell not-very-good-English-speaking cab drivers where they need to go.  Our campground was only 2.5 miles from the Metro but our guy had never heard of it!  Surprising!  I would imagine cab drivers would be fairly familiar with the city they drive in??!  Fortunately he had a working GPS so he plugged in the address and we were good to go.  I think Michael and I were just a TAD uncomfortable with this whole process since its not something I think we've ever done before... it felt a little creepy to trust a stranger to take you and your family in his car... However, once we got into the campground, I'm fairly certain that our cabdriver was the one who was creeped out by us!  Did I mention before that the drive into this campground is about 2 miles into the woods and there are NO lights out there??!  And that the park is LOADED with deer?!  Our poor guy was hunched up over his steering wheel going about 5 miles an hour and I could almost hear the regret he had in agreeing to drive us there!!!  It all ended well (for us at least!) and we arrived safely back at the RV.  Grandma had made dinner for us and we were hungry as it was now after 8 pm!  We finished off our meal with cupcakes-- which were VERY good.  Totally worth the bus ride and wait in line!

After a quick shower (which was shared with a daddy long-legs, a dead spider and a cricket... did I mention this is a very rustic campground??!), we all fell into bed exhausted.




 

Day 6: Change of plans

Michael and I woke up early this morning (5:30 am) and immediately he began to express his concern about his dad continuing on the trip.  Apparently in the night PawPaw had begun to run a fever and was having pain in his side.  We talked for a few minutes and then consulted with Grandma.  We all agreed that the best place for him would be at home where he could see his doctor.  We knew that if he got any worse, we didn't want him to be in another state.  So we packed up quickly and were on the road by 6:30 in order to get through DC before the morning rush hour got too bad.  Thankfully, we made it through the city with little delay.

 

Michael drove 11 hours with only short stops for gas and lunch and we arrived home at 5:30 and unloaded his parents and sent them on their way home.

 

His parents want us to continue along and finish the trip.  Although there were many tears shed today over the fact that they are unable to continue with us, we are going to honor their wishes. We are currently back on the road tonight after a very brief stop at home... and will resume our itinerary (with a 1200 mile detour), arriving in Pennsylvania by tomorrow evening. 

 

It seems that we have not only ill health, but the US government conspiring against us on this trip.  If the government actually does shut down at midnight tonight, that will impact some of our plans (Acadia National Park, Shenandoah National Park and Gettysburg).  But, we learned a big lesson in flexibility today and so I feel certain that God will lead us through any more changes that come our way.

 

Please pray for our sad hearts and for PawPaw's health.

Day 4: Washington DC Day 1

Our first stop today was an urgent care visit for Pawpaw... oh wait... let me back up... our ACTUAL first stop today was by the Park Police in Virginia.  Flashing lights and everything.  But that is a story for another day.  Suffice it to say all ended well :)  So... we were at the urgent care in Arlington... PawPaw was diagnosed with bronchitis and pink eye.  We loaded up on all manner of cough syrups, Airborne in multiple varieties (tablets, gummies, and lozenges!), and anti-bacterial wipes and cleaners.  He already seems to be feeling some better tonight so we are praying that he continues to improve and that the rest of us stay healthy!

We resumed our regularly scheduled touring after all the medical stuff and arrived at Arlington Cemetery around 11 am.  Visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Yes, I'm from Jackson County and CAN spell "soldier" correctly! Inside joke.) was probably the highlight.  We were able to witness the changing of the guard as well as a wreath laying ceremony with a trumpeter playing "Taps".  It was very moving.

After Arlington, we had lunch in the RV (still parked in the Arlington Cemetery parking lot with grandparents inside resting/re-couping) and then headed out to cross the Potomac and visit some of the monuments.  It was a little bit of a hike but the weather was very comfortable and so we didn't mind the walk too much (although one of us was pushing for renting bikes on the return trip!).  Michael decided he wanted to run on the Mall and by the monuments so he went ahead of the girls and I, and we met up at the WWII memorial.

The monuments.  If you can visit them and not be proud and thankful to be an American, then you and I simply cannot be friends.

We ended our day at Greenbelt National Park.  A campground just inside the Beltway of DC (about 13 miles north of the city).  We arrived at dusk and only saw a little bit of the park but what we saw was pretty. There seem to be a TON of deer in here as well.  The internet is kind of spotty and we are dry camping for 3 nights so don't be alarmed if the blog goes silent for a few days.

Day 3: Mt. Vernon Estate

We had a not-quite-so-early wake up this morning-- we actually got to sleep in until the sun was up which was nice for a change!!  Michael made us a nice hot breakfast that turned out to be a huge blessing as our lunchtime turned out to be MUCH later than we expected!  We departed Bull Run around 9:30 and took our chances with the Virginia morning traffic.  I had gotten 'back roads' directions from the campground host to our intended destination (Mt. Vernon)-- which turned out to be not so much back roads as interstates (that in all fairness weren't too busy).  The bigger surprise was the LONG stretch of road that was a 2 or 3 lane highway with UNMARKED LANES!!! Seriously.  We were joking that Virginia must have run out of paint??!  They had clearly been recently repaved but there were no DOT vehicles in the vicinity so it wasn't like they had just finished and hadn't had time to put down the striping yet but would be there momentarily to do it... there were even signs stating that "Unmarked Roads" were ahead... so evidently unmarked roads are common enough that there are signs made for them?!?!  So strange... and slightly scary!

 

We arrived at Mt. Vernon to a traffic jam with a ton of police directing traffic-- that I was not expecting during our 'off season' visit to DC. Turns out that George Washington finally got a Presidential Library. Last night. And everyone was still celebrating it and hosting special lunches and such for all the big-wigs involved. Oops. I SO missed all of this on my trip-planning research. Although in my defense, I really do not think that the Mt. Vernon people happened to mention this on their calendar!! After an arduous process of trying to park the RV (all the RV parking spots were filled with cars. Pet Peeve Alert-- PLEASE DO NOT EVER DO THIS! It is stinkin' hard enough to find places that to park an RV-- when those spaces are filled with cars who can easily park in 55 other places, it is SO FRUSTRATING. End of Rant/Pet Peeve Alert.) we made it to the gate. It was now 11:30.

We wandered through some of the gardens on our way to the tour of the mansion.  So beautiful and so much variety!  He had a greenhouse for citrus and tropical plants that had heat piped in via a fireplace all winter long, requiring the slaves to actually sleep in the room where the fires were so that they never went out.  This allowed him to have all sorts of plants/trees that were non-native to Virginia.

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the tour of the house-- I had forgotten how colorful some of the rooms were! Bright blues and greens.  We were especially fascinated how the exterior wood siding was carved and treated to look like it was stone. 

 

In honor of my first trip to Mt. Vernon when I was about 7 years old, we recreated family portrait on the back lawn of the house.  (This is for you, Mom!!)



Photo-bomber!!
 

We took the time to visit the Washington's gravesite as well as let Emma complete the "Adventure Map" puzzle (which netted her a free pressed penny souvenier!).  They also had a quill pen demonstation and everyone took turns writing with it.

 

 

It was now after 2:30 and we had not yet eaten lunch, so we decided to finish up our visit at the Estate.  You could literally spend all day here and not see everything.  It was a great introduction to our time in DC-- learning more about this great man and all that he did for the United States!

 

Our campground for tonight is Pohick Bay Regional Park-- another Virginia State Park.  It is another really nice park (and it also has a water park attached to it like Bull Run did-- these places must be SUPER popular in the summer!!).  Michael was thrilled that there was a running trail between this park and another nearby one (Mason's Neck).  He had a 9 mile run scheduled today.  The view below was his halfway point.  He ran into (no pun intended!) many deer along the route including a buck!

 

The girls and I decided to take advantage of the putt-putt course that was only a 'short walk' (ha!) from our campsite.  They took "Scavenger Hunt" bags from the camp store which asked them to find certain items in the woods and return for a prize (which was fairly lame but looking for the items was fun!).  The putt-putt course was pirate themed (in case you didn't gather that from the picture below!).  The youngest player made two holes-in-one... but the oldest player managed to pull off a fairly impressive win!! 

 

After Michael returned from his run, we had a late dinner and then Emma wanted to build a fire herself... she did have a bit of supervision and help with cutting wood but she managed a pretty impressive little fire!

 

 

 

 

We are headed to an urgent care facility in the morning as PawPaw is not feeling all that great tonight.  Please pray that we can find a good doctor who will be able to help him.  Our plan is to continue into DC tomorrow.

Day 2: Manassas & Udvar-Hazy

We had an early morning wake-up today as we had another big day of driving plus things to see!  We departed the campground before 6:30 am and proceeded down some more winding, curvy roads (this is seeming to be a theme in southern Virginia!) before finally finding an interstate again (which made Michael VERY happy!!).

 

We made a quick stop for breakfast at a restaurant that 5/6's of us enjoy in moderation (the one who does not enjoy it chose to continue sleeping in the RV instead of eat... if that gives you any clue who it might be... teenagers need their sleep, you know!!). It seems that the "WH" may be our new theme restaurant of this trip-- although I'm fairly certain McDonald's will get more than its fair share of visits if previous trips are any indication!!

 

 

We saw some beautiful scenery along our way near the Shenandoah Valley. We are going to travel through the park on our way home in a few weeks and it will be interesting to see how the leaves have changed!

 

The first planned stop today was at the Manassas Battlefield Park. This was the site of the first battle of the Civil War. The girls and I had learned in American history that many people had come from Washington on the day of the battle with their picnic lunches thinking it was going to be the one and only battle of the war (and were sadly mistaken). We were able to watch a movie about the battle and we learned more details about a family who's home was right in the middle of the fighting. The numbers of soldiers killed here was just sobering and sad.

 

 

 After Manassas, we drove to the Udvar-Hazy**branch of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. This is a newer Air & Space museum that is right next door to Dulles Airport (and never fear-- we will ALSO be visiting the original on the Mall in DC!!). Michael was in airplane heaven!! They have so many planes and flying machines from all eras of flight-- from the hot air balloons of the 1700's through the modern space age. My two favorites were the Discovery Space Shuttle and the P-47 planes that my grandfather worked on when he was in WWII. I am not sure Michael could narrow down his favorites to just two, but I know he really enjoyed the full scale models of the planes he currently owns in their RC versions! They also have a simulated air traffic control tower where you can actually watch the planes landing at Dulles-- this was super cool. We finished up at the museum with ice cream at the McDonalds Cafe inside (shocker!!). Inside joke from today-- while we were at the McD's, Pawpaw (who is not thrilled about using a wheelchair AT ALL) all of a sudden sat up straight and asked, "Where is my chair??!" -- to which Grandma replied, "You are sitting in it!!" He then proceeded to look down to make sure she was right! We were ROLLING with laughter-- good thing he didn't mind too much :)

(** In case you are wondering what it takes to get a Smithsonian Museum named after you, the answer is just about 66 million dollars!!!)

Our campground for this evening was Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, VA-- just about 13 miles from Udvar-Hazy.  We got to experience some of the DC traffic on our way to the campground and it pretty much lives up to the hype!  Bull Run is a Virginia State Park. State Parks are usually about my first choice for campgrounds because their prices are generally reasonable and their facilities are usually in very good condition. Bull Run has not disappointed. The bonus for tonight was a visit from a group of deer in the field behind our camping site. We made s'mores after dinner and stayed up enjoying our electricity, internet connection and fire (probably in that order I am sorry to say... just keeping it honest!!).

 

New England Trip Day 1

We got an early start this morning despite the rainy weather.  Michael even did a 5 mile run before we left!  The RV was already mostly packed so after we added a few last minute items and ourselves, we were ready to roll!

We stayed in the rain all the way through South Carolina and into NC. We had our first tiny mishap just across the border when our driver's side windshield wiper malfunctioned.  Michael was able to manufacture a temporary fix which worked while we detoured to a hardware store in King's Mountain, NC.  After a quick repair, we were on our way agin. 

Our first planned stop was the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC.  This is a really neat place.  We were able to tour the whole museum and see the clips from his life.  So neat to see what God was able to accomplish through his ministry!  We didn't have time to see all that was there-- this would definitely be a place I would like to return to visit. 

 

While we were at the library, the rain stopped!  Yay!  Our next planned stop was Mt. Airy, NC-- birthplace of Andy Griffith and the town that "Mayberry" was based on.  We made it to Mt. Airy just in time to tour the Andy Griffith Museum before it closed and drive through a bit of the downtown area.  It was very quaint but larger than I expected. We even saw "Barney" posing on the street for pictures but since we can't exactly fit the RV into a downtown parallel parking space, we were not able to stop and meet him!

 

Our campground for the night was the Rocky Knob Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Now, let me say in my defense that I do my best to examine some of the smaller roads on our routes when I am in planning mode.  However, Googlemaps and the little green "look-at-the-actual-road-man" sort of let me down this time!!  The road from Mt. Airy to the Blue Ridge Parkway was called "Squirrel Spur Road".  I will just let you imagine what a winding, narrow, hilly road that was.  Michael says it was a 'trial by fire' initiation to mountain driving in this RV--- I'm pretty sure his intimidation about driving the RVin northern cities is over!! 

We arrived at Rocky Knob in a light, drizzly rain. We chose our campsite and got to work on making dinner.  Surprisingly, we had awesome antenna reception on the TV-- although the internet and phone were not available at all.  I think we were all in bed before 9 pm.  It was a long, slightly stressful but great first day on the road!