The Supreme Court and Library of Congress, Washington, DC

We trust everyone was treated to an exciting Halloween. I believe this is the first time our kids haven’t been home on Halloween (my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, so I could be stretching the truth a little). They started the morning studying for their final history exams. We left the campground at 11:30 and drove to the University of Maryland (College Park) where they took their finals. Brian felt confident in his performance, while Laura wasn’t happy with a couple of the questions. She went in with a high “A”, so she should be fine.

From College Park we drove to the Greenbelt Metro station and made the trip into DC. Exiting the subway at Union Station, we walked to the two buildings that were the target of our afternoon’s explorations – The Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. The two structures sit side by side and were the only construction projects I have ever heard of in DC that came in under budget and ahead of schedule. Both programs gave money back at the end of construction!

That’s where the similarities end. The Supreme Court Building is magnificent from the outside, with its soaring column pillars. The Library of Congress displays a handsome facade, but not anywhere near as dramatic as the Supreme Court. The insides are exactly the opposite. The Supreme Court building has a cold conservative feel, with giant granite columns and hard back leather chairs. Conversely, the construction manager for the Library of Congress hired leading artists to design elegant tile murals, sculptures and soaring archways -- it is absolutely stunning! The differences don’t end there. The Supreme Court won’t allow any pictures of the main courtroom – either by tourists or even journalists during trials (something about it not being respectful). They also don’t allow computers in the courtroom, so everything is done manually. Perhaps this is why they are only able to hear 80 of the almost 10,000 cases that are submitted each year! The Library of Congress on the other hand, has embraced technology. They have chemists and engineers on staff who work to preserve the historical items in their collection (from Thomas Jefferson’s book collection to five Stradivarius violins). They have also undertaken a huge initiative to put their entire collection on the web, so that all Americans can benefit from these treasures.

We were extremely fortunate to have two experienced tour guides leading us through each building. They provide stories you just can’t get touring on your own. We learned a wealth of new facts – now if we can just remember them!

When we returned home, the campground staff was conducting a pumpkin carving contest, so the kids continued their annual tradition of dissecting large orange gourds. The judging, along with trick or treating for the younger kids, occurs November 1st (everything in DC happens a little late). It is supposed to be 70 degrees here, so we might even have a campfire to keep warm while passing out candy!

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC

The kids studied yesterday morning, preparing for their final exams tomorrow and Friday. In the afternoon we took the Metro into downtown and toured the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Entering from the Constitution Avenue side, we were greeted by one of the stone faces from Easter Island. The sculpture was likely carved in the 16th century, and has been on display at the museum for over 100 years, but is relatively young compared to most of the inhabitants of the museum.

The Smithsonian had done a marvelous job showcasing the 4 billion year history of our planet. We touched rocks that are over 2 billion years old, and viewed trilobite fossils that are over 500 million years old. The exhibits lead you from life created in the seas, emerging onto the lands, and evolving into, amphibians, reptiles, birds, dinosaurs and mammals. I walked away feeling humbled by the diversity and tenacity of the life that has gone before us on this planet. The natural world is truly amazing!

Teressa’s favorite exhibit was the 45.5 carat Hope diamond (surprise, surprise). She spent so much time at the display the security guard was starting to get nervous. Laura liked the section devoted to mammals, especially the pink fairy armadillo (it was just too cool). The IMAX Ocean 3D movie was Brian’s favorite, with the beautiful coral reefs and rich diversity of life. Me, I was totally mesmerized by the 500 million year old trilobites – they ruled the seas for 130 million years – we should all be so lucky!

In the evening we watched the movie “A Night at the Museum” with Ben Stiller. It seemed like the appropriate end to a naturally historic day!

Manassas and the Space Shuttle Enterprise, Virginia

We were running a little short of time yesterday, so rearranged our schedule and visited Manassas and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum near Dulles airport. The Museum houses some of the larger aircraft that aren’t practical to move downtown to the main facility on the Mall. The highlight is the most impressive man-made object I have ever seen – the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Named after Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise, it was the first space shuttle built for NASA. Constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, its main purpose was to conduct flight tests in the atmosphere. It is breathtaking (click on the photo on the right). They also have an Air France Concorde SST, and the Enola Gay, the B29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Here is Teressa’s journal entry for the day for those who want all the details…

Much cooler today and light rain. Temps were in the 40’s. Gary’s cold is in full swing. We spent the morning “home” working on school work. After lunch we drove to Manassas to a Walmart for some supplies and then to the battlefield visitor center. They had a pool table-sized display of the battlefield with red and blue lights to represent the north and south troops and their movement. They had a small museum with some of the tools, guns and uniforms of the troops. One was an old primitive shoe with a ball lodged between the foot and the sole. There was an excellent re-enactment movie about both battles at Manassas. Once again, we walked away sobered by the number of deaths and the methods by which they fought and died. Manassas was the first real battle of the Civil War, not including Fort Sumter where it all began. Both the North and the South believed there would be a quick battle and the war would be over. The battle at Manassas was nearly won by the Union until the Southern troops retreated to Henry’s Hill. There, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson earned his name when he had his Confederate troops formed a line the Union couldn't break.

The South came me up behind Mrs. Judith Henry’s house and surprised the Yankees. The Union turned one of their own cannons on the house killing the 85 year old woman (and a lot of Confederates). Shortly after, the Confederates overcame the Union, sending them running back across Bull Run Creek toward Washington. We paused at the grave of Mrs. Henry which rests outside the reconstructed replica of her home and where the Union constructed a monument honoring the fallen patriots. A statue of General Stonewall Jackson overlooks the battlefield, and at his feet is the grave marker of General Barnard Elliott who coined the nickname “Stonewall” while rallying his troops before he died.

Our next stop was the 2nd part of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum located at Dulles airport. They have a control tower where you can look out over Dulles and DC in the distance. But the most amazing thing there is the space shuttle on display. We were amazed at how large it is, and Gary and I were humbled just to be there and ponder the engineering excellence. Gary and the kids did a space shuttle simulation, but weren’t too impressed with the graphics. Nonetheless, Brian and Laura have never seen a shuttle launched, and the simulation showed them what it is like.

National Mall, Washington, DC

As this morning was the 33rd running of the Marine Corps Marathon, we stayed out of DC until the afternoon. Brian and Laura focused on homework in the morning – I helped Laura with her algebra, while Teressa focused on Brian’s history class. They will be taking finals for some of these classes later this week. Rocky went to the groomer in the morning, and while he smells 100% better, his obsession for crashing through the brush after rabbits and squirrels has not abated. We extracted two more ticks this week.

After a quick lunch, Brian drove us to the Greenbelt metro station. There we caught the Green line train to the National Archives. We entered the building, cleared security, and then watched their introductory movie. Since we were short on time, we made a quick sweep through the Rotunda to view the Magna Carta (one of four originals from 1297), the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and various other historical documents. In an effort to preserve these cherished works, the lights are dimmed in the Archives, so most of our pictures didn’t turn out.

From the Archives we hailed a cab to the Lincoln Memorial. The kids were surprised at the size and scope of everything – the monuments, the distance between them, the length of the reflecting pool on the mall, the number of times mom and dad keep saying “do you know how lucky we are?”. The setting sun provided a warm diffused light for viewing the Vietnam, Korean and World War II Memorials. We walked the entire length of the reflecting pool, then turned north and passed the front of the White House before having dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. From there it took two Metro trains to get us back to our car at the Greenbelt station.

Portraits and Pilots, Smithsonian Museums, Washington, DC

With a steady rain settling over DC this morning, we decided to focus our touring on indoor activities. A short drive to the Greenbelt subway station allowed us to catch the Green Line to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery in downtown DC. The museum offers a free locker program, so we left my backpack and our coats and spent the next hour viewing historical paintings and portraits. They have the best collection of presidential portraits outside the White House, and their civil war paintings were excellent as well. The kids can only handle so much “culture”, so after an hour we walked next door to a restaurant for brick-oven pizza (it was excellent but spendy).

After lunch we took the subway two stops down to the Air and Space Museum. It was pretty crowded on a Saturday afternoon, but we enjoyed looking at the space modules – John Glen’s Mercury Friendship 7 Capsule where he became the first American in space, the Gemini IV mission which included Edward White’s first space walk, and the Apollo 11 Command Module when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. The rest of the exhibits were jammed with people so we watched an IMAX 3D movie on the sun (based upon data from the twin STEREO satellites) and then an interesting presentation on Black Holes in the Einstein Planetarium. We decided to return another day to view the other exhibits with less crowds.

For dinner last night Teressa made chili, and then we settled in to watch the movie American Treasure. We had all seen it before, but it was much more fun watching this time and recognizing all the locations – The Old North Church in Boston, Wall Street in New York City, and the Capitol and monuments in DC. We'll continue our own tour of the monuments tomorrow!

White House Tour, Washington, DC

Today we toured Barack’s new house (OK, I couldn’t resist!). We left the campground via bus at 8:40, switched to the Metro at College Park Station (University of Maryland), and ended up at Metro Center about an hour later. Laura was hungry (surprise, surprise), so we scooted into a coffee shop for a snack and warm drink. Our tour started at 10:30, and they ask everyone be in line 15 minutes early. Security is very tight – they don’t allow cameras, backpacks, purses, pens, or most anything else. You must have a picture ID, and you must request the tour roughly a week ahead of time through your congress person so they can do background checks. If you follow the rules, the screening process is a piece of cake.

We entered via the East Colonnade and toured the Library and Vermeil Room on the ground floor before heading upstairs. The initial room you enter on the First Floor is the large East Room, where many of the press conferences take place. It was also used to host a dinner for 250 for the Pope last year, even though the Pope didn’t attend the dinner (apparently he never eats in public). The most striking element of the room is the portrait of George Washington. It is the oldest piece of artwork in the White House collection and was on the wall when John Adams originally took occupancy. This is the same portrait that Dolly Madison saved in 1814 just before the British burned the house as part of the War of 1812.

From the East Room we progressed through the Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, and State Dining Room before exiting the front of the house. Laura’s favorite part of the tour was the red room (surprise, surprise), while Brian favored the view from the front lawn looking at the grand white columns. Teressa was most impressed with the history and the fact that we live in a country that allows us to tour our president’s home, and immediately teared up when we entered the building (surprise, surprise). My favorite part was viewing the full length portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, but I walked away struggling with one thought – why would anyone want to be President, living with a house full of secret service agents and 1000 strangers filtering through every morning? By the way, Laura wants me to run for office so she can invite friends over to play in the big white house! ;-)

After the tour we headed across the street for lunch. Established in 1856, Old Ebbitt Grill was a favorite of President’s Grant, Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt. Rich in history, the food was excellent too! Before heading back to the campground we stopped at the White House Visitor center to allow the kids to get their passport books stamped.

There are no pictures of the interior of the White House – send your complaints to the security staff! ;-)

Capitol Tour, Washington, DC

We had an informative tour of the Capitol building today. Here is Teressa’s journal entry with all the details:

Joan in Congressman David Wu’s office set up a capitol tour today with Grant—their intern. Two other Oregon women (retired teachers) from McMinnville were also in our group. Grant took us through the crypt (now a visitor center), old senate room (rich and stately—done in deep reds and golds with spittoons available for the senators of old), statue room, rotunda (tall enough for the statue of liberty without her base), and old house of representatives room. In the old house of representatives room, we stood where John Adams sat. He would pretend to be asleep but was really listening to his opponents talking in a small group on the opposite side of the room. The sound bounced off the dome above and was crystal clear over 50 feet away. This was also the room that contained many beautiful historical paintings including The Signing of the Declaration of Independence. The story has it that Thomas Jefferson paid the artist to make him look stately and to make John Adams frumpy. Jefferson is portrayed as handsome and well-dressed in red, white and blue; Adams was in dull brown clothing. Jefferson’s right foot was standing on top of Adams’s foot. Not the best of friends until later in their twilight years!

We ended the tour in the House of Representatives chamber which was not in session. This is where the president holds the State of the Union address with the Supreme Court justices sitting on the president’s right, in front, the Democrat congressmen seated on the right and the Republican congressmen on the left. We were sitting in the balcony where the First Ladies and special guests sit during the address.

When our tour ended we walked toward Union Station and had dinner at the Capitol City Grill. During the week and the time of day we were there, all appetizers were $5 and the appetizers were meals by themselves. So we ate, topping it off with a brownie and ice cream, and jumped back on the subway.

Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania

It was a chilly 35 degrees in Gettysburg this morning, and unfortunately our main propane tank ran dry in the middle of the night. Luckily our trusty little electric heater chugged away against the chill, keeping it just above 60 in the trailer. We have a backup propane tank, but no automatic cutover valve, so as soon as it got light I went outside and switched to the backup tank. There was even a little frost on the grass in the campground!

We had an outstanding educational tour of the Gettysburg National Battlefield yesterday. A friend, John Olsen, who works at Johns Hopkins University, has been coming to Gettysburg since he was a young boy. He treated us to a three hour tour of the historic Civil War battlefield. It seems ironic that neither side intended to engage in a fight at Gettysburg, but when Union troops ran into Confederate soldiers on McPherson’s Ridge west of town, the battle was on. For three days the fighting raged until the south finally retreated, marking a critical turning point in the war. Peaceful rolling hills around Gettysburg became legendary battlefields – Little Round Top, The Wheatfield, The Peach Orchard, The Devil’s Den, Culp’s Hill, Cemetery Ridge and Seminary Ridge. Monumental acts of bravery and valor were displayed on both sides – Pickett’s charge across an open field into cannon fire, Chamberlain’s famous wheeling of the left wing of his 20th Maine soldiers, and untold countless acts of heroism by individual soldiers. In the end, over 51,000 men were killed, wounded or captured (roughly a third of the total that participated), making Gettysburg one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

The new visitor center is truly amazing, featuring two cinemas and the famous diarama "The Battle of Gettysburg", painted by Paul Philippoteaux. It includes a new museum with over 10 rooms of civil war relics and history, as well as one of the best bookstores we have seen at any of the national park sites. We lost Teressa for 15 minutes in the museum -- she must have thought John was going to give her a test, because she was reading every word on every exhibit! The new visitor center just opened this spring, and the diarama has only been open for four weeks, so we felt very forutnate to take it all in.

One can’t view the battlefield and hear the incredible stories without stirring deep emotions. How could these men march into battle across open fields directly into enemy fire knowing that most would not survive? What compelled them to fight – keeping the Union together, ending slavery, state’s rights, personal honor, loved ones? Why did so many men have to die? Why…? Unfortunately, as in most wars, there are no easy answers, just more difficult questions. It was fun having John’s perspective, as his home state of Maryland was more aligned with the Southern cause. As in most things in life, there are two sides to every coin. A special "thank you" to John for spending the day with us and sharing his stories.

Amish Country, Pennsylvania

Yesterday we waved goodbye to Ms. Liberty and the Manhattan skyline, worked our way through Jersey City (no easy task when dragging a 34 foot trailer), and headed south on I-95 toward Pennsylvania. We arrived at our campground in Adamstown, PA around 3:30 with plenty of time to set up camp, get another hour of "school" in, and still make a quick trip to the grocery store. At Weaver Market, we saw lots of women in old-fashioned clothes with little white bun covers in their hair. We discovered later that the store is owned by a Mennonite family (who lives next door to Teressa's niece Randi) and that many of the customers we saw there were Mennonite and possibly some Amish. We are near the heart of Amish country.

Our next stop was Randi and Ron's house. Randi is Teressa's sister Marilyn's 2nd daughter. They live in Denver, a little community about 7 miles from our campground. Although we have seen pictures each year of their boys, Brad and Ryan, Teressa had only met them once at a family wedding. Brad is 10 and Ryan is 7 and they are both hockey players. Even Ron has taken up hockey so he can coach the boys. All the cousins (cousins once removed, we think) played Xbox while we visited. We even got a short trumpet concert from Brad. Randi fixed a great dinner of ziti, salad, brochette. It was fun to see their home and neighborhood and to sit outside on the brick patio visiting by the outdoor fireplace (which Ron built). The evening ended too quickly...they went back to work and school today, and we toured Amish country.

Brian and Laura did a couple of hours of homework in the morning in Adamstown before we left our campground. After breaking camp we headed south through Amish country, arriving at the train station in Strasburg just after noon. Founded in 1832, Strasburg boasts one of the oldest train right of ways in the world. Today they operate authenticate coal powered steam engines with beautifully restored passenger cars. During our nine mile round trip the fireman shoveled half a ton of coal into the firebox, and the engine consumed 1000 gallons of water. Averaging just over 12 mph, we passed a number of Amish farms in the rolling countryside. It was interesting watching them harvest corn using only horses to pull all the equipment. We also saw several Amish horse drawn buggies cruising through the streets of Strasburg. The Amish try to live a very simple existence, with no electricity, cars, or even curtains in their homes. The railway makes donations through a land trust to help some of the Amish farmers preserve their farms in the face of growing urban sprawl.

We arrived at the Round Top RV Park just south of Gettysburg at 5:00. That was later than expected, as we experienced the worst traffic jam of the trip so far. It seems strange that traffic delays in the rolling hills of Amish country in rural Pennsylvania could be worse than Boston or Chicago, but they were on this Friday afternoon. The backup happened as we were trying to circumnavigate the highway north of York. A stretch of 5 to 6 stoplights on the highway created a half hour backup. I guess if that’s the worst congestion we experience on the trip, we should count ourselves fortunate. We have been successful so far taking mass transit and avoiding big cities at rush hour.

New York City

A tour of the US isn't complete without a stop in New York City, even though we took the kids there for spring break several years back. This time we stayed for three nights at the Liberty Harbor RV park in New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan.. Check out the view of the Statue of Liberty from our site (OK, it was taken with a telephoto lens, but it is still pretty cool). We also have a great view of Manhattan from the dock about 100 yards down the hill. The downside is the closely packed accommodations, even tighter than Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone -- we could literally touch four other RVs from our narrow gravel campsite. Luckily most of the campers were from Canada, and since Monday was their Thanksgiving, they were all in a partying mood (we got free subway tickets and multiple drink offers!).

Here is Teressa's journal entry for our visit to the Big Apple: Gary and I ventured out to find the Home Depot up the street. It was the weirdest Home Depot I have ever seen. Because there is so much city around it, you have to drive off the main road on the left side to a ramp that enters a parking garage. If you miss it, you go through the Holland tunnel into NYC. We made it but had no time to think about whether our truck with BIKES STILL ON TOP would make it into the garage. We feel extremely fortunate that this Home Depot parking garage was apparently built to accommodate trucks or we might have had some unwanted air conditioning in our truck.

It was sunny and high 60’s this morning when we hopped the ferry from Jersey City to Wall Street. Gary has a keen sense of direction or a 6th sense, so he pointed his nose in the air and led us right to a public building where we could have coffee and hot chocolate and plan our morning. With the volatility of Wall Street lately, we wanted to check out the New York Stock Exchange. They will no longer let the public through their doors, but it was fun to watch the stock prices on the ticker tape and to see all the news crews and cameras set up out front. New York City’s finest are fully employed in that part of town too. We laughed when we saw some foreign tourist getting his photo taken with a couple of cops in riot gear garb rather than their usual uniforms.

Next stop was the discount theater ticket booth on John Street. There was quite a line there when we arrived, but it more than doubled in the next 10 minutes. Even with that, we were able to get tickets to our top two picks -- Spamalot and Mama Mia (of those that were available). All tickets were half of the box office price which was a darn good deal.

At that point, it was time for lunch, and we had a heck of a time getting to Little Italy. At the subway station, we bought our tickets and attempted to find the trains. However, after I ran my ticket through the activation machine, I attempted to walk through the turn style but grabbed it in the wrong place and ultimately locked myself on the wrong side of the entrance gate. I attempted to run the card again, but it is programmed not to allow you to do it again for a period of time to keep people from passing them off to their friends. Sheesh! So I had to go buy another ticket and finally made it to the other side. We headed to the trains and ours left just as I was coming down the stairs. Thank goodness the others hadn’t jumped on the train because I wouldn’t have made it. Then Gary yelled at me and I yelled at him and we all yelled at each other until the next train came which, unbeknown to us, was an express train. Therefore, we could not get off in a stop or two and ended up way beyond the Italian area. Eventually, of course, we did get there after a walk through Chinatown in which I was frequently accosted by street vendors thinking I needed a new handbag. I vowed that I would not return to NY looking like a tourist.

Ah, the Italian section! We selected Ristorante Da Nico for lunch because they had a garden/patio area where we could eat our pasta. Gary ordered their chicken spinach with white sauce pizza. It was good except that the white sauce was very strange…not much flavor. I had rigatoni in a red sauce. The sauce was excellent. Gary and I shared our meals. The kids had fettuccine alfredo and it is hard to not make well…

At that point, we returned to Jersey City for some R&R and to let Rocky out.

Back to New York at 5:30. We took the PATH train from Grove Street station (Jersey City) to 33rd St. in NYC. Changed trains. Took Metro to somewhere around 41st. Our theater was on 44th but Gary had Googled some restaurant sites for Thai food and we walked to a restaurant a few long blocks away. We haven’t had Thai food since Jackson, Wyoming. This little restaurant served Pad Thai similar to our favorite Portland restaurant, Siam. The other food was good too, and it was inexpensive and close to the theater.

We went to see Monty Python’s Spamalot with Clay Aiken. Gary and I didn’t know what to expect. Would the British humor be too dry for our kids or over their heads? Would it be too raunchy? But, it turned out to be very funny with great song and dance routines and wonderful talent. And, it was fun to see one of our American Idol faves on stage. There was some offbeat humor (and some off color humor), but Brian and Laura handled it well and---it was just a lot of fun.

The next day we journeyed back into the city around noon after the kids had completed a couple of hours of homework. We stopped at a cute Mexican restaurant in the theater district for a quick lunch before the play. Mama Mia was excellent, with great Abba music that brought back memories of younger days. After a little souvenir shopping we returned to the RV Park via the subway. There is no place like New York City -- Laura is ready to get a job on Broadway!
Subways back to Jersey City and bed.

Philadelphia, PA

Today we toured the City of Brotherly Love. Our journey started by automobile, with Brian driving us northeast from our campground in Clarksboro, New Jersey, to the train station in Woodcrest. There we boarded a Philadelphia bound PATCO train for just over $5 round trip apiece. It was a pleasant ride, and the best part was we didn’t have to search for parking downtown. The Philadelphia station was two blocks from the Independence Hall Visitor Center, where we secured tickets for a 12:45 tour. Since it was only 10:25, we investigated other activities and found a Philadelphia Duck Boat tour leaving at 10:30 – perfect timing. After a quick restroom break, we boarded our amphibious vehicle, donned our duck noise makers, and spent the next 90 minutes enjoying an educational scenic tour of downtown Philadelphia. Our driver looked like Simon Cowell from American Idols, but was much more hospitable! It was a great way to start the day.

The kids were hungry by the end of the duck boat tour, so we grabbed a quick snack at Dunkin Donuts (our first trip to the storied East Coast coffee institution) and sat on a bench on Market Street enjoying the sunshine. At 12:30 we queued up for our tour of Independence Hall. It was quite a humbling experience, standing in the same exact spots where the Continental Congress met, presidents Washington and Adams took their oaths of office, and the Declaration of Independence was signed. We were extremely fortunate to have a park ranger with degrees in history and anthropology entertain us an in-depth tour of Congress Hall, offering insights into the political climate of our new nation, especially President Washington’s role. Teressa and I are ready to go back to college again! A quick peek at the Liberty Bell completed our tour of Independence Mall.

In another case of “it’s a small world”, one of the people on our 12:45 tour was Howard Chang, a sales engineer from back in the early Webridge days. He brought his wife and two daughters into the city from New Jersey yesterday since they had not seen the Liberty Bell. What are the odds we would end up in town on the same day, on the same tour! It was fun to see him again (it’s been over 5 years).

When the tour ended we ducked into the Curtis Publishing Building (where Norman Rockwell once worked) to view “The Dream Garden”, a huge glass mosaic designed by Maxfield Parrish and executed by Tiffany Studios. Composed of 100,000 pieces of favril glass in 260 different colors, the tranquil garden scene is mesmerizing. In an attempt to snap ourselves back to reality, we jumped in a taxi and drove to Pat’s Cheese Steak restaurant for an original Philadelphia experience. We tried different combinations of onions, Cheeze Wiz, mushrooms, provolone and peppers. They were good, but we like Teressa’s French dip sandwiches better!

Another cab ride deposited us at the Philadelphia mint. Unfortunately it closed half an hour before we arrived, so we walked next door to view the graves of Ben Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration. At the bookstore on Chestnut Street the kids bought stickers for their National Park passport books, and stamped them with "Independence Hall". A short walk back to the train station, a twenty minute train ride, and a commute in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic delivered us back to the campground.

After a light dinner, we spent time pulling two ticks off Rocky. Research on the Internet suggested not using a match, instead using alcohol and tweezers to pull them out. Next time we’ll use a match or hot pin, as Rocky now has two tick heads firmly implanted under his skin. The alcohol did make Teressa and I feel better though! ;-)

Mystic, CT

We are staying at the KOA compground in North Stonybrook, CT. The facility is huge -- with space for hundreds of campers. Most of the full timers have left for the season, but there are still plenty of travelers here. Brian and Laura love the jumping pillow -- a trampoline like device that lets you bounce to your heart's content. Even big kids enjoy it!

The kids worked on homework this morning, and then we drove into Mystic to explore. We were craving hamburgers, so our first stop was “Five Guys and Fries”, reported to be one of the best burgers on the east coast. The food was excellent, especially the spicy hand cut curly fries from Rigby, Idaho! Five Guys and Fries is a chain, and the manager said they were coming soon to Oregon!

Our next stop was the small town of Stonington Village, sitting on a narrow peninsula jutting out into the ocean. Most of the buildings are several hundred years old, but all are in excellent condition. We stopped at the end of the peninsula to watch some fisherman on the jetty. There were a number of lobster pot buoys bobbing along the shore. From Stonington we headed south on Route 1 to Mystic – actually we headed almost straight west. This is hard to get comfortable with directions, as the Connecticut coast runs almost straight east and west (not north and south like most of us imagine)!

We parked downtown so we could browse the shops and view the harbor. The picture of the kids is from the original Mystic Pizza restaurant, made famous by the Julia Roberts movie of the same name. We were going to tour the Mystic Seaport museum, but spending $60 for an hour and 20 minutes didn’t seem like a good investment. Instead we stopped at a video store and rented two movies – Mystic Pizza and Groundhog day. The evening was a classic family movie night, complete with Teressa’s famous tortilla soup. It was fun for the kids to watch movies where they immediately recognized the filming locations.

North of Boston - Of Witches and Revolutions

The heater was on most of the night in the RV, as temperatures plunged into the 30s in New England. We spent the last two days at the Minuteman RV Park in Littleton, MA, approximately 25 miles northwest of Boston.

Sunday afternoon, after getting the trailer set up in the new campground, Brian drove us to Salem to visit the Witch Museum. While the facility is old and doesn’t take advantage of current audio visual equipment or computer animation, it provides a good historical account of the hysteria around witches in early New England. Ann Putnam and a group of teenage girls, bored and looking for some excitement, convinced most of the town that they were being controlled by witches. Unfortunately their accusations led to the hanging of 19 innocent people, and hundreds of others going to jail. Another man was crushed to death by stones. The museum makes a interesting case for the repetition of this pattern of hysteria throughout history – the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, McCarthyism, and perhaps even our current financial crisis.

From Salem we headed north to the Philips Academy at Andover. Recognized as one of the best prep schools in America, Andover sits on a beautiful college-like campus, offering its 1200 students a rigorous academic experience. Peter Schock, a family friend from Portland, graduated from Andover last year. Brian’s friend Rona, who attended middle school with him at Meadow Park, is in her sophomore year at Andover. She was an excellent tour guide on a crisp autumn afternoon. After touring the campus, we walked into downtown Andover and enjoyed brick oven pizza for dinner at Bertucci’s, which was recommended by several friends from Boston. It was excellent!

Monday morning the kids did homework, then we drove to a UPS store and sent in a portfolio for one of Laura’s classes. The rest of the day was spent exploring the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, and many of the authors and poets who wrote about it. We started at the North Bridge in Concord, where on April 19, 1775, the Minutemen first fired on His Majesty’s redcoats. It was surreal, standing on this graceful bridge, watching the river meander slowly underneath, trying to imagine what it must have been like that chaotic day. Nobody knows who fired the first shot, but the event changed the course of history.

We retraced the events of April 19th, driving to Lexington where the redcoats had killed several colonists earlier that day, and later were engaged in fierce fighting as they retreated all the way back to Boston. Along the way we viewed the spot by the river where Paul Revere was captured and detained the night before as he alerted the colonists that the “British were coming”. The visitor center in Lexington had an excellent half hour presentation recasting the events of that fateful day.

The Lexington and Concord areas also contain the homes of many famous American writers and poets. We drove past Ralph Waldo Emerson’s home, and enjoyed reading his Concord Hymn about the “shot heard round the world”. We stopped and walked around Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, made famous by her book “Little Women”. In Concord we made a stop at Walden Pond, and viewed a replica of Henry David Thoreau’s house, at 10 x 12, no bigger than the size of today’s’ bedrooms! Teressa and the kids had fun “playing” with Thoreau’s statue (see the attached pictures). We feel humbled walking in the shadows of legends!

Derry, New Hampshire

We left our campground near Portland, Maine around noon yesterday, and drove south along the Maine coast. Unlike the Oregon coast, it is almost impossible to find any place to park an RV, so we viewed the towns along the way from the truck, with little peaks at the ocean here and there. Kennebunkport was a cute little town centered around a protected bay with interesting shops lining the streets. Our route was much slower than the freeway, but we avoided part of the toll road. How toll roads make sense, I am at a loss to explain, but at least Maine has a wide lane on the right for RVs at every toll booth.

Arriving in Kittery around 2, we did a little shopping at the factory outlet malls. Laura found a pair of running shoes that fit her on sale, so the stop was successful. We continued south along the coast into New Hampshire, and then cut across the state to our campground in Derry. I found the campground on-line – it is not listed in any of the travel directories. That should have been a warning. It’s not a bad place, adjacent to a golf course and tucked into a thick wood forest. It’s just that most of the inhabitants look like they have been living here in their trailers for years. Plastic pink flamingos and flowers grace many of the flower pots, and Christmas lights hang from the majority of the trailers. Most folks drive around in golf carts and look like they are all related. You can even here the faint sound of banjo music at night (OK, just kidding about that!).

We set up camp before dark and then drove up to Manchester to meet one of our high school friends and her family for dinner. Janet Eck graduated from Helena High with a 4.0 and attended MIT and Harvard. She married Elliott Bloom, a research engineer for a medical device company here in New Hampshire. They have one child, Maya, who is 13 and like Laura, attends 8th grade. We spent over three hours at a Mexican restaurant eating and catching up on the last 30 years. We had a great evening reminiscing!

I’ll end today with a short story I wrote after my morning walk with Rocky (our Pomeranian) today.

Rocky’s Obsession

Everyone, it seems, has an obsession. For Rocky, it is chipmunks. To humans, chipmunks are cute little furry creatures, daintily darting among the trees, filling the forest with their friendly chatter. To a dog, they are the ultimate squeaky toy!

We awoke this morning at our campsite in Derry, New Hampshire, tucked deep in a thick wood. Rocky’s head was filled with the chirping of dozens of chipmunks as we started our morning walk. Their sound reverberated all around us, but their presence remained hidden. Was this really the ultimate chipmunk hunting grounds, or was he slowly losing his sanity, just imagining the sounds ringing in his ears?

Primordial instincts kicked in, as he rolled in a plethora of odoriferous substances discovered on the forest floor, trying to mask his smell, just as his ancestors had done for generations. Alas, stealth mode didn’t work – the chirping continued, but with no visible sign of the mystical creatures. Paranoia was starting to set in, as he dashed wildly back and forth towards the sounds echoing in his head.

Ultimately he accepted defeat and returned with me to the RV, exhausted and confused. He slunk to the window by the kitchen table and stared deeply into the forest, hoping to detect any movement that might return his sanity. After long anxious minutes, he suddenly exploded in wild barks and howls. There on a rock, just outside the window, sat a fat chipmunk sunning himself.

The chipmunk taunted Rocky, as if knowing the window was an impenetrable barrier. He stuffed his cheeks with nuts just feet from Rocky’s cold black nose pressed hard against the pane. Rocky whimpered incessantly, his ultimate prize so close, yet untouchable. Paranoia gone, obsession rekindled!

Portland, Maine

After touring Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park earlier in the week, we traveled down the coast to our campground in Scarborough, just south of Portland. We stopped in Freeport to visit the LL Bean Flagship campus. Parking the RV was a challenge, which seemed surprising since tourists should be their main source of revenue. Following the “RV Parking” signs led us to a dead end – not a fun experience with a 34 foot trailer. We managed to back out and find parking close to a high school, not far from the LL Bean campus. An unsuccessful pass through their factory outlet left us no choice but to pay top dollar at the main store – go figure! Laura found a new rain coat (she hasn’t had one on the trip), and I invested in a pair of slip on rubber clogs for walking Rocky on wet mornings. Teressa and Brian stuck out, except for cake and a muffin at the coffee bar!

Our campground is located a half mile from Old Orchard Beach in a grove of trees next to a marsh estuary. We selected a site in the new section of the park, with wide drive ways and open vistas. The temperature dipped into the low 40s the last two nights, which required us to break down and use the furnace to keep warm. We are also using the shower in our trailer, since the first morning’s experience in the 40 degree RV Park bathroom was a little too invigorating.

As Teressa declared yesterday morning, “This must be Portland because it’s raining and the wind is blowing!” Brian drove us into downtown Portland, not an easy feat even with a GPS. It reminded us of Portland, Oregon, with its quaint downtown area on the waterfront. The kids really wanted to find shirts with “Portland Maine” logos, so we spent an hour scouring the downtown area before both were successful. Brian scored a great deal, picking up the sweatshirt you see in the picture for $20. It was a fun experience, as we were convinced the shop keeper was the sister of one of our good friends, Karin Schock (same voice and mannerisms). She was very helpful, giving us directions to the Portland Head Light, and a favorite local ice cream parlor (are you picking up a pattern here?). We were very fortunate that the rains stopped as we approached the light house. The setting sun illuminating the light house provided a stark contrast to the dark rain clouds on the far horizon.

Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

We finally broken Internet and cell phone silence this week! The RV park we stayed in near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park didn’t have Internet access, and our Verizon phones (and the Sea2C router) couldn’t get a reliable signal, so we didn’t have cell phone service either. Luckily it is only the third time on the trip (the others were Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone Park, and Ontario, Canada). It is amazing how much we rely on the Internet – researching campgrounds, communicating with friends, keeping up on world and local news. We are glad to be connected to the world again!

The campground we stayed in near Bar Harbor operates on a first come, first serve basis -- they don’t accept reservations! The good news is they let you drive around and pick out your own site. After selecting a pull through site at the top of the hill with a partial view of the Ocean, we cooked dinner and plotted our strategy for the next day in the park. The weather gods were finally cooperating, as it looked like the following day would be dry for a change.

The morning dawned bright and sunny as predicted, a welcome change from all the rain we experienced in New Hampshire and the drive across Maine. The kids worked on homework for a couple of hours, and then Brian drove us into Bar Harbor in search of clam chowder. The town was buzzing with two cruise ships anchored in the harbor. We found a place to park and did some window shopping along main street. Teressa asked one of the shop keepers for a recommendation on the best clam chowder in town, and we ended up at the Thirsty Whale. The “chowdah” was excellent, with a thick cream base and a hint of garlic!

After lunch we drove to the visitor center at the entrance to Acadia National Park. The kids got their passport stickers and stamps, and we watched a short movie about the park. Acadia is the only national park where the land was given to the government by private citizens. That accounts for some of the odd shaped boundaries between public and private lands. We spent the next four hours circumnavigating the park. One of the highlights was Sand Beach, the only sand beach in the park, made up mostly of crushed animal shells. Laura accurately described its feel as that of sawdust. We stopped at Jordan Pond and did a short hike down to the lake along the carriage trails. For a finale, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain (1600 feet) as the sun was setting and enjoyed a 360 degree view of the park. As they pointed out in the movie at the visitor center, Acadia doesn’t have any “must see” signature attractions like many of the other national parks, but the overall package is impressive!

We ended the day back in Bar Harbor at a local pizza parlor. There we met a group of retired folks on a tour from Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. They were interested in our trip and gave us more suggestions on things to see and do around DC. There are no shortage of opportunities!