Catching Up, Part 2

 The Museum of Natural History,

The Hope Diamond.

 

The US Capitol Building.   This and many other monuments in the city were virtual geocaches.  I guess they don't want you digging around in the bushes for strange containers in our nations capitol!

 

We spent Memorial Day at Rolling Thunder.  It took 2 hrs 35 min for all the motorcycles to come into the National Mall from the Pentagon.  It was an amazing to see and hear!!

 

This is the Korean War Memorial.

The bikes are all parked in a field after they come into the Mall.  It was fun to walk around and see all the interesting bikes and talk to the veterans.

 

 

 

We were honored to meet this veteran at the Wall.  He lost all these friends in Iraq, and was gracious enough to let us take this picture.

 

 

 

 

Our last day in Washington DC was spent at Arlington Cemetery.  We took the shuttle around the cemetery as the place is huge.  The property was owned by Robert E Lee's wife, who was the great grand daughter of George Washington.  The family could not pay the taxes on the land after the Civil War and donated it to be a cemetery.

 

JFK's Eternal Flame

 

We got to see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

 

Leaving Washington DC we drove thru some gorgeous country in Virginia and West Virginia.  We discovered that there are no straight roads in West Virginia.  A couple of rainstorms slowed us down, at one point we even had to pull off the road and wait for the storm to pass as it was just not safe to drive in.  We were rewarded with miles of scenery with mist rising off the forest.

 

We spent a couple of days outside of Central City, Kentucky, and I got a chance to visit with my old friend and one time pastor, Jeff Harkin, who I had not seen in almost 30 years.  It was so fun to see him!!

 

  Central City is also the home of the Everly Brothers.

Paduca, Kentucky, Home of the National Quilt Museum.  Vince was not too excited for this side trip, but once inside, he did enjoy seeing the quilts.  These works of art are amazing.  They have a section of vintage quilts, some over 100 years old.  Our favorite quilt was the "Lord of the Rings" quilt.  It was hard to believe that it was made of fabric and thread!!  Unfortunately, they did not allow pictures inside.

 

Metropolis, Illinois was our next stop.  The home of, you guessed it, Superman.  The museum has a incredible collection of Superman memorabilia and a fun gift store!

 

New Haven, Missouri is the home of Richard Cutler, a friend of Vince's since elementary school.  We parked in their yard for ten days, and they took us out to see the sites.  Herman, MO is a town settled by Germans, and they make great bratwurst there. We stocked up on flavors such as cherry, pear & Gorgonzola, maple & apple brats!  We took a day to go into St. Louis and visit the Civil War in Missouri exhibit at the museum, Forest Park, and the Arch.

 

Vince and Richard at the top of the Arch.

We found a geocache here in Forest Park

 Recognize this??  It is the building used in "Ghost Busters"

This is listed as a must stop in all of our Route 66 books!  So of course we had to stop here. Good custard!

 

We made it back to Clearfield, Utah in time to be with our oldest grandson, Nic, as he turned15.  As you can see, he is a bit taller than Grandpa!!

 

 Ethan, with this micro he found, is a great little geocacher!

Fritz is so patient with Ethan's administrations.

Ethan with his dog "Bones"

 

While we were in Clearfield, we stayed in Rachel and Stacy's yard.  It was great to be able to spend so much time with the boys. 

 

 We ended up having to evict our renters for many reasons.  They left the house in pretty bad shape, but after two weeks of work we were ready to rent it out again.  Originally, we had wanted to rent only to military, as the house is 3 blocks away from the southwest gate of Hill Air Force Base.  So now we have a couple in the house from Colorado. She is the airman; just graduated from boot camp and has a 2 year assignment at Hill.  They own a house in Colorado that they have had to rent out so they understand being absentee landlords.  All of our neighbors have told us how much they love our new tenants, and the yard already looks great, so we are looking forward to the next 2 years on the road!

 

We were in charge of the Robinson (Vince's family) Reunion this year. It was held at Crystal Hot Springs, just north of Brigham City, Utah.  This is a place where cold and hot springs come out of the ground very close to each other, and they have 6 different mineral pools with varied temperatures of water and two big water slides.  The kids had so much fun on the slides and the adults loved soaking in the hot tubs.  We had 110 people at the reunion and a great time was had by all. 

 

Isaac (Vince's son), Tammy (Vince's sister), Jeppa (Vince's daughter), and our granddaughter Lutra.

 

Jeppa and Lutra flew down from Seattle for the reunion.  It was so great to have them with us!

 

The kids are back in school; Nic started High School and Ethan in the 1st grade.  We have the house rented, have been to all of our many doctor's appointments, Fritz has been to the vet, and it is time to hit the road again!  We are going to Seattle first, to spend time with Lutra, then will go up by Port Townsend to an Escapee RV park for the month of October.  From there to the Napa Valley to spend the holidays with the grandkids there, and then down to Arizona.

 

And, who knows, I may even keep up on this blog!!

Catching Up Again

Wow, have not written on this since May!  The best of good intentions....

Of course, anyone who knows me well knows that I could not go to Florida without visiting Mickey.  We spent 4 days in Disney World with Military passes; a great bargin.  Fritz stayed at the Kennels there since we knew we would be at the park from the time it opened until the time it closed.  Vince was chosen as Veteran of the Day in the Magic Kingdom and got to help retire the colors at 5pm and carry the flag in the parade.  It was quite an honor for him, and a day he will never forget.  Four days is definately not enough time, but we made the most of it.  Our Passort America camping membership really came in handy too, as we only paid $15 a night at an RV park in Kissimee.

 Yes, Vince is in a wheelchair in this pic.  With his back problems, it was the only way he could have made it!!

 

After Disney World we stayed at Patrick Air Force Base just south of Cape Canaveral.  The base campground is on the western side of the island and our site backed right up to the waters edge.  We were able to watch dolphins herding fish in the morning while having our coffee on the shore.  The Viet Nam Vets brought one of the traveling walls to a park while we were there.  Vince had a good time there talking with other vets, and especially old "Coasties"!  This is the third time we have seen one of the traveling walls, always a very emotional time, but this time we knew that we would soon be seeing the Wall in Washington DC.  They also had a great tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11.

 

While in the area we thought we would tour Cape Canaveral until we saw the prices.  It was $70  a person to see the museums; Disney World was actually cheaper.  Oh well, we just took the Wildlife tour instead!

 

Baby alligators in the wild; glad we didn't meet mama!

 



Next stop was Jacksonville where we stayed at a Moose Lodge.  We were just in time for the Shrimp Festival on Amelia Island! 

Low Country Boiled Shrimp - delicious!

 



 We also spent a day in St Augustine; toured Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fortification in the US, the St Augustine Lighthouse, and the Pirate Museum, arrrgh!

 The lighthouse had a museum with exhibits from the Coast Guard on the East Coast during World War II.

 

Great museum; interactive displays, fantastic artifacts, a audio Disney experience, but no picture taking inside.

 

As we headed north, we decided another visit to Savannah was in order as we love the area!  Another stay at the Elks Lodge, it is very close to downtown and in a very quite neighborhood.  We decided to wander around the squares of the city that we had missed on the first visit.

 

Forsythe Park is the biggest of the squares and beautiful!

 

This is the William Chandler Hospital.  Built 1803 as a seamen's hospital and a poor house, it also housed Union prisoners during the Civil War.  It is very run down and a little scary looking, but may be refurbished by Savannah College of Art and Design.  They have restored many of the buildings in town as projects, and have done wonderful jobs.

 

We spent a day on Skidaway Island.  Skidaway Island State Park has beautiful hiking trails out to the wetlands.

We met this cute turtle while exploring the park!





Wormsloe Estate was founded by one of the first English settlers to Georgia.  The drive up to where the original house was is lined with 400 live oaks that were planted to honor the birth of a son in the early 1800s.   Quite impressive!  The original home is in ruins, but there are several miles of hiking trails to explore the beautiful grounds.

 

Charleston, South Carolina was our next stop.  We took the ferry boat out to Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor.

 

 These dolphins greeted the boat at the fort.

Shells are still embedded in the walls.

 

 

We also visited Patriots Point, a Naval & Maritime Museum.

The USS Laffey is a WWII Destroyer.  The first one was sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal and this one was commissioned in 1944.  While touring this I realized that my father was probably on one just like it as he was in the Sea Bees and at Guadalcanal.

 

The USS Clamagore, a WWII submarine that spent its time on the east coast, was closed for refurbishing.  We were able to tour the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier.  This ship received the Presidential Unit Citation for its action in WWII and was featured in movies "The Fighting Lady" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!"  It is huge!  We only took 3 of the 6 tours that were available on it and were exhausted after climbing up and down all the hatches!

 

 

We arrived at Andrews Air Force Base just in time for their air show!



The Blue Angles always put on an amazing show!!

 

Our first visit in Washington DC was the Holocaust Museum.  A very sobering place to visit.  There are people who are survivors of the camps there to talk about their experiences, sign their books and serve as guides.  Everyone that goes to DC needs to go thru this museum and honor those who died.

 This is part of the Wall of Remembrance made by children.

 

Many people that we talked to in the city asked us how we were enjoying our stay and what we had seen so far.  When we said that we had been to the Holocaust Museum, we were surprised by how many of the locals had never been.  It is a free museum and a day well spent!

 

We rode the Metro into the city and it was pretty easy to get around once we figured out where we wanted to go and which stop to get off at.

The Lincoln Memorial is breathtaking up close and brought tears to my eyes!

The Washington Monument is still closed because of the earthquake damage and the reflecting pool was being refurbished, but the sights were still awe inspiring.

The Viet Nam Wall is a very emotional spot!  We both have names of people we know on the wall so spent some quiet time there reflecting on the sacrifices they made.

 World War II Memorial.

 

 There are sides for both the Pacific and Atlantic theatres.

 

 

We saw this sign on a door on the Metro.  I guess Storm Troopers cannot use the center doors on the train!

 

Each Smithsonian Institute Museum needs a day to go thru.  Again, these are free museums and are amazing!

 George Reeves Superman costume.

 The Ruby Slippers.

Archie Bunkers chair.

These were in the Museum of American History.

 

Well for some reason I can't put anymore pics on this blog, so I will have to stop here.  I guess this will be a two part blog!

 

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time on the east coast; although after we leave an area we always realize how much we missed and wonder when we can go back!

 

Stay tuned for part 2!