Tornados and Washington DC

Hi Everyone!

Well, our trip is over. Not without a little excitement and more great sights, however! During our last night (Thursday) in Fredericksburg we had a tornado near miss. It touched down around 8 miles from where we were staying. Made the night pretty interesting! I've never seen so much lightning in such a short period of time!! Here is a little article about it -



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/09/AR2008050900062.html?hpid=topnews

Dani - I know what you mean now!

On Friday morning we drove into Washington DC. We spend Friday and Saturday seeing the sights. We visited the Holocaust Museum; the Washington, Lincoln, WWII and Vietnam Monuments; a number of Museums - Smithsonian, Freer, the National Art Gallery and the Library of Congress. Oh, and we stopped by the White House and Capitol Building. It was a busy two days.

A bit rainy

At the WWII Monument we got to see a group of about 50 WWII Veterans who where there visiting. Bob Dole was there with them, chatting and taking pictures with them. It was pretty touching, actually. Each of these guys had to be at least 80, if you think about it.

In fact, Bob Dole is 84 I think, and was doing a great job all these guys. He was very gracious and spent a lot of time with the group.

After dinner on Saturday, we went to a pretty old hotel and had drinks in the bar. Karen and Marolin ordered Mint Juleps - very Southern Belle-ish of them! Not only are they minty, but they are very Bourbon-ish as well (see below).

All in all, it was a great trip. Saw lots of interesting things and met some nice people. Very glad to be home, though. Not glad to be back to work, however. Working for a living is overrated!

Mint Juleps!

Karen and her buddy Abe

Fredericksburg, VA

The Confederate soldiers were dug in behind a stone wall in front of a road on a small rise. The Confederate soldiers were 4 deep, so that when one line fired they could step back to load while the next lines moved in to fire. The Union soldiers tried to charge up the rise to reach them, but never got closer than 25 yards.

Fredericksburg, VA

Spent the day in Fredericksburg, VA today. There were a series of battles here between 1862 and 1864, fighting over the main road between the Washington DC and Confederate Capitol in Richmond, VA. One of them, in particular, was brutal. Makes you cringe just reading about it. We're all so lucky to have the freedom and peace we have in our homes, cities and Country.

Here are some pictures from the day -

Here is where you go when you park in Handicapped Spots (see below)

Fortunately, I moved before Karen found her lighter

Vacationing is hard work

Why is everything so old here? Can't they rebuild or something?

To Fredericksburg, VA through the Shenandoah Valley

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday we left Harper's Ferry and drove to Fredericksburg, VA. It was a long day of driving but we got to see some great places. The best scenery was along a 75-mile stretch of highway, called Skyline Drive, that went along the top of a ridge in the Shenandoah National Park. The ridge was between 3,000 and 4,000 high with great views of the river valleys on both sides. Very nice!

We even found some wildlife.

Also on the way to Fredericksburg, we stopped at Montpelier in Virginia. Montpelier is where James Madison lived. It's a beautiful 1600 acre estate. They are renovating the main house now, restoring it back to how it was when Madison lived in it in the early 1800's. It was pretty interesting to hear about how they lived back then and what they had to do to restore the house. We just kinda stumbled on the place by accident, found it on the road after we took a different route to Fredericksburg than we were originally planning.


Today we are off on more battlefield tours. Apparently, some stuff happened here in Fredericksburg and Chancelorsville too... We'll be staying here again tonight, then we're off to Washington DC tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days in the city. Not sure what we'll do yet, but we're staying right in the middle of the city, walking distance from all kinds of stuff.

It's rainy out this morning. Supposed to be some thunderstorms today and tomorrow. Does not look too bad so far, however.

Hope you are all doing well!

Love,
Karen and Gregg

Gettysburg, PA and Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Hi Everyone,

We just completed our second day in the Harper's Ferry area after spending two days in Gettysburg, PA. The weather has been great, perfect for being obvious tourists.


Gettysburg is an awesome place - it is amazing to read about what happened there and then see it laid out in front of you. We had a private guide yesterday who drove us around the battlefield and gave us a blow by blow description of what happened. He was a walking encyclopedia, but unfortunately, never stopped talking for the three hours we were out!

Bob and I found the monument for the soldiers from Minnesota that fought at Gettysburg. There was also one for California, which we never knew. Apparently, California sent money (not men)... what a surprise, eh, even back then!

I have to admit however, I did not start the day off very well. When we stopped for coffee, I unknowingly parked our van in a handicap parking space on the street and got a ticket. What a pinhead!


After our second day at Gettysburg, we left and drove about 50 miles to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Harper's Ferry is where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. It's a real pretty spot. Historically, this is where John Brown was captured in 1859 while trying to start a Slave Revolt. There were also some battles in and around town in 1862. All that activity back then did not carry forward to today, as only one store / restaurant was open past 5pm yesterday. The good news is that they had beer.



We are staying in a really nice, 3 room Bed and Breakfast. It's called the Jackson Rose Inn, because Stonewall Jackson stayed here and wrote to his wife about the climbing roses on the side of the building. The owners are a very nice couple. It's a great place.


This afternoon, we drove to another battlefield called Antietam. It was a one day battle in 1862 where there over 20,000 casualties. Pretty amazing to think about.


We're leaving Harper's Ferry in the morning and are going to drive south through the Shenandoah Valley. It's supposed to be very scenic. Not supposed to rain until Thursday, so we're hoping to get lots of pictures. Wednesday and Thursday nights we will be staying in Fredericksburg, VA and then off to DC for a couple of days there.


We miss you all and hope all is well with you.

Happy Birthday to Dani!


Love,
Karen and Gregg

The Jackson Rose Bed & Breakfast

Harper's Ferry, WV

In Gettysburg

Hi Everyone,

We made it to Gettysburg last night. It was a long day travelling. The plane ride in to Harrisburg was pretty exciting - it was really, really bumpy. We've off to the Battlefield and Museums this morning. All that history stuff. Will post pictures later.