Monday, October 19, 2009 Liberty Harbor Marina & RV Park, Jersey City, NJ

We left Timberlane Campground this morning and drove about 2 hours to this campground across the harbor from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Larry did fantastic with the traffic and confusing routes. We got here about 12:00, and signed up for an all day tour tomorrow. This campground is a parking lot with water and electric hookups spaced around it. The campers are crammed in here like sardines. You can barely walk between some of them with all the large slides jutting out. It’s not easy finding grass for Penny to go on. But we do have a view of the Statue of Liberty! Not from our camper, of course, you can only see another camper from here, but if you step out into the drive between the rows of campers, you can see Her.

Unbelievable!

Since we had arrived so early, we thought we had plenty of time to go out and see a few things on our own, so we walked the 5 or 6 blocks to the subway station where we caught a train into downtown New York City and got off just a couple of blocks from the Empire State Building. We walked there and after buying tickets, walked thru the zigzag line with the hundreds of other people on the way to the requisite metal detectors and x-rays of my purse. When you finally get thru that, the first elevator takes you up to the 80th floor where you have to get off, wade thru the zigzag line and wait for another elevator to go to the 86th floor, a wait of approximately 45 minutes. OR . . . . You could walk up the last six floors. Guess which we did . . . .Oh yeah, we walked up, of course.



We ate some supper in a little restaurant near the subway station before heading back. After a little glitch at the subway station on our return trip, we were able to backtrack our previous route and get back to the camper by about 5:30. (The glitch was that we bought tickets for the subway, when we needed tickets for the Path (another subway). There was no way to get them transferred so we had to just throw them away. Only $4.25 down the drain.) Now we’re settled in for the evening and have a full day planned with an early departure of 7:15.

Sunday, October 18, 2009 Timberland Campground, Clarksboro, NJ

It rained all night last night! I was awake at various times hearing the rain hitting the roof of the trailer. The wind blew pretty strong most of the night too. The weather gal said this is a true “Nor-easter” storm. The temps have reached record lows they haven’t seen since the 1930’s. Lucky us! Last year when we went to Maine, we were hit by a hurricane that uncharacteristically followed the coast that far north. Now, we have record lows and a Nor-easter! The rain did let up this morning and just stayed overcast, damp, cold and windy all day.

We headed into Philadelphia this morning (about 15 minutes away) to take a tour of the city and let them point out all the historic places. We were there a little before 9:30, so we were able to get a pretty good parking spot on the street. On street parking cost 25 cents per 8 minutes which is actually cheaper than the parking lot fees. We bought a card that was good for 3 hours, then went to see the Liberty Bell prior

to taking the trolley tour.

The guide on the trolley pointed out many places such as the Betsy Ross house, Christ Church, Independence Hall and many museums. When the tour was over we took the guided tour of Independence Hall

which had served as our nation’s capitol prior to moving to Washington DC. Then we added time to our parking card so we could walk 9 blocks to the Reading Railroad Terminal which is now a city market place for a lunch of Philly Cheese Steaks (of course). That place was busy! They have hundreds of small shops inside selling practically anything and everything - grocery items, sea food (raw), prepared sea food, spices, candy stores, bakery shops, Italian foods, Japanese foods, Philly Cheese Steaks, etc. and etc. The people were in there practically shoulder to shoulder lined up at all the different counters.

We are now “home” for the evening, trying to warm up after being out in the damp and chilly air most of the day. Tomorrow we will be in the traffic headed to the New York City area.

Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 Timberlane Campground, Clarksboro, NJ

We are now camped about 15 minutes from downtown Philadelphia. We had about a two and half hour drive today. Left in the rain and arrived with rain. Other than the $43 we spent on tolls today, the drive was uneventful. One of the Maryland tolls was $5 for cars and $23 for us. They did not even wear a mask when they ask for the money. After arriving and getting set up, we drove into Philadelphia and just looked around. Parking is at a premium and they are very proud of it (based on 25 cents for 8 minutes on the street, if you can find a space. Or, $4.50 for a half hour in a garage). Since it was late in the day, we figured we would come back tomorrow and look at everything.

Thursday & Friday, October 15 & 16, 2009 Cherry Hill Campground, College Park, MD

Thursday we left the camper a little before 9:00 in order to take a tour on the Old Town Trolley thru Georgetown and past the National Cathedral and down Embassy Row where the driver pointed out all the different countries’ embassies, one after another. He warned us to limber up our neck and shoulders, as he pointed out the left side was one country, right side another, back and forth, back and forth. After the tour we met up with Lora’s family on a different trolley and rode to Union Station where we got off to walk to the Capitol where we were scheduled for a tour of the Capitol. (We had two day tickets for the Old Town Trolley which we could ride to any of their drop-off sites and get off to see the various attractions, get back on another trolley and ride to another stop.)

After a l-o-n-g walk to the Capitol building, we went to the Minnesota Representative’s office, who had arranged our tour, to meet with our tour guide. There were 6 of us and we met up with another seven traveling from Minnesota for the tour with our guide.

There were hundreds of others touring as well, being led by the various guides from their own respective state’s Representative’s office. We were taken through some of the older rooms where the Senate and House of Representatives had met years ago and to the rotunda with its huge dome.

The rooms were very ornate with marble columns supporting the ceilings and upper floors; the rotunda was beautiful with huge historical paintings lining the walls, sparkling crystal chandeliers and beautiful marble floors with various inlaid patterns. We also saw where the original Supreme Court had met before they had their own building.

This was lined with rich mahogany wood and was beautiful. We were taken into the meeting chamber of the House of Representatives where they were supposedly in session. I say supposedly because there may have been a couple of them in there, and some one from California was petitioning for a water shed issue, but there was hardly anyone there except for the audience in the balcony (us and the other tours). We were later told that is the norm. Most of them only show up if there is something directly concerning them or to vote. After we left there, we went to the U.S. Botanical Garden which was beautiful and a welcome break from the cold and rain we had been experiencing all day. They house over 60,000 plants ranging from gorgeous orchids to cactus and everything in between. We then rode the trolley again through more historical areas, and then went to eat at the Hard Rock Café. After that we parted from Lora and Darrell and headed to the Metro. By the time we rode the Metro and bus, it was about 9:00 when we got back to the campground. We were both too exhausted to write this blog.

Today, Friday, we left the campground about 8:00 to meet with Lora’s family at their hotel prior to our White House tour. We arrived for the tour about 11:00 – we were supposed to be there by 11:15 for our 11:30 tour. The line was out the drive and curved along the fence down the street. We waited in the chilly drizzling rain with restless and tired boys till a little after 12:00 when our group (probably 100 or so scheduled for 11:30) was finally allowed to go in. Once inside, it was a self guided tour where everyone was allowed to proceed at their own pace. We were allowed to go through the east wing area which had each room roped off for a walkway. We went through a long glassed in hallway, called the Colonnade, with numerous photo displays of various former Presidents and of course the current President and his family. We saw the Green Room, the Blue Room and the Red Room. We also saw the State Dining Room and various other impressive rooms with historical antiques on display. As we were exiting the White House, Kyle (age 9) expressed his view, “We waited all that time for this?”

After lunch we finished up the day at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. The Air & Space Museum is the most visited museum in the complex. They had displays of all kinds of planes and space craft. We spent about 2 hours looking at the various displays, and really only scratched the surface. Kyle and Alec (and us) really enjoyed looking at all the aircraft up close. With the museum closing at 5:30, we made one last stop at the gift shop before it closed and headed our separate ways. We had a good time with Lora and family, and considered it a real treat to meet them in DC.

We had a question on the posting times listed on our blog. The server is located in California and the time posted will always be Pacific time. In this case, the time is listed as 3 hours earlier than the Eastern time we are posting the blog. Also, I know the photos are small, but if you double click on a photo you should pull up a larger size on your computer.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 Cherry Hill Campground, College Park, Maryland

Today was kind of a down day for our activity. Lora and her family were to be arriving this afternoon, so since we didn’t want to do anything that we would be repeating with them, we stayed around the trailer till noon. Actually, I took the laundry up to the laundromat provided here at the park. We could have waited on that another several days, but I thought this might be the best opportunity I would have, so I went ahead and got it over with. Now we should be able to wait till we get home before we run out of clothes. While I was out with that, Larry vacuumed, so now we’re set with some of the housekeeping things for a while.

We left the campground around noon and went to Union Station to wait for Lora’s family.

Besides it being a working train station with Amtrak and the several Metro trains that meet there, there are also numerous restaurants located there (I think one driver said 40 restaurants) as well as several stores and boutiques. They had a display in the lobby called The Art of Can sponsored by Red Bull soda. Each entry had to feature the Red Bull logo. Most of them used the aluminum can, cut up or used in some way.

I think all but one used the aluminum can, as a sculpture, or collage or covering another object.

The only one not using a can was one that created the logo in a field by mowing or plowing areas till he had the replica of the can (like a crop circle) over several acres. This entry was in the form of a photo from the air.

Lora’s family arrived about 3:00. We had a good visit and a mid-afternoon meal together, then tried to find a bus to do some touring. After walking from one end of Union Station to the other and back again, we tried to get tickets for a tour. No luck, so we started walking – in the drizzling rain. We walked probably three or four blocks, the kids were getting tired and we couldn’t find the bus stop. We finally decided they could go to a nearby museum to get in out of the rain for a while and figure out where they needed to go, and we would head the other direction to the Metro station. We’ll meet up with them again tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Cherry Hill Campground, College Park, MD

We got going early this morning and left the campground a little after 8:00. The Metro Bus picks up right here at the campground, so we caught the bus here to the Metro Rail (subway). We had to make one transfer on the subway, which eventually dropped us off near Arlington Cemetery.

We bought tickets for a tour bus which travels through the cemetery and through the city, going by all the places of interest. There was a tour director on board who narrated things we were going by and they would stop to let you off at various places, then you could catch another one to continue on to another site.
At Arlington, we saw President Kennedy’s grave site with the eternal flame. Jackie Kennedy is buried beside him, as well as the two infants they had lost. Robert Kennedy was buried nearby, and Edward (Teddy) was beyond that. We visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the changing of the guard there.

We saw a funeral taking place, with the Honor Guard marching along with the horse drawn coffin and the accompanying cars following. They said there are approximately 25 to 27 funerals daily taking place there. It was all solemn, dignified and thought provoking.

We left Arlington and went back by the Lincoln Memorial to see it in the daytime. We also walked by the Vietnam Memorial Wall which is very impressive with all the names of those who died inscribed dating from 1959 thru 1975.

Since they are still adding names of veterans who have died from traumas related to their service there, I guess they get added into the year in which they served in Vietnam. There are over 58,000 names on the wall.

We then walked to the WWII memorial.

As we approached, we could see it was quite crowded, and as we got closer, we saw there were lots of people in yellow shirts or jackets. The yellow shirts and jackets were worn by WWII veterans from Iowa who had gathered there. Most of them were accompanied by wives, children or grandchildren. Many were accompanied by or being helped by men and women in uniform who had apparently volunteered to help welcome the veterans. The whole morning had been very solemn and thought provoking, but these guys just seemed to be enjoying seeing lots of old friends. It was a good lift for the spirit.

We walked to the White House area. The back of the White House had a large tent set up on the lawn so we couldn’t see it very well from there. We did eventually get around to the front side which had a better view.

While we were there, a siren sounded and a group of big black cars came out of the White House gates, but we had no way of knowing who was in any of the cars. I guess we’ll just assume it was the President.

Have you noticed how often I said “we walked”? Believe me, we walked and walked. We finally got back on the tour bus and finally rode to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. We will probably be going to some of the other Smithsonian Museums when Lora and her family are here. They will be arriving on Wednesday (tomorrow).

We left the Smithsonian and headed back to find the Metro Station to come back to the campground when we went past the National Archives where they had the original Declaration of Independence on a special display. So we stopped there for a little while and now we can say we did see it.

We finally got to the Metro train and then to the bus stop and back to the campground about 6:30. We were exhausted! We had BBQ left over from eating out yesterday, so now we have eaten and are resting up to do some of it all over again tomorrow.

Monday, October 12, 2009 Cherry Hill Campground, College Park, Maryland

Today was cloudy and cool, so we decided to do the civil war battlefields. Our plan was to go to Gettysburg and stop at Antietam on the way back. Gettysburg is an hour and a half from here and a very nice drive.

Seeing the amount of land covered during this 3 day engagement was amazing. Shocking was the number of soldiers involved and the number of casualties. Lee’s Confederate army had a 70,000-man army and Meade’s Union army numbered at 93,000 men. During the first day alone, the combined number of casualties was around 16,000 men. These are numbers that are just hard to comprehend. During the two-hour cannon-ade on the third day, 7,000 Union soldiers repulsed the 12,000 man “Pickett’s Charge”. When you see the high ground that the Union Cannon had, you can understand how the outnumbered force could repulse the Confederate charge.

Total casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) during the three days was 51,000 men. We were also amazed at the number of monuments located within the battlefield, there were hundreds.



We think it was well worth the visit, even if we did not spend as much time outside as we would if it was nicer weather. But, after we left Gettysburg we decide we would pass on Antietam for today and just come back and relax. Our plan is to head into DC tomorrow to see Arlington and some of the mall.