With Virginia’s Historic Triangle now history, we zoomed up I-95 and around the D.C. Beltway to setup shop at Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD.
We allocated a week to the D.C. area. It could have been two and we still wouldn’t have seen everything we wanted to see.
The evening of our arrival we toured D.C. by car and ended up at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington.
In addition to the U.S. Capitol, numerous free museums surround the National Mall, anyone of which could take a day (or more) to fully appreciate.
We quickly toured the American History and Natural History museums. We spent more time at the Air and Space Museum. Seeing the original 1903 Wright Flyer provided closure to our recent experience in Kitty Hawk.
President Reagan’s jeep reminded us of our time in Santa Barbara and at the Reagan Presidential Library.
One afternoon, we parked in East Potomac Park and unloaded the bikes for a memorable tour of monuments and memorials.
Jefferson Memorial
MLK
Lincoln Memorial
Vietnam
Washington Monument
In front of the WWII Memorial
A large white tent blocked most of the south view of the White House and taking the bikes up 15th street to Pennsylvania Ave. did not look too inviting. We made it up that way on foot a few days later.
The Old Executive Office Building, just a few steps away, might be the most intimidating building in D.C.
The Renwick Gallery across the street delighted with unique exhibits.
The artist made this sculpture entirely from index cards.
These colorful strings of light fascinated all.
Wall art with real bugs from Southeast Asia. OK, this was a bit odd.
We finished our D.C. stay with a look at how it all started. The National Archives displays the original “Charters of Freedom,” the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. How fortunate we are to live in a society that values the principles embodied in these documents.
We did venture outside of D.C. We all enjoyed visiting and catching up with the Marsh family. Yet another reminder of the importance of family and friends. Thanks for having us over!
The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, MD, houses some interesting artifacts, including the bullet that killed President Lincoln and preserved specimens and skeletons showing growth and disease.
We ventured to West Virginia to visit Harpers Ferry, site of the infamous John Brown raid of 1859.
Mr. Brown sought to incite a slave rebellion by taking over a U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry and arming slaves that he believed would join his cause. Brown’s 21-man raiding party killed one marine and six civilians, including a freed slave. U.S. Marines killed ten in Brown’s party and most of the rest were captured and executed.
The National Park Service poses the question of whether Brown was a madman or martyr. For the record, I think madman. Regardless, the events at Harpers Ferry served to shine an even brighter light on the issue of slavery and further divide the country that was plunging toward civil war.
The turning point of that eventual war lies northeast of Harpers Ferry in Gettysburg, PA.
A cyclorama commemorates the battle.
The battlefield tour really brings home the challenges faced by both sides. Here is the view from Little Round Top, defended by Union forces during the battle.
The view from Cemetery Ridge near the high-water mark of Pickett’s Charge.
I promised to keep it real and not sugar coat our trip. In that vein, I’ve documented most of our mistakes and maintenance issues on the Oops page. But, given the severity of the issue and lessons applicable to all, I’d be remiss in not reporting on the demise of L’s computer in this post. L’s computer fell victim to water intrusion from a leaking Camelbak. The computer would not boot, a serious problem given that all of her school work resides on the computer. I resolved to reinstall her school program on M’s computer and recover her data from the hard drive inside the faulty laptop. I purchased an external hard drive enclosure and USB DVD drive (M’s computer did not have a drive for installing the software) from Best Buy and went to work. Reinstalling the software went smoothly. Accessing the hard drive on the water-logged computer proved more difficult. After removing about 36 screws, prying the keyboard out, and prying the plastic case apart, I finally laid eyes on the prize.
But would it work? I dried it out, installed it in the external enclosure, plugged it in to M’s computer, and prayed. Success! Unfortunately, the last data backup of L’s school work was a month old. I restored what I could and called tech support for the school software. They had their SQL database expert call me back and after considerable fiddling, we were able to recover the rest of the data from the drive. Pffffwew! Lesson learned…on multiple fronts. Folks, keep your computers dry and backup often. Oh, and after drying out the inside of the computer, I put everything back together and it works. However, the screen remains water-logged and blotchy. I have not tackled trying to take it apart and dry it out.
So, there you have it, our jam-packed week in D.C. Philly awaits…
A jam packed week indeed! It looks like a lot more of a fun place than l imagined. I’ve only seen DC from Reagan Airport.
Fantastic leg to your trip! Same thing happened to Samantha’s laptop (leaking water bottle in backpack). Screen was blotchy. Eventually dried out on its own (although the trackpad remained forever dead).