43 Years...

...and counting.  Congratulations Mom and Dad!

Happy Anniversary.

The Hat

You've got to love the hat Sadie picked out for a ride in the convertible yesterday.  She hates riding in the MINI with the top down because her hair is out of control!  I sat back there one day to see what she was grumping about and she was right.  It's one windy ride!  I suggested a hat and she knew just the one.  It did the trick.  What a cutie!

Gettysburg

My favorite day of our trip was Wednesday, the 26th.  That is our actual anniversary.  After a couple of quick mission errands in the morning, Richard and Carol were free to spend the day with us.  One of the errands took us right into Baltimore.   While there we went to Ft. McHenry.  We saw a film that told of the events leading up to the British withdrawal in the war of 1812 and of the morning when Francis Scott Key looked out to see the flag still flying over the fort, inspiring our national anthem.  When the movie was over, a curtain was drawn and out the window was the fort with the flag waving proudly.  Over the speakers was a military chorus singing The Star Spangled Banner.

You can see that the flag flown over the fort today is a replica of the one that flew then, with 15 stars and 15 stripes.

From there we went to Gettysburg.  When I was in Middle School, I really enjoyed learning about the Civil War.  I remember memorizing pages worth of trivia of people, places and events related to the war.  Sadly, I don’t remember much of that information now, but the Civil War has always intrigued me.  Yet somehow, I always pictured Gettysburg as just a big battlefield.  As in one large field.  I was surprised when I realized how wrong I was.  In the three days of fighting there, the action moved over quite a lot of ground.  Richard and Carol have a CD-tour that takes you all over Gettysburg explaining each day of fighting and what happened where.  I think the CD’s take about 90 minutes to listen to as you drive and stop at the various locations.  We ended up taking closer to 4 hours because we stopped and looked around so much.  It was amazing.  It was sobering.  Can you imagine being a mother during that time?  Another thing that surprised me is the number of monuments.  Usually, you have a significant event that takes place and someone builds a monument.  But in Gettysburg there are literally hundreds of monuments.  There were so many significant events, battalions, people, etc. that there are monuments all over Gettysburg to pay tribute to them.  I took a lot of pictures at Gettysburg.  Here are my favorites:

After spending the entire late afternoon/evening in Pennsylvania, we tried to find a place to eat before returning to Maryland.  In the end, we decided to get on the road and we’d surely find a place on the way.  After one place or another was either closed or not exactly what we were looking for, we somehow ended up at Arby’s for a late anniversary dinner.  I’m sure it was the company more than the food, but we all left surprisingly satisfied.  It was a great day.

Maryland and DC

Last week, Jeff and I did something we’ve never done before. We dropped the kids off with friends and drove out to Maryland to see his parents for a few days. It was our 15th Anniversary on Wednesday and their Anniversary on Thursday.  They have been serving in the Maryland Baltimore mission since last Spring and we finally made it out to see them. Part of the fun was surprising Jeff’s Mom. She had no idea we were coming. After the 11.5 hour drive, we took it easy the evening of our arrival. But the next day Jeff and I took the MARC train into DC and went to everything we could manage in a day. Here are a few highlights.

Capitol Building

A beautiful building, for sure.  I was not as impressed by the huge luxury vehicles various politicians were getting out of and their self-important air.  Nor was I impressed by the Presidential motorcade we saw three times, stopping traffic with the multiple police escorts and more large vehicles surrounding their 2 or 3 limousines.  Give me a break!

Lincoln Memorial

We got to DC pretty early, before most museums were open, so we walked from the train all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial.  It was a beautiful, cool morning.  That afternoon when it warmed up, we were glad we’d made the long trek early on.  It was worth it.

Vietnam Memorial and Washington Monument

We didn’t go up into the Washington Monument, but enjoyed the various war memorials in the area surrounding it.

Natural History Museum

Night at the Museum, anyone?  We also visited the American History museum, but somehow didn’t end up with any pictures worth posting.  My favorite exhibit there was the actual flag that flew over Ft. McHenry that inspired The Star Spangled Banner.

Real bird in a fake tree

This was in a sculpture garden.  The bird doesn’t seem to mind at all that the tree is made of metal.

National Archives

We saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence.  The constitution is huge.  I guess I never realized it was written on such big paper!  And the men had such beautiful handwriting!!  The document is in surprisingly good condition.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the others.  They are so faded that the names are completely unreadable.

Monet (Museum of Art)

At the museum of art, we saw several Picasso’s, Monet’s (like this one), Renoir’s, Van Gogh’s, etc.  Many of the pieces were so beautiful.  Others resembled things my kids have brought home from elementary school art class.  What do I know!?

After a long day in the city, we walked back to the train.  We were lucky enough to catch an express and I was even luckier to be sitting next to a man who, in telling me about his son, said, “He’s about your age, 25? 26?”  I laughed and told him I’m 39.  He leaned over later in the ride and said, “You’re not really 39 are you?”  Considering the fact that I felt more like I was 60 after walking all day in flip flops (don’t ask), I was happy to have found a new best friend.  Ha!!

Overall, it was a great day.  We slept great that night, air mattress and all.  More to come.