Washington DC, October 2009

After spending four days in the DC area, we now know that we could spend four weeks here and hardly touch the surface of things to do and see.

We managed to get to two of the Smithsonian Museums.  First was the Museum of Natural History and then to the Air and Space Museum.  We could have easily spent two days in each place and still have missed something.  Oh, well.  That leaves us with lots of reasons to return!

One day we visited Arlington Cemetery, had lunch in Crystal City with Toby and Anne Torla, Rick’s cousin, and visited lots of memorials.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was very moving.  In 1968 a local boy, Gerrit Blanksma from Pequot Lakes, MN lost his life there.  I didn’t know if we could find his name among all the others named there.  Lo and behold!  His name is fourth in line beginning at the West end!  We found him!  ( Later I learned that we could have gone to one of the lists and looked up his name and where to find it.)  I touched his name and told him “Thank You, You are not forgotten”.

The monument to the nurses from that same war was so moving.  You could feel their anguish as they reached to help and to find strength to go on.

Here is the fellow who greeted us at the Museum of Natural History.  We had a great time there too! And of course, the Hope Diamond was as beautiful as can be!  They removed it from it’s setting so that the stone itself could be better appreciated.

Just one last picture.  It is so hard to choose!  Maybe this one…

Or, perhaps, this one…

Nope, I know which one! This one will do just fine!

Rain, rain, go AWAY!!!

If it doesn't stop raining soon I just may lose my mind! It is cold and nasty and I'm getting really tired of it! There, now I feel better! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest! I keep on turning up the heat, but am still cold. At least from the knees down. They need to make a motor home that stays warm. I suppose they do, but they cost $$$$$$$$$$$!

We are leaving for Annapolis in the morning! Maybe the sun will shine on us then?

Today was Rick's 63rd birthday! We didn't do anything great, just ate stuffed peppers for supper in the rec. hall. They were really good and they even had cake for dessert!

If at first you don't succeed...

Well, since I couldn't get rid of a certain picture in my old blog, I decided to just start over. My nephew, Matt Loberg, had a post in his blog on how to get a new layout for your blog. I tried, with no success, to use a different layout. Maybe it is just too late at night to try to do anything new. Oh, well. Better luck next time.

We are in Hershey, PA. Today we went through the Wilbur Chocolate museum and store in Lititz, PA. It was a fun and tasty experience. We also visited a wonderful quilt shop in Intercourse, PA. Thankfully there wasn't any fabric to drool over so that temptation wasn't there to resist!

The weather has been lousy. Lots of rain and cold. It got up to 42 degrees today and I hope it doesn't freeze tonight. Not any better here than in MN!

We will be here at TT Hershey (Thousand Trails) for one more day and then we will head for Annapolis where we will be staying at the Naval Station campground in Maryland. Our intentions are to spend 5 or 6 days in DC. Lots to see and lots to do. Hopefully the weather will clear up.