Touring the White House.

The Out of Towners.

Talk about Country Mice coming to the big city, this morning Nancy and I by agreement woke up early, had a quick breakfast and headed for the White House visitors center. We had decided we'd like to see the White House so we wanted to get our names on the list first thing. The visitor center is located at 14th and Pennsylvania and wasn't exactly a hotbed of action this time of the morning. We made our way inside expecting a long line, not seeing one we headed over to the information booth. A 60ish lady was behind the counter and I inquired of her where I could sign up for the White House Tour. This woman was so nice, I'm sure her first instinct had to be to laugh, but she didn't. She explained to me that there were no last minute tours of the White House, it generally takes 3-4 months to get a tour arranged. You would normally go through the office of your Congressman or Senator to set up an application. Every visitor is looked at by the Secret Service and to get in is really tough. Nancy and I looked at each other and started to laugh, we had actually thought we could just walk in and get a tour. What a couple of country bumpkins we are. Its good to laugh at yourself sometimes.

Ducks, Ducks...my wife is a Quack.

So Nancy and I are walking around the city...the whole city. Needing a break I noticed yet 1 more fountain reflection pool with a statue, trees (shade) and of course the ducks (which are everywhere). There are a few other people enjoying the quiet and eating their lunches, Nanc notices them sharing their lunch with the Ducks and starts talking about basic eating habits we have in this country, how it's making to many of us obese. She looks over and see's a fat duck and really gets into why its fat and how we are to blame because we are feeding it processed food that lacks any kind of nourishment and...oh my god she wants to open a duck health club! I love this woman, it's always something, without real problems her heart is now bleeding for the ducks! Can't wait for the Italian's to meet her.

Getting Educated in DC

So Nancy started talking about the buildings all being the same size and we noticed all the statues likewise look about the same...good pickup by my wife, in DC building height is limited to 130 feet (which they all use) and likewise statues have a 19' maximum height limit...mystery solved.

We learned (and I should have realized) that Canada and the US have the longest non-militarized border in the world. We like those Canucks!

All flags are at 1/2 staff when a burial service is taking place at Arlington Cemetery. With 7 average per day they are almost always at 1/2 staff.

I learned if you lie to Congress you can get 20 years in the Federal Pen, but if a member of Congress lies to you there is no punishment. Hardly seems fair.

The guy who gifted the money to start the Smithsonian Institute was from England and never entered or took one step in the USA...apparently he was snubbed by the Royal Academy of Science and decided to leave all his mullah to further the scientific community and learning centers. Their loss was certainly our gain. The Museum of Natural Science is the most visited museum in the world. Oh ya, the guys last name was Smithson.

The guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, pace along the tomb 21 paces, rest for 21 seconds, and then turn and return 21 paces...this has gone on since 1921 without any disruption.

I know I've learned more but I've forgotten right now...if I remember I will add to this list.

The Kennedy's.

What brothers these men were...The story is so amazing it could be fictional. The oldest boy killed in the war to protect our freedom, the second son, who becomes the President (JFK) and is assassinated, the third who might have followed his older brother into the White House but for another assassins bullet, (RFK), and Little brother Teddy, who became "The Lion of the Senate". No family in the last half of the 20th century has had as big an impact on our country as the Kennedy's. I can actually remember mourning the death of the last three. Jackie "O" Kennedy is also buried here...she was in my opinion the best looking woman who ever graced the White House, as the First Lady.

JFK lies beneath the eternal flame where the words "with history the final judge of our deeds"are written. This quote was from his inaugural address. This is a wonderful memorial to JFK...many of his iconic quotes are featured. 

Edward Kennedy...very simple and dignified.

RFK. An assassin left our country heart broken.  I believe he would have been President.

These men were patriotic servants of the people and our great country. We need more like them right now.

Arlington National Cemetery.

     Another fun filled day. Up early and bought tickets on the trolley. We have really wanted to get over to Arlington and see the Cemetery...on the ride over we discovered about 50 more things we want to do (and us with only 2 days left). This cemetery is huge and has 4 distinct places you really want to see...we decided to start at the top and see The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, then Arlington House and finally the Cemetery. The fourth spot we wanted to visit was the burial plot for JFK and the rest of the Kennedy Family, this I will share in a separate blog.
     Arlington is made up of 624 acres and shelters the remains of over 320,000 servicemen and women. Buried here are veterans from every major conflict in our history. It bears witness to the whole of American History. The cemetery averages 7 burials a day and, at this rate, the cemetery will be filled by 2050. One in three of those buried here are unknown. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a must see at Arlington, the Changing of the Guard is something every American should witness. The sadness you feel is only surpassed by the pride you have and the sense of who you are as an American.

Something to see.

Such wonderful young men

     The young sentinels who guard the tomb, strive to be perfect, as they honor this fallen soldier of our country. The tomb was established in 1921 and has been guarded by troops from the Third US Infantry around the clock, since. The Tomb reads, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God".

The Sentinel

The Tomb.

Next we visited Arlington house...a perfect view to the city below...within the view are the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. Conversely you can see Arlington House from almost anywhere on the Mall. It is a awesome sight. In 1802 the house was inherited by  George Washington Parke Custis the step son of George Washington. He was raised as the nation's first presidential son. He spent his life in commemoration of the first president. Between 1802 and 1818 he built Arlington house as the centerpiece of his 1,100 acre plantation. In 1831 Custis' only surviving child Mary Anna married Lt. Robert E. Lee. Lee, who became one of the countries most famous soldiers, lived on this plantation for the next 30 years. At the beginning of the Civil War Lee resigned his commission and the family vacated the house. Many powerful people were upset with his decision to join the confederacy, his land was taken and used by federal forces. After the battle at Bull Run there were so many dead they actually transported 2000 of the unknown soldiers to Arlington, and buried them in a mass grave within 100 feet of the house. One Union General felt by doing this Lee would never return to his old home. By the end of the war over 16,000 Union Soldiers were buried at Arlington.

And Finally the Cemetery...every view is sacred and sad and leaves you speechless...0ver 320,000 dead...so many of our young men and women.

During WW II the most decorated soldier was  Audie L Murphy from Texas, he who won over 20 medals including the Congressional Medal of Honor. I was amazed that he had such a humble burial site, no big marker, just a plan white cross. This guy was a true American Hero. You may remember the name because he became a movie star, always playing the good cowboy. He died at the age of 47...
.

Almost always played the good guy cowboy in his movies.

40 years and she still makes me laugh.

My wife is a Peach. We have been on the road for a little over 7 weeks, moving constantly from place to place, being transported by planes, trains and automobiles. We have slept in over 25 different beds in the last 3-4 months and have suffered through some of the wildest weather you can imagine. This morning as we are lying in bed I turned to her and asked, "How are you feeling this morning". In true Nancy spirit she stretched, yawned, rolled over and said, "I am trying to visualize wonderful". What would I do without her!

A great traveling companion...my girl.

T Shirt of the day.

Sorry no picture, but here's how it read:

Sanity 

is so

Subjective

Love these T's.

Newseum.

This place is cool. I use to watch ABC Sunday News presented from the Newseum starring George Stephanapolos (I'm sure this is misspelled)...always enjoyed the show and George...in front they have placed lots of different Newspapers, displaying their Front Pages...I got pics of a sample, but there were tons more...enjoy!

Mission.

Denver

Honolulu

Las Vegas

Oregon

And of course The New York Times

Yoko Ono in DC

We visited the Horschhorn Sculpture Garden today...one of the displayed sculptures was a living display created by Yoko Ono...I made my wish and tied it to the tree! So 60s...I loved it.

The WISH

The TREE.

My Dogs are Tired.

     I'm tired today, we have walked and walked and walked and then walked a little more! My dogs need a long rest. So the question is, what are we going to do in Italy where the only form of transportation is our feet. No, this is not all of Italy, but it's definitely the rule in 5terre, where we spend our first month.
     Today we visited the Capital Building, Grant's Memorial, The National Audubon Gardens, The Newseum, The Smithsonian Castle, Jefferson Memorial, Holocaust Museum and The Natural History Museum. And no, we did not spend hours at all of these exhibits. Some take time to go through, others can be enjoyed and appreciated in only a few minutes. I do have a suggestion for the National Mall, you need to invest in moving walkways, turn these things up to 5 or 6 MPH and you'd have a winner, you could certainly charge a "get on" fee, of .25 cents (watch the money pile up). OK, now that I've fixed that problem, let's get back to my poor feet! Maybe Nanc will give me a foot rub, if I beg, oh forgot she's in worse shape than me! OK maybe I'll give her one.
     Highlights today...1) The Capital Building - from every direction it is beautiful. 2) The Jefferson Memorial - it is currently getting a facelift so all the grounds are not open, but man this place rocks, definitely in my top 5! 3) The Holocaust Museum - be ready to have your heart torn out, sad time in human history, unfortunately not the first or last...maybe someday we can learn to live together in harmony. And last but not least 4) The natural History Museum...it is so big it will take days to go through...today we visited the world of mammals, the evolutionary trail of being human, and spent some time in the Oceans. We plan to go back Wednesday for a whole day. Can't wait. All the other spots we visited were amazing, the Audubon Gardens and Smithsonian Castle are fabulousl, The Newseum is awesome and the Grant Memorial will leave you speechless.
     D.C. is a terrific place to visit, if you haven't ever been here I highly recommend you pack the kids in the car and come visit for a couple weeks. I guarantee everyone would love it, (except for the sore feet).
     We have decided to do the trolley tour tomorrow, our feet really need the rest. Walking to Arlington would be hard and take way to much time so the trolley it is. The tour allows you on and off privileges so we will also see Roosevelt and MLK Memorials.  Each day is a new adventure, which is exactly what I signed up for.
Enjoy the pics!

No bad side to this puppy!

Resting our dogs!

Audubon Gardens

Grant surrounded by 4 Lions.

Smithsonian Castle. Huge!

     Enjoy the pics!

Inspired!

In just one day we were able to see, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, WW II Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, US Navy Memorial and The National Museum of American History. Seeing all these monuments leaves me feeling pride in my country, love for my countryman and a sense of history I haven't felt before. It is truly amazing that so many, have given so much, to get us to this day.

A seaman returning. Welcome back.

We started our day at the Navy Memorial. My father Herbert was a 20 year Navy man, he survived some harrowing experiences in WW II and continued to serve until his retirement in 1963. Dad died on September 10th 2001...the next day Terrorist flew planes into the Twin Towers and the whole world changed. I was unable to attend my fathers funeral because I was living in Hawaii, and it was impossible to get off the island. I have missed him these 10 long years. Today when I saw this statue at the memorial it took me back to my childhood. When my dad would return from deployments overseas this is how he looked as we met him at the door of our house. It was good thinking about him today.

What can you say about the Washington Monument! This is an Inspire sight on the National Mall. It was damaged last week in the Earthquake so we were not allowed onto the site. That's OK it was still amazing.

Beautiful Day.

The World War II Memorial is Grand. We lost over 400,000 men in the War. One of the focal points of the memorial is a wall with 4,000 gold stars affixed to it, 1 star for 100 men lost. The inscription that fronts the wall reads: HERE WE MARK THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. Standing before this wall is sobering. It gives me a sense of Patriotism.

The Lincoln Memorial is Gigantic. It dwarfs most other monuments or memorials on the Mall. There sits Abe looking down on his countryman with wisdom and justice. Lincoln was a great man who answered the countries call when he was most needed. The days were dark and called for a real leader...thank god he was there.

Greatness.

The Vietnam Memorial, a war of my time. The war that divided our people, I remember the days of protest and rage. Vietnam was considered by many a terrible waste of our soldiers blood and by others as a great undertaking. Whatever it was, it left a terrible scar on our country. My older brother Herb Jr. served in Vietnam and left a big part of who he was there. He made it home, but was never the same. Herb died in 2002 and I think about him a lot. He was always my "Big Brother," and I thought he was the best.

The reflective surface allows you to see yourself.

This was the hardest part of the day for me...so many didn't make it home...58,000. Many fewer than WW I or II, but this was a different kind of war. I hope there will be no more Vietnams in my lifetime.

Finally a site everyone has seen, The White House. What a place of power. Those living in this place need wisdom and courage beyond ordinary men. It's easy now to sit outside these walls and second guess everything, but what good does that do. The man who sits in the Oval Office needs our sincerest effort to help run this country.

Our house.

T Shirt of the Day!

 I certainly don't want to preach about climate change...but...earthquakes in DC, Colorado and SF on the same day!!! Hurricanes threatening the entire Eastern Seaboard, more and more Killer Tornadoes than anyone remembers, flooding in half the country and massive drought in the other half...we should at least all come together and do whats best for the planet...the arguments are getting wacky...forget the science... I mean all of us can agree we are polluting the air, the ocean and our communities. Let's just start there. Lets at least get together and fight against these dangerous polluters (remember when the rivers were on fire). Because, like the T shirt says, "Ignorance is not bliss." Earth First Now,". 

Today!

Washington DC

Lets get this ride started.

Well, we finally made it out of Florida. Nanc and I got into DC about 11:15 and then caught a shuttle that took longer to get to our hotel, than the plane did to Baltimore. Very long day. With no one staying at the Hotel (they have all fled), we were upgraded to a wonderful suite on the 10th floor. First order of business was food, happily we found a Gordon Biersch Brewery connected to the Hotel. Re energized we took stock of our location...man we are close to everything, a couple blocks to the National Mall, all the Monuments and walking distance to the many Museum's I hope to see. We are in Heaven for the next 6 days. Even better news, after today's rain and hurricane, we have 5-6 days of fabulous weather. The worm is beginning to turn!

On the flight over I took lots of pictures that I posted on Facebook...I saw more clouds in a 2 hour flight than maybe I've ever seen before...the only word I can think of is, "Awesome". The sheer power of Irene is massive, it is so wide, long and deep its indescribable...no picture could ever do it justice.

Indescribable!

Safe.

Happy to be off the plane...ready for the terror of the Shuttle!

So now we tackle DC. Onward and upward!

Charleston Ghostport and the weary Road Warriors!

This is what I call an empty concourse...you might recognize the good looking blonde.

So a little more information about our plans. After we got an email last night notifying us our Sunday flight had been cancelled. I immediately got on the phone to Southwest. The problem with the original flight was, on Saturday afternoon the Baltimore (BWI) Airport is going to be closed because of Hurricane Irene (and will remain closed through Sunday at a minimum). As I considered my options the SW representative was surprised to find seats available on the last flight out on the Saturday morning flight. I of course (without thinking) jumped on these seats. Called to rearrange our Hotel schedules, checked the car rental return location, and started getting ready to get some sleep, all the while feeling impressed with myself for moving so swiftly to resolve yet another crisis...Then it hit me...I had just got seats on the last flight heading into a Hurricane! I have finally lost my mind!

My new friends Art and Jackie...they were very accommodating, of course we were their only customers.

We show up this morning to the Charleston Airport and find we basically have the place to ourselves. All the TSA agents, Coffee Shop employees and Southwest Agents are here but not many brave travelers. At 9:30am we head into the Wild Blue Yonder for yet another try at our elusive holiday. We are earning the title of ROAD WARRIORS!

****FLEXIBLE****

So we just got an email from Southwest Airlines informing us our scheduled flight on Sunday has been cancelled (along with 1000s of others)...I called and prestochango we now have the only scheduled flight tomorrow at 9:30 am...arrive in DC @ 11:10am before the Hurricane hits...yes this means we will be witness to whatever happens...a lot has to go right though, 1st our flight has to remain viable, 2nd we have to actually make it to DC and 3rd we need to find some type of transportation to our hotel. Nothing to it for 2 such flexible (more like bendable) travelers. I love the line, "Life in the key of easy," now, when does it start!

Flexible people...kinda!

Last day in Orlando.

Nancy and I can both read it...thus the shit eating grins!

TH15 M3554G3 53RV35 TO PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG TH1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 TH1NG5! 1N TH3 B3G1NN1NG 1T WA5 H4RD BUT NOW, ON TH15 LIN3 YOUR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 1T 4UT0M4T1C4LLY W1TH OUT 3V3N TH1NK1NG ________________________________________________________________________________


Did you know there is no new water? The water we use today is the same water drank by Dinosaurs, the Greeks, the Roman, and countless generations from then to now. There is no way to make water, what there is, there is!

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T Shirt of the day.

Man VS Margarita...they even offer a shirt! And it happens every night!

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My nephew Aaron and his team won their 1st game of the season...the final score was 54 - 0, that would be 7 TD's, a safety and a school record 44 yard FG...good beginning to a promising season.

A very happy coach.

Monarch High Football

     This evening, (after our day of nothing), we had a chance to meet up with my Nephew Aaron Paddock (AP). AP is the Defensive Coordinator for the Monarch High School football team, he and the team flew in  this afternoon to play against a local Florida team. The Coyotes are one of the most successful Colorado High School football teams the past 10 years, with 105 wins. Team members are mostly students who live in Louisville and Superior, it's not unusual for the team to travel, the coach's will generally put something together every couple years. I bet the players are loving this trip, they get to play at a big time venue, the Disney ESPN fields, and then get to spend Friday - Sunday enjoying all that Disney has to offer. AP is having the time of his life as well, his greatest times in life usually include either football or Disney, this weekend he gets heaven (both)!

     It is always nice sitting down and talking with Aaron, he is one of those people who seem to have found their niche in life and is content. I don't remember him ever saying he wished he was doing something different. AP is a math teacher by profession (and education), but a Football Coach in his heart. As a young boy you would always find him diagramming plays and thinking up new plays and defensive schemes, he was a student of the game and a pretty fair player in his day...if he'd been 4" taller, 50 lbs heavier and 2 steps faster, he would have been something to behold. But what really strikes me about him is his contentment, he knows and likes who he is and goes about doing it the best he can everyday. From what I hear he is loved at school and appears to be one of those teachers that really makes a difference in students lives. AP you are a lucky man, I wish you all the best in making a difference in young lives. I hope your team wins tomorrow, but win or lose I'm sure you will be giving it your all. I'm proud you are my Nephew. Thanks for being such a good example of how to live!

The next generation...my son Josh (left) and AP (right) Good men.

AP trying to get his team registered, organized and under control. Good Luck!