Brotherly Love

The rest of Philadelphia was uh-mazing!

We stopped at the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin,

And talked about his many accomplishments:

Then we headed to Independence Hall.  Our tour good guide was fantastic!  Incredibly knowledgeable with a hilarious presentation.  He was an older gentleman with a balding top and longer sides. I asked him if he ever personified a Continental character.  He responded that yes, in fact he played John Adams in the History Chanel movie "Founding Brothers"!  Now I'm going to have to impose myself on our cable subscribing friends.  Shelly, that cool with you? 

Seeing the room where the Declaration was signed so shortly after seeing the Signed Declaration itself stirred a strong sense of patriotism and concern about all that's happened in the past 239 years.

We were able to see a Benjamin Franklin printing press, and Gannon purchased his much desired and anticipated copy of the Declaration.

The final stop was the Liberty Bell, providing a beautiful for ground for the tower where it hung.  Philadelphia, you impressed me!  

Traffic put a damper in our day, but we made it to our next stop before midnight.  

The adventure continues!

Iiiiinnnnnn West Philadelphia born and raised...

Well, not born and raised,  but visited briefly, for sure.

Quick rant: I HATE STAYING IN HOTELS!  So, I am a total loser and missed the exit for out campsite off the Philadelphia Turnpike.  After I realized what I'd done, we were already 50 minutes south east of the park, and I'd paid the $10.00 toll (Me: Ten dollars?  Toll booth girl:  well, you came from Gettysburg.  Me: oh.), we opted to just continue into the city.   After conferring with Gordon, a decision was made to not drive an hour backwards and to not sleep in a Walmart parking lot.  I found a Wyndham near Independence Hall and booked a room.  Then we had to pay for parking.   Then we had to find parking on the 4th level of an over full parking garage (btw, parking for the night was $37.00).
    I found that really awful spot that no one else wants...you know the one, in between the elevator and a huge pole?  Yah, that.  So we start unloading the clothes and the shower bag from the trunk.  Kayleigh had to climb over the seats to get out, even after my 21 point turn to try and make more room in the vacuum of a space we were in.  We finally unloaded all the gear, got two sleeping girls situated in arms WITH all the gear and realized the parking garage didn't connect directly to the hotel.  GAHHHHHH!  Down 4 floors of parking garage, down the block to the hotel entrance and up five floors to the room.  Between checking in, unloading, and actually GETTING TO THE ROOM, I could be asleep in my tent and NOT be out over $200!
Que the next morning.   9am and people were just waking up.  Breakfast was still in the car.  A yogurt from room service was $4.00.  That's a dollar an ounce!  Clearly, I don't make enough to survive hotel lifeslonger than 17 hours in the City of Brotherly Love.  The shower didn't drain well.  The coffee was decent.  And there was WiFi.  Not a total loss.
By 11:00, we were eating pop tarts in the car.  Keeping it classy in PA.  Off we went.

Four Score and Seven Years Ago....

Only 90 minutes from Washington D.C. is Historic Gettysburg.  The bloodiest battle of the Civil War with 54,000 casualties.  We hired a driver to take us through the park.

The Eternal Peace Flame is to commemorate the peace between the states.

I had a good conversation with our guide who has lived in Gettysburg for 30 years about the current Confederate Flag issue.  It amazes me that, with the current events and even past events, that a flag would be flown that is the cause of so much death, destruction, and discontentment with our Great Nation.  

This is the view from the High Water Mark of the battle of Gettysburg.  The majority of the battle took place over the hills and in the forrest.

It blew my mind to imagine over 100,000 troops fighting and dying over this area to protect our Nations Capitol, where we just were.

Gannon decided he liked the Union uniforms better. :)

We left somber, tired, and with a new perspective of our Civil War.

House of Reppin'

First of all, I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to Greenbelt State Park on the north side of DC.  Beautiful park, beautiful camping.  The daddy long legs weren't my favorite, but oh well.  More tolerable than some of the insects down south :)  We stayed at the camp site for three days.  Sunday night, we rolled in, set up camp, did laundry, and made S'mores.  It was a nice relaxing time.  We were in bed early and ready to hit the road early Monday morning.

First thing off the metro was the Navy Memorial.  Hoorah, Navy!  

Right across the street was the National Archives.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside at all, but I found a quote I don't think I'd heard before that is my new battle cry: "The past is prelude".  This was theme all through the archives as we looked at the 800 year old Magna Carta, the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.  Talking about the progression of the documents, reading the words....I actually cried.  Real tears.  No shame.

We then took a hike to the Capitol Building!  

See the spots on the stairs? That's us!

We took a walk in tour and got to see the dome construction underway,

and Gannon stood in the spot of Abraham Lincoln's congressional desk!

We were shown opportunity to sit in on the the House of Representatives in session in the gallery.  We jumped right on that train.

Gannon was excited to go to the office of Congressman Doggett to get our tickets.  We sat in a session of congress and saw two bills go through.  Pretty stinking cool.  No pictures allowed, of course.

From there, we made our way up the mall.  We sat against the Washington Monument, the kids chased birds on our way down the mall.  It was very surreal.  

We talked about the men and women who served in World War II to include their great grandpa Fred (my grandpa) and saw the wall of stars, and talked about the loss of life in WWII, Vietnam, the Civil War, and the Revolutionary War.

We strolled past the Reflecting Pool and watched the ducks,

and a tired and motley crew landed at the Lincoln Memorial.  We read the Gettysburg Address in preparation for our day at Gettysburg, and talked about our time at Springfield last year when Gannon visited Lincoln's Tomb.

Grandpa Gary was a topic of discussion as we read name after name after name at the Vietnam Memorial.  I cried here, too.  Thank you, Gary Lashley-Cline for your service to our country, and thank you for coming home and being my daddy.

We actually took a cab to a hamburger joint.  We'd gone more than 10 miles of walking and Baby A just was NOT going to move another step.  Back to the camp site we went with big plans for Tuesday.

Our first order of business was the Holocaust Museum.  I wasn't 100% sure how the little girls would do.  We started at Daniels Story - the Children's Section.  They did a fantastic job.  We opted to go through the whole exhibit.  I'm glad we did.

Gannon said he was very upset that the Nazis desecrated the Torah and the Synagogs during the Night of Broken Glass.  Siri understood the hate that one people had for another.  She related it to the Confederacy and slavery of the pre-Civil War mindset.  I was proud.

Gannon and Siri lit candles in remembrance of the Holocaust and vowed to never be so complacent that they would stand by and watch something like this happen.  Ever.  Again.

Street vendor for lunch (not terrible, actually), then metro to....

THE PENTAGON!  I would like to give myself some major props for:

1. Planning

2. Executing

our trip to the Pentagon.  

Why the Pentagon and not the White House?  All Gannon wanted for his birthday was a tour of the Pentagon. Happy Birthday, little man.

We saw where the plane went down, we wrote letters to the survivors families, and prayed for our country.

Of course no photos were allowed in the actual Pentagon, but the Honor Corps Seaman and Airman who gave us our tour were happy to pose with the kids.  

Only one stop up on the Metro is Arlington National Cemetery!

We took a tram tour and had a perfect view at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and watched the Changing of the Guard.

Just a few stops down, and my cousins Mark and Becca with their sweet new baby were our dinner destination.

The kids played in the water, ate a little, and Mark and I talked about our travels as kids.  A good time was had by all.  

Back to the Metro and our campsite for one final night in DC.  We'd like to come back at spend two weeks, and I'm not sure we'd see everything we'd want to see.  Amazing time.

Monohaloogulalagh Forrest.....or something like that.

We took a long and curvey road through the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains into the Monongahela National Forest.  

We slept in the car as we got in so late. The camp sites were primitive, and the kids weren't thrilled about the in-ground toilets.  We got up and were thankful for baby wipe clean up!   We hiked several trails, saw bear poop, salamanders, rushing water, and peaceful streams. 

We took off back down the windy mountain pass, on to our next destination.

Raising the White Flag

Since we'd trekked a bit off our trail for cousin time, and we'd left Goldsboro a bit later than we'd hoped for,  we opted to detour from our initial landing spot of West Virginia, and settle for just plain old Virginia.  We found our tent to be, very thankfully, waterproof.   We grabbed our umbrellas and headed into town.  

Historic Richmond has an amazing Civil War museum right next to a National Historic Site.   Treadwell Iron Works were a Confederate iron factory with So much history.  The kids learned about water power,

Civil War economic shifts,

And period clothing.  There was a surgeons kit that made me very thankful for v progress that has been made in my field in the last hundred fifty years.

We toured the battleground at Richmond where there are cannons poised in the fields were the Union and Confederate armies would have met.  It was a rainy day, and the roar of the thunder, if you closed your eyes, was actually the firing of the cannon as troops met near the end of the war.

With only an hour and a half to the west being one of the most historic points of the Civil War, we trudged over to Appomattox.

A Union soldier told the children about his loneliness on the road, and introduced him to his pet stick Joe. Joe did very well with his trick of "sit and stay".

We toured the McLean house where Lee and Grant met. It was here at this desk that the Confederation and the Union begin the healing process of becoming the great United States of America.

It was an honor and a privilege to see the original surrender paperwork on display for the 150th Year celebration. I literally almost cried.  The Appomattox area closed at 5, which worked well for our schedule as we could go ahead and begin our drive into West Virginia

Cotton Pickin Good Day

Charlotte, North Carolina!   We drove to the outskirts of Charlotte to the Latta Plantation.  The grounds are really fantastic, with over 750 acres of State park.  Horse and pony rides were available (for a nominal fee), which we,  of course, partook of.   

The trail guide was very impressed with Annikas fearlessness, 

Siris posture,

and Gannons knowledge of "My Little Ponies".

We climbed the hill to the plantation home where we were able to roam the grounds and tour the home and the outbuildings.

We learned about wool cards, cotton gins, spindles and wheels and looms!

A short three and a half hour drive took us to Goldsboro, NC so cousins could meet for the first time.   All of them enjoyed a grand time, trouncing around a stark contrast to the plantation. ...Chuck E. Cheeses!  

We ate pizza, spent tickets, and enjoyed company.   

After goodbye was done, we decided to shorten our evening drive and re-rout to.........