"OORAH" ADVENTURE .. DAY FOUR!!

DAY FOUR .. Monday, April 28

 After a hot breakfast at the IHOP (2 Eggs, 2 Bacon, 2 Hot Cakes and Coffee .. GREAT Breakfast!!) attached to the Comfort Inn and paid for by the Comfort Inn we climbed aboard the hotel's  courtesy shuttle and rode to the Van Dorn Metro stop in Washington, D C!!!

  Rode the Metro into the city.  Stop .. stop .. stop!!  Finally made it to Metro Center in DC .. found the Old Town Trolley stop just a couple of blocks away. 

Here we are .. two country bumpkins ..  in downtown Washington DC!!! 

Tall tall buildings .. cars .. and people everywhere!!! 

Friendly people!!!  I asked this gentleman if it was okay if I took his picture and he said "why sure" and posed with this huge smile!!

Ah we found it .. the Trolley Stand!! 

Getting aboard the Old Town Trolley for our tour of the city!! 

The great thing about the Trolley was there were stops everywhere .. you could get off and walk around and see what you wanted to see .. the buses came around about every half hour .. when you're ready to board just go to a stop and climb aboard and go to your next stop!!! 

And our first stop was  the White House ..



Silly me .. I thought all you had to do to be able to go inside the White House was to go to the right place and get a ticket .. HA .. Boy was I wrong!!!  You have to write to your Congressman / woman and they have to set it up for you!!!! 

 

You can see the Washington Monument from the White House .. it's not actually THIS close .. the camera's zoom lens brought it right up close .. but you can see it .. of course you can see it from almost everywhere in Washington .. LOL!! 



General William Tecumseh Sherman  Monument

 



Notice the pigeon on General Sherman's head .. Whoops!!!

There's the Capitol!!

The National Archives building

 

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There was a demonstration going on but so far not a very big one!!

Notice the police cars .. when we came out of the National Archives building there were several police cars scattered around with lights flashing .. we tried to go to the stop where we had gotten off the trolley but were stopped by a policeman .. it seems they found a suspicious package in the middle of one of the streets close to the Archives building!!  We never did hear what happened with the package but didn't hear any explosions so assume the package was nothing OR the bomb was defused if it was indeed a bomb!!! 

We had seen the Smithsonian down the street so we decided this would be a good time to walk there!!! 

Here we are .. we made it ..

 

WOW!!  They've got a penny smashing machine ..

It looks like if I was inside the glass and standing beside him I MIGHT be as tall as his back leg ...

Wildebeest poop ..

Just had to get a picture of this little guy ..

We didn't stay long in the Natural History Museum .. we soon moved on to the National Museum of American History ..

They have Harry Potter right in the front lobby!!!

Along with a case showing various versions of mouse traps AND today's modern version of a mouse ..

A horse drawn fire engine ..

And a place to vote .. keep the penny .. don't keep the penny .. YES .. put a penny in the yellow bowl on the left .. NO .. put a penny in the yellow bowl on the right.  Ken's penny went into the bowl on the right!!  There were a lot more coins in the jar on the left .. not all pennies .. there were even some dollar bills!!

I thought it was neat that this is actually the Philadelphia.  It was sunk in 1776 and recovered from the bottom of the lake where it was sunk in 1935 .. almost 160 years later!!! 



This last pic and info below are from a search I did on Google ..

The Gunboat Philadelphia is the oldest surviving American fighting vessel. Built in 1776, it was sunk in Lake Champlain during a naval battle with the British in the same year. The Continental Congress authorized the building of this 54 foot, 29-ton gunboat and eight other similar vessels for the defense of the Champlain Valley - the northern frontier of the colonies considered the key to the success or failure of the American Revolution. In the summer of 1776, under the leadership of the charismatic and controversial Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, Philadelphia and her sister-ships were hurriedly organized into what historians consider “the first American Navy.”

Throughout the summer and into the fall, this small fleet imposed a strategic delay on British invasion plans to divide the colonies. On October 11, 1776, the Americans met the enemy in a hard-fought battle, but the superior firepower of the British squadron proved decisive. An hour after the initial battle ended, the badly-damaged Philadelphia sank. By the end of the three-day engagement on Oct. 13, the British had gained control of Lake Champlain, and most of the American fleet had been destroyed. Though a defeat for the Americans, the naval contest for Lake Champlain is considered the foundation for the defeat of British Commander John Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga the following year. The battle delayed the British campaign and led to the postponement of further advances. Arnold thus gave the American army time to build the strength necessary for the victory at Saratoga. Philadelphia and the other vessels in Arnold’s fleet had served their purpose.

The Philadelphia rested on the bottom of the lake until it was discovered and recovered with much of its equipment intact in 1935 by Lorenzo F. Haggulund, a civil engineer who for many years exhibited it as a tourist attraction. It came to the museum in 1964, complete with the 24-pound ball that sent the gunboat to the bottom.

The Gunboat Philadelphia exhibit is being reinterpreted and updated to include its recovery in 1935, a history of its display at Lake Champlain as well as early preservation and acquisition by the museum. This exhibit will include historical video footage of the raising of the Philadelphia from Lake Champlain accompanied by an interpretive cart that provides hands-on experience with preservation needs. Painted scrims will provide the visitor with a simulated visual sense of the “underwater” space of the Philadelphia and new cases will display artifacts that were recovered with the gunboat as well as the crew payroll.
 

There is an exhibition room called CAMILLA'S PURSE .. it holds exhibits from the  HOLOCAUST!!

The pics I took didn't turn out very good and there were so many people in a small room that it was difficult to get pics so please click on the link below to learn all about the lady the trunk in the top picture and the purse in the bottom picture belonged to .. and the other things they found with these items!!!

CAMILLA'S PURSE

 

Time for a little lunch ..

Who would ever have thought that one day .. in my old age .. I would be sitting on the streets in Washington DC enjoying a Hot Dog and a bottle of nice ice cold water  .. while the  guy who took me on this wonderful adventure sat beside me eating a giant Pretzel!!! 

We're back on the trolley .. oh look .. there's the Washington Monument again!!! 

From the Washington Monument .. to the Lincoln Monument ..

Let's get a selfie with Lincoln ..

 

WHOOPS!!!  Where's Lincoln?????

AH .. there he is!! 

We did it!!!

If you can read this you have better eyes than I do .. I read it when I was there but sure couldn't tell you now what it says!!! Time to go to Google and see what I can find!!! 

Bliss Copy

Ever since Lincoln wrote it in 1864, this version has been the most often reproduced, notably on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. It is named after Colonel Alexander Bliss, stepson of historian George Bancroft. Bancroft asked President Lincoln for a copy to use as a fundraiser for soldiers (see "Bancroft Copy" below). However, because Lincoln wrote on both sides of the paper, the speech could not be reprinted, so Lincoln made another copy at Bliss's request. It is the last known copy written by Lincoln and the only one signed and dated by him. Today it is on display at the Lincoln Room of the White House.

 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.   Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.   But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

 Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

The Park Police on horseback!!!

The Vietnam Memorial

Looking at the wall of names from the sculpture

Ah Oh .. RAIN!!!!

The rain is getting heavier .. the bodies are getting tired .. time to head for the Trolley Stop and catch a ride to the Metro Station!!

 Back on the Metro at 5:30 .. 

Back to the hotel by 6:00 ..  it's wet and very chilly outside and we are very tired .. took the easy way and went to IHOP for supper once again!!!  Then a long hot soak in the tub for my poor tired feet and legs!!! Ken has his nose in a book .. I'm pecking on the keyboard .. we're both taking life easy .. resting up for another busy day tomorrow!!!!  

The Metro was a neat experience for this country bumpkin but I sure wouldn't want to do it every day .. you could tell this was a daily thing for most of these people!!!  Washington DC is a hustling bustling very busy city with lots of wondrous things to see .. a wonderful place to visit .. but I wouldn't want to live there!!!!  I sure would like to come back and see all the things we probably missed though!!!!