Side Trip

We returned yesterday from our trip out to the east coast and are busy today preparing ourselves and the boat for our departure tomorrow to points south.

Despite weather that was less than ideal we had a wonderful trip. The drive to Annapolis on September 29-30 was wet and/or gloomy both days, but we were still able to see how beautiful it was in the mountains of West Virginia and western Maryland. Because of the cold and wet we spent most of our full day in Annapolis inside museums and other buildings, in particular, the Maryland State House and the United States Naval Academy Museum. Incredible history in both places. The Maryland State House was, for a few months, the first capitol of the new United States. It was the location where the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War, was signed. It was also the location where, on December 23, 1783, George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, thus establishing the important precedent of the military being under civilian authority.

Lon views George Washington's personal copy of
his resignation speech

The USNA Museum was a treasure trove of historical artifacts from US Naval history, starting with the Revolutionary War. The museum also contains the largest collection of 17th- and 18th-century ship models, which were incredible works of art. A particularly interesting part of the collection was models built by French prisoners-of-war in the Napoleonic era.

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's famous battle
flag from the Battle of Lake Erie in the
War of 1812

Prisoner-of-war model created out of scrap wood, bone, baleen, and
whatever else the prisoners could scrounge

The rain and cold continued during our days in Washington, D.C. It could have been worse--early in our trip Washington was in the projected target area for landfall by Hurricane Joaquin. Fortunately that didn't happen. We made the best of the weather by spending some time in the National Portrait Gallery, and then simply walking in the cold and/or mist to the sights we wanted to see--the various memorials and monuments along The Mall; Pat's graduate school alma mater George Washington University; and our old (and now nearly unrecognizable) neighborhood of Rosslyn, Virginia.

The Swansen Apartments are about the only thing
in the neighborhood that has stayed the same since
the late 1970's. Lon's former apartment
building is gone.

George is still here, but the forensic science building
has been torn down and the department relocated
to the Mount Vernon campus of the university

The WWII Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial
in the distance

Of course, the main purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of our nephew Evan Wojtowicz and Katie Bott. Although Sunday, October 4, was a grey day, it had stopped raining and the Hay-Adams Hotel provided a wonderful venue for a beautiful wedding. We really enjoyed getting the chance to visit with family members who were able to attend.

Ditching the flip-flops for one evening: top of
the Hay-Adams, with the White House just
across Lafayette Park and the Washington Monument and
Jefferson Memorial in the distance.

We finally had sunshine for our drive back to Missouri. The mountains of Pennsylvania were absolutely beautiful. A sobering highlight of the drive was stopping at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA. This is the nation's memorial to the passengers and crew of United flight 93, who on 9-11-2001 crashed here while trying to take back the plane from terrorist-hijackers, and in so doing, kept the terrorists from reaching Washington, D.C. It was all incredibly moving.

View from the Visitor's Center toward the Memorial Park and
crash site. A wall of black granite surrounds the debris field; the
crash site is marked by a large stone.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks good, so hopefully we will be at Hoppies Marina in Kimmswick, MO tomorrow night.