The History Field Trip

(It's been 8 years since I posted here, so I guess it's long overdue!  Since the last post, we've relocated to Tomball, TX.  Hannah has graduated from college, Adam is in his Sr. year of college, and Owen is a Freshman at Florida College in Tampa.  Abby is now 15 and Xander is 12.  Wow!)    

            [WARNING!  This is crazy long!  I wrote it so that I could remember the details of the trip.  You’re most likely not interested in all this – skim at your leisure!]  

It started about 4 years ago.  We were hosting a history group each month for our elementary / middle school kids and three of us Moms decided it would be fun to get a 15- passenger van and drive up the East Coast stopping at the major American history sites along the way.  We decided to do this the following May.  BUT then family A had to back out because one of the older siblings needed Mom to come to Colorado to help.  Family B had to come up with money for a necessary surgery for their son.  So, we said, “Maybe next year.”  Next year came and went and the financial situation wasn’t any better for families A & B, so it didn’t happen.  So we decided to switch gears and just do the trip as a one family trip.  We tentatively planned it for the Spring.  Then the van had issues to the tune of thousands of dollars, and the septic system needed work to the tune of thousands of dollars.  (We told the kids that they were getting sliding van doors and flushing toilets for Christmas.)  So no trip that year (2019).  Finally 2020 rolls around and we’ve saved up enough money.  We figure we need to get this in, because Hannah and Adam are quickly approaching a time when they won’t be able to go.  Hannah was doing an internship that Spring that finished at the end of what would normally be Spring Break.  But Adam would have to go back to school at the end of Spring Break.  It looked like only one of them could go.  I certainly wasn’t going to make that call.  I told them to work it out and let me know.  Adam kinda didn’t want to go anyway (He had been to Washington D.C. on his ‘Senior trip with Mom’.), and Hannah kinda did want to go, so they decided that he would stay.  We buy plane tickets, make reservations at hotels, reserve a rental car (van), get attraction tickets, and even parking spots.  I bought books and videos for the kids to review American history, and gave them travel journals so they could document and remember the trip. Our departure date was March 16, 2020.  

 To make it up to Adam, I decided to take him to Six Flags for a couple of days.  (Part of the plan was to take time on the History trip to go to an amusement park and ride roller coasters.  So after MUCH consideration and several spread sheets…..  I purchased a “membership” to Six Flags that would get us several discounts and work out to our advantage in the end.)  Adam and I head to Six Flags San Antonio for the Thursday and Friday of his Spring Break.  We had a blast riding coasters Thursday.  Then we get a phone call from Erin Thursday night.  Did you hear the news?  Covid has escaped into the heartland of America.  Things are shutting down. The elders have CANCELED CHURCH for this Sunday.  Museums can close, governments can panic, but when church is canceled for Sunday morning, you KNOW it’s huge.  We weren’t sure what to do.  We decided to go back to Six Flags the next day figuring there couldn’t be that many cases in San Antonio yet.  Six Flags was nearly deserted (Saturday of Spring Break!), and they were already providing hand sanitizer and wipes to wipe down your seat on the coasters.  It was weird, and kinda spooky.  

            We got home Friday night and started talking about whether we were going to leave on Monday or not.  New York was being hit hard at that time.  But our only plan in New York was to ride the ‘Hop on / Hop off’ bus.  So we didn’t think we’d have much exposure….  Maybe we could modify and only do the southern half of the trip?  Then things starting closing.  What’s the point of going to Washington D.C. to learn about history if all the Smithsonians are closed?  National Archives?  Closed.  Sigh.   Then the airlines cancelled our flights.  So that was the end of that.  I spent the rest of the weekend cancelling hotel rooms, rental car, parking spots and making sure our attraction tickets would be good for a year (most were good for 2 years).  

            Fast forward a year.  The vaccines are here, making it much safer to be out in public.  We all got vaccinated as soon as we possibly could, which meant even Abby and Xander had their second dose a few days before their first camp.  Now Hannah has graduated and is set to begin work in September.  Adam is still in school, and Owen graduates and plans to head to college in August.  If we’re ever going to get this trip in, it needs to be this year.  Owen was doing dual credit, so we decided to change to a summer trip instead of spring.  Adam said he was still only ‘meh’ on going, so I didn’t push much.  We had airline credit for 6 tickets, so  coordinating a 7^th person would also mean 2 hotel rooms at each stop instead of cramming 6 people in to 1 hotel room.  If he stayed behind, he could feed the animals and I wouldn’t have to hire someone.  Also, he wanted to continue working. 

            With all the other camps and things the kids had going on, the last half of July was the only window we had.  We took it.  

            I did a LOT of planning for the trip.  Spreadsheets were involved.  I planned each morning and afternoon, bought tickets, planned out parking spots so that the walking wouldn’t be too much, planned which days we’d need the wheelchair for Abby, which attractions were open which days, how far we’d drive and when, etc.  In all the planning, we ended up canceling the amusement park day because a) I wanted more time to see more history, and b) it would be a high walking mileage day. 

Erin worked on the rental car (van) because he could get a discount through work.  There were some oddities in the reservation that made us nervous – they had his company name wrong.  We ended up probably irritating them to check and double check that there would actually be a minivan waiting for us in Newport News, VA.  (Remember Seinfeld?  “You know how to TAKE the reservation….”)

            The week before departure we took some extra measures to isolate from some known Covid hotspots in town.  We were trying to be responsible people and not spread it to the entire East Coast. (We might have infected New Orleans with chicken pox in the year 2000….) 

            Finally the day came to leave!  I was so nervous that something would come up last minute that would cancel everything again.  I basically held my breath until we were in the air.  Our flight left Houston around 5 p.m. (I scheduled it later in the day thinking maybe Erin wouldn’t have to take Friday off, but he did anyway.)  We had to change planes in Charlotte, NC.  When we landed, we learned our second flight was delayed by an hour.  That was going to put us arriving after midnight in Newport News.  We called the rental car company to make sure they would still be there.  We called the hotel and told them it might be 1 or 2 a.m. before we got there, but please hold the room for us.  We discussed alternate plans.  We could sleep in the airport.  I could take a taxi with some kids and Erin could sleep in the airport and bring the rental van in the morning.  We could walk to an airport hotel.  Etc.  Etc.  Meanwhile, we tried to find some supper in an airport that was quickly closing for the night.  We got in line at Auntie Anne’s because everything else was closed.  By the time we got to the front of the line, we nearly bought them out.  We bought 3 or 4 items for 6 people.  I think we left maybe 2 items for the 20 people in line behind us.  (Sorry, strangers!  Honestly, we took less than we needed. I promise! )  While we were sitting in the floor eating our treasured supper, they made a “last call” for our flight.  WHAT?!?  Apparently it wasn’t late after all, and while we were mosey-ing along, they were boarding our plane!  We’d seen people lining up at our gate, but it was one of those ‘end of the corridor’ ‘multiple gates leave through here’ sort of arrangements and we foolishly believed they were lining up for a different flight.  We did make the flight though, and were VERY relieved to see the rental car counter still open.  (We sent Erin running down there as soon as he could get clear of the airplane aisle.) The relief at getting that rental van was amazing.  It even had Texas plates!  Woo-hoo!  We get “Oh, they’re from out of town.  I’ll let them merge” privileges everywhere!!  We also figured out a way to fit the wheelchair, two large suitcases, one small suitcase, 6 people, and 6 backpacks in it.  

 The hotel folks were also VERY nice and we got in our rooms around 1 a.m.  Yes, rooms plural.  They said they were out of the 2 queen / sofa-bed rooms, so they gave us adjoining rooms with 2 queens each.  Boy were the kids happy!  That meant they didn’t all have to share with a sibling.  (Hannah and Owen claimed the non-sharing status and made Abby & Xander share.)  Also, 2 bathrooms for 6 people is nice.  We told them not to get used to it.  The hotel also had THE BEST hotel library I’ve ever seen – especially for a mid-rate tourist place.  But you could tell they’d put some effort into it.  It was an ‘honor system’ take one / leave one.  They actually had books that all of us liked!  We ended up taking the next in a series that Xander was reading and leaving one of the choose-your-own-adventure history books that I’d brought for the kids to read in the car / plane.  

The next morning we drove to Yorktown.  The National Park museum was closed, but we could still go in the gift shop.  We were so excited to be at our first stop!  We picked up a map and drove around the battlefield.  We didn’t stop at every stop on the tour, but we listened to the audio tour, which was just the right amount of detail.  We did get out at the National Cemetery and walk around a bit.  We noticed several graves that contained more than one unknown soldier.  We also got out at redoubts 9 and 10 (Where Alexander Hamilton got his glory.), as well as at Surrender Field.  Surrender Field was definitely the coolest!  “It all started here.”  They had a little exhibit there with a recording and you could really envision the British marching down the road there to turn in their guns.   The irony of starting our trip at the place where the British surrendered, (and with the plans to end it at Lexington and Concord) is not lost on me.  Should we have started in Boston and driven south?  Maybe.  

The youngest two started their first Junior Ranger workbook.  We tried to do these at every National Park along the way.  I think this is an excellent program to keep the kids interested in what they’re seeing – and it’s FREE!  We also got the kids’ National Park Passports stamped.  They really enjoyed collecting stamps from all the stops on the trip.  They ended up with many, many pages full of stamps.  For my souvenirs, I bought small magnets for our ‘magnet wall’.  I ended up with dozens of magnets just from this trip!  Erin bought souvenir coins at many stops.  If they didn’t have those, he bought a little $1 ‘token’.  Xander also bought tokens, but he focused on collecting pressed pennies.  He really enjoyed that.  Hannah bought lots of small souvenirs along the way, she didn’t collect any category of things, but just bought things that looked pleasing to her.  Abby didn’t buy much at all.  Eventually, she bought a ‘Junior Ranger’ hat to put all of her Junior Ranger badges on.  But she enjoyed looking at all the pretty things in the gift shops. 

For lunch, we drove into Yorktown proper.  What a neat little place!  It’s right on the water, and we saw a tall ship going by.  There were several nice eateries there.  If it had just been Erin and me, we would’ve gone in a fancier place. But we ended up going in the “Carrot Tree” for chicken salad sandwiches.  (Some of the boys got something else, I don’t remember.  I just remember that mine was very good!)   Then we walked around the town a tiny bit.  We saw a book store !!!!!  and went in there.  It was awesome!  Old books and knick-knacks.  I found a box of old Edison cylinders.  I had to buy one – only $20.  Can I ever use it?  No.  Was it extra super cool?  You betcha!  Some of the kids made purchases.  Xander collects old and weird keys.  They had a basket-full and he picked out a few.  

After lunch, we went to the American Revolution museum.  This was a pretty good museum.  They had an outdoor area with a farm and an ‘encampment’ (set up like for common soldiers of the revolutionary war).  They had really good interpreters there talking about weapons, farm life, weaving, etc.  and a guy demonstrating how to load and fire a musket.  It was so hot by this time, though, the kids were starting to wilt.  We took a quick tour around the outside and went into the air conditioning.  It helped a little, but the younger two were losing interest quickly.  I’d intended for this museum to be our overview of the entire war, so I was the mean Mom and made them answer questions and watch videos etc. They had a lot of interactive exhibits, so it wasn’t all torture.  LOL. 

That night, Hannah and I went to pick up our pre-ordered Wal-mart run.  We bought sandwich supplies, snacks, and bottled water etc. so that we could make sandwiches in the hotel for supper.  We also picked up Gyros for us, and Chik-Fil-A for the boys.  

Sunday morning, we got up early and were at Colonial Williamsburg when it opened.  We decided to tour the East end of Colonial Williamsburg before worship service (which started at 1p.m.!!!??!), and come back and do the West end after church. We took the bus over and got off at the Capitol and took a tour of that first.  It was pretty cool.  Of course it was a re-construction of the original on the original foundations.  Viriginia has a habit of burning down their State Houses (The Archaeological museum is built over the foundations of the first State house – which burned.)  It was also pretty cool to think about Benjamin Harrison II (my ancestor) who was a burgess at Jamestown and his son (my ancestor’s brother) who was a burgess at Williamsburg.   Next, we walked down Duke of Gloucester St. and went in a few shops to hear talks on the apothecary as well as book-binding (our favorite of course!).   We went through the Blacksmith shop and wagon-repair place.  Then it was time to catch the bus back to the car.  

Lunch was at Hardee’s (Carl’s Jr.) but the dining room was closed, so we ate in the van (in our church clothes!).  We made it to services on time.  Everyone there was super friendly.  After services, we went back to CW, but parked in a slightly different place.  That ended up not working out so good, but we got where we wanted to go.  We picked up the tour where we’d left off and saw the Wythe house, Governor’s Palace (Kids’ favorite) and gardens.   Behind the Governor’s Palace there was a hedge maze.  Owen and Xander and I did it.  It was fun.  Then we climbed the steps behind the maze and could look down and see other people doing the maze.  Then we went to the (air conditioned) museum for 30 min. to finish off the day.  At the museum, we did the short scavenger hunt – which kept the younger 2 interested.  Was there some interesting stuff in there?  Yes.  Could we have skipped it?  Also yes.  Lots of portraits and period furniture.  I liked the clock room.  Super cool grandfather-type clocks.  

I’m pretty sure we ate sandwiches in the hotel room for super that night.  But then we went out to this excellent custard place for dessert.  (I think it was “The Meadows”.)

The next morning we packed up and checked out of the hotel, and headed to Jamestown.  There are actually 2 Jamestowns.  The first is “Historic Jamestowne” which is part of Colonial National Historic Park (together with Yorktown).  This is the site of the actual Jamestown.  You can see the archaeological digs going on there, the church from 1639, and the fort walls put up on the actual site of the originals.  There is also a small graveyard there at the church where I have some family members buried.  (Which, yes, I think is pretty cool!)  The signs around the fort were interesting.  Apparently, at some point in history folks decided to use the well as a trash pit.  Some really cool stuff came out of there, including an intact halberd!   Historic Jamestowne also has an archaeological museum which was very cool.  It included the skeleton of a ‘knight’ who had been buried in the chapel.  (video of the excavation included!)  If you go, you need to go through the archaeological museum.  Next, we went down to the glass house and watched them make glass.  The re-created glass house is set up just yards from the original.  We purchased some small items because it was so neat.  We also joked for the rest of the trip about “Jamestown glass” because it was for sale in literally every. single. gift shop we went to on this trip. 

Jamestown, of course, is “where it all started”.  (If you don’t count St. Augustine, FL.) It was settled 13 years before the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth.  

We looked for fast food around Jamestown, but ended up driving back into Williamsburg for Which Wich.  Then we drove back to “Jamestown Settlement” – which is a museum run by the state of Virginia.  They have re-created the original settlement as well as an authentic Powhatan settlement.  It is really well done, and the re-enactors were very knowledgeable and interacted well with the kids.  The Powhatan re-enactors were making rope and a ‘dug out’ canoe.  They also had a long house set up with real furs etc.  They had a garden with plants used for various things etc.  The re-creation of the fort had several buildings, including the governors house, armory, etc.  In one of the houses there was a re-enactor who had an assortment of games and he taught us how to play 9 man Morris.  Owen and Xander took to it instantly.  Xander beat the instructor on the first try.  Of course, the boys bought a set in the gift shop and continued to play on the trip.  

Jamestown Settlement also has 3 ships like the ones that brought the first settlers to Jamestown.  You can go on all three.  We enjoyed doing this.  Even Abby went down below decks and climbed around.   When we left home, I asked Adam if he wanted any particular type of souvenir from our trip.  He said “a model of a ship would be cool”.  So we looked in the gift shop for a model of the ships we’d been on.  The only one they had was a “ship in a bottle” (probably made in China)  I wasn’t sure though if this was too cliché for Adam or not.  While I was hemming and hawing, Erin said, “I saw a model ship this morning at the Archaeology museum.”  I said, “That’s like a mile from here.”  He said, “I’ll run in and get it.”  (This was a considerable offer, because the Archaeology museum is like ¾ mile from the parking lot, and we were all tired!)  So we tried to drive back down there, but Historic Jamestowne was closed for the day.  So we turned around, went back in the Jamestown Settlement gift shop, and bought the ship in a bottle. 

 

If you wanted to go on vacation to Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, you could EASILY spend a week or probably 2 there!  We spent one day in each place.  We didn’t get to see everything, but we got a pretty good overview of most things.  Honestly, it’s probably all the kids wanted.  This could be said for almost every stop on this trip.  You could spend a week there, we spent a few days and saw the highlights.  We still saw a LOT of really really cool stuff, but if you want more detail / time, you should plan double or triple the amount of time we spent.  

 

From Jamestown, we drove to Washington D.C.  It’s about a 3 hour drive.  We spent the time listening to an audio book called, “Guts and Glory: The American Revolution”.  I would highly recommend this book as well as the Civil War one.  They are written on a kids’ level and in a teenager style.  Adults might be offended by some of the casual tone, but I really think it held my kids’ interest much better than a more sophisticated book.  It was really cool to listen to these and then tour the battlefield site a day or two later.  Xander and Abby remembered a lot of the books, too.  

We arrived at our hotel in Washington, D.C. and well…. It was a bad choice to say the least.  We could tell immediately that it wasn’t a great neighborhood.  I went inside and the front desk was surrounded by (bullet proof?) glass (more than just a Covid screen for sure!).  We got the keys and went up the elevator.  The elevator did not give off an air of confidence.  The carpet in the hallway was, well, disgusting.  Filthy.  Maybe at one point it had been a pretty green color?  We debated.  It was somewhere between brown and grey now.  The room was clean.  (No carpet.)  But there was a problem.  We have 6 people and there are 2 beds – a king, and a queen.  I went back down and asked and he says, “We don’t have any rooms for 6 people.”  I’m like, “Then why did you take the reservation for 6 people?!?!”  They also didn’t have any rollaway beds available.  Fortunately, Hannah had already made plans to sleep on the floor.  Erin had recently purchased a high-quality camping air mattress for going backpacking with me.  He brought that along on the trip for Hannah because she is averse to sharing a bed with a sibling (and to be fair, Abby thrashes).  So she slept on the floor while the other 3 kids shared the King bed.  They were NOT happy – especially after the nice hotel in Williamsburg.   Besides room for 6, other things not included in the room:  hair dryer (3 girls with long hair – we bought one at Target), trash cans (!), enough towels, adequate lighting, enough plugs to recharge our things, and decent breakfast.  Breakfast was a “grab and go”.  But we called it the “sad sack”.  It was a small apple, very bad pre-packaged muffin, and a granola bar.  Honestly, I’m not sure why we didn’t just turn around and leave.  Maybe because rooms were so expensive and hard to come by.  Maybe because the room itself was clean and surprisingly quiet.  Maybe because we were tired and didn’t want to deal with finding a new hotel, loading the van back up and unpacking again.  So we stayed for 4 nights.  There was a Target that you could see from the window.  That, apparently, was the line between good and bad neighborhoods.  The Target reminded us of Singapore, because it had a built-in parking garage.  We went there and bought some supplies including the aforementioned hair dryer.    Outside the hotel, we saw many, uh, interesting things.  Lots of drug paraphernalia, guys peeing in the parking garage, and a general feeling of we’re not where we’re supposed to be.  But we moved only together in our group of 6 and nothing happened.   One morning we came into the hallway and saw about a dozen garbage bags and suitcases.  Apparently, someone was getting evicted.  The stuff was gone when we got back. Again, we didn’t hear any noises in the hallway, or even from the street outside.  And the elevator held up for 5 days!  (The very thought of taking the stairs there fills me with dread even from here.) 

Despite the hotel, we enjoyed our time in Washington D.C.  We got up early Tuesday morning and went to see the monuments.  We parked near the Spy Museum (south-south-west of the Mall) and walked the mile or so to the Jefferson Memorial.  We might’ve walked a bit extra because the phone had trouble dealing with all the tall buildings and (I think) couldn’t ‘see’ the satellites all the time.  Also, I think I missed a turn.  As we were getting near the memorial, Marine One flew right over the top of us!  I ran down to the water’s edge to try to get a picture (we were under some trees).  No idea if President Biden was aboard or not.   We arrived at the Jefferson and learned that there’s an INSIDE!  Whaaat?  The security guard showed us where the elevator was and there’s also restrooms, an exhibit, and a gift shop inside!  Cool!  I had no idea!   We had a short home-school lesson on Thomas Jefferson.  Erin, Xander, and I have been to Monticello, so it was neat to talk about that here.  We also talked about his not so good history with slavery. 

After the Jefferson Memorial, we walked past the George Mason memorial on our way to the FDR memorial.  Unfortunately, coming at the FDR from that side, we were walking through it in reverse-chronological order, but it couldn’t be helped.  I think it’s much better to start at the other end.  Ah well.  I loved getting to see the Eleanor Roosevelt statue.  Mamaw Tucker’s nickname for me was “Eleanor” because I reminded her of Eleanor Roosevelt.     Next was the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial with short history lecture, and then on to the Lincoln.  By the time we got over to the Lincoln memorial, we’d walked more than 2.5 miles in very very hot weather (nearing 100 degrees).  We decided to sit down and eat lunch.  We found a little food stand where most people got hot dogs, but I got the “Caesar salad”  - which turned out to be enough salad for 6 people!  Huge!!  Then we went on to the Lincoln Memorial.  Again – there’s an elevator, exhibit, and gift shop inside!  I never knew!  Erin read the speeches inscribed on the walls to Xander while I read them to Abby.  We talked about them some, and then just enjoyed the view.  We went down and stood where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his most famous speech.  

Next, we walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial.  It is always such a somber place.  I wanted the kids to be very respectful there, so we sat down briefly and talked about it before we went over.  

From there we walked back across to the Korean War Memorial, but it is under renovation and we couldn’t really see it.  They are re-doing it, and I’m not sure I like the changes.  When Adam and I were there in 2018, we walked past it at night not knowing it was there and got a little spooked by it – which I think is the effect the artist was going for.  The new design will add a lot of light to it and I don’t think it will be as good.  

Next up was a quick walk through the World War II Memorial.  This thing is huge!  Worth seeing, but a tiny bit ‘over the top’ for me somehow.  We were starting to wilt in the 100 degree heat again, and that water looked inviting, but we had to press on.  

We had tried to get tickets to go up inside the Washington monument.  (You have to get them online and they open at 10 a.m. the day before you want to go.)  We were in Historic Jamestown all huddled up with 4 of us trying to get tickets, but they were gone before we could get them loaded into the ‘cart’.  Literally at 10:03 they were all gone.  Bummer.  We did, however, have timed entry tickets to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  Then they did away with timed-entry tickets.  Sigh.  Erin had gone to a lot of trouble to get those tickets (they become available 30 days ahead) while I was at Scout camp.  

We arrived at the American History Museum on the verge of heat exhaustion.  When we got inside, we just collapsed on the carpet on the ground floor and sat there drinking cold water and fanning ourselves for a half hour.  Some of us might’ve laid down on the carpet.  We didn’t really care.  When we felt like we could, we got up and started touring the museum.  It was really fun to see ‘Old Glory’ (the flag that inspired the National Anthem), Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, Abraham Lincoln’s hat, George Washington’s chair, an original Bob Ross painting, and so much more!  Again, if you were doing it ‘right’ you’d plan an entire day in there.   

As we came out, we decided to hit the ever-present ice cream trucks.  This was an excellent idea.  We sat on the little wall in the shade and ate ice cream.  Ahhhhh!  

 But we also had timed tickets for the International Spy Museum.  So off we went.

It was a good walk down to the museum, but we arrived 10 minutes early.  This museum had relocated and expanded since Adam and I were there in 2018.  We spent 2.5 hours in there and it wasn’t even close to enough time!  I wish they had a guidebook for sale in the lobby with pictures of the exhibits, because we missed so much!  This museum also deserves it’s own day in your itinerary.  The kids loved it.  When you first go in, you get an identity and codeword. You use those to play a game at various kiosks as you go through the museum.   It was a lot of fun, but we felt like we just didn’t have enough time to see even half.  

Unfortunately, the nearby restaurants closed at the same time as the Spy Museum.  So we decided to do sandwiches in the room again.   Also, the gps took us on a bad route back to the car.  Erin and I ended up carrying the wheelchair down 3 flights of narrow stairs.  Ugh.  My phone says we walked 8.5 miles that day.  

The next day, we got up in time to get to Arlington Cemetery when it opened.  The rumor I’d heard was that it was less crowded at opening time.  Well I’d hate to see it when it was more crowded!  There were several bus tours there already.  But we managed to get on the first tram out to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.   There were 25 funerals scheduled for that day, so the tram had to re-route around one of those. We saw the changing of the guard and looked in the Amphitheater Building a little (sneered a little at the Space Force flag joining the Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, and Coast Guard – I mean, who has given their life for the Space Force?).  It was so very hot!  Hannah and I thought it would be neat to see Justice Ginsberg’s grave, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to walk 30 min. to see it.  We ended up re-boarding the tram and making our way out.  

For lunch, we googled nearby places.  We tried to find a place with a parking lot so that we didn’t have to park in a garage ½ mile away.  We ended up driving wayyyy too far to Alexandria, VA to a Panda Express.  We had to eat quickly in order to make our reserved time at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  

 I had reserved us a parking spot at the same lot as the day before.  (Spot Hero is a WONDERFUL app!!) We parked and walked quickly up to the museum.  It started raining as we were getting close, but the heavy stuff held off ‘till we were safely inside.  That was about all the rain we got on our trip.  The NMAAHC was fan-tas-tic!  Well worth the hype and the trouble to get timed tickets.  Again, I wish we’d saved the entire day for it, though.  Everyone else thought so too.  There was a very long line for the Emmitt Till exhibit, and we just didn’t have time to wait in that line.   The top half of the museum was about African American Culture.   – Just too many names to name!  The bottom half was about history.  You start at the bottom with the Middle Passage and you make your way up the ramps to the next two floors (no exit ‘till you get to the top) as you go through slavery, emancipation, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation, Civil Rights, etc. I wish wish wish we could’ve spent the day in this museum!  We took a whirl through the gift shop (I bought the book I wished the Spy Museum had – i.e. an overview of the exhibits I’d missed.)  but the line for the gift shop was incredible!  They really need to re-think that one!  They had three clerks working, but the line took 30 minutes! 

Our last stop for the day was the National Museum of the American Indian.  Unfortunately, the gps decided to take us on a lap around the Washington Monument.  Honestly, I don’t know what happened.  I knew better than to turn right – should’ve been a left turn out of the NMAAHC, but I listened to the gps.  Dumb dumb dumb.   We got there though in time to see the museum.  This is one of the smaller Smithsonians, but still very, very good.  I recommend it!!   This one I think you could do in an afternoon.  We stayed ‘till closing.  

Walking back to the car, we walked past the turn off to the hotel where Adam and I stayed in 2018.  I knew there was a McDonald’s down there, so we took a vote and “McDonald’s now” won over “drive through on the way to the hotel”.  

We went back to the hotel and waited for darkness to fall.  Then I talked everyone into going back out to see the monuments at night.  I had to promise ‘no walking!’ just seeing from the car, and maybe going to the top of the Lincoln Memorial.  Erin drove and I navigated.  It’s not an easy thing to do!  But eventually we did manage to park in the tour bus parking area near the Lincoln.  A nice policeman showed us where we could park.  It was soooo much cooler and more pleasant!  I think next time, we’ll do all of our monument walking at night!  

Thursday morning we slept in a little.  Our timed entry for Ford’s theater wasn’t until 10:30.  We parked less than a mile away (trying to be convenient to our last stop of the day).  We really enjoyed Ford’s.  I’d never been in.  They had the President’s box open (well, you could stand basically where John Wilkes Booth stood and look through some plexiglass into the box).  The museum downstairs was very good, and an excellent introduction to the Civil War.  So again, I made the kids pay a little more attention since we were headed to Civil War battlefields the next day.  They also have the actual murder weapon on display.  

We had planned lunch for the Hard Rock Café on the same street as Ford’s Theater.  Hannah has been collecting pins from Hard Rock for over a decade.  Erin occasionally buys them too, so we went in several Hard Rock Cafés on this trip. It is an expensive place to eat for 6 people, but the burgers are good.  A splurge for us.  

From Hard Rock, we walked across the Mall to the Library of Congress.  It was a long walk, but very worth it.  (If I had it to do over, I’d put the Library of Congress with the National Museum of the American Indian – they’re closer together.) If you’ve never been in the Library of Congress – what are you waiting for?  Get some plane tickets and get yourself there!  It is my new favorite building in the country.  We just stood there with our mouths hanging open for a long time!  I bought a book with professional pictures and descriptions because it’s just so much to take in!  The building itself is worth the walk, but they also had a Guttenberg (Vellum) Bible on display as well as Thomas Jefferson’s private library on display, and some exhibits on Women’s suffrage and another on ancient maps including THE original Waldseemüller map! (from 1507) Seriously, why haven’t you been?!?  I can’t wait to go back and spend more time there! 

            We, however, had to keep moving.  We had timed entry tickets to the National Archives. We walked past the Capital Building and the Supreme Court Building on our way.  At the National Archives, we couldn’t take our backpacks in with us, so they let us split our group in half.  Erin took Xander and Abby in while the rest of us waited on the steps in the shade.  Then it was our turn.  They didn’t have a lot open –just the main room with the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  But that’s o.k.  -that’s what we came to see anyway.  So super cool!  The documents are so faded, they’re very hard to read.  Remember me mentioning Benjamin Harrison II?  Well his great-grandson, Benjamin Harrison V, signed the Declaration of Independence.  His signature is right there under Thomas Jefferson’s.  (Too faded to see on the original, but I tried!) I’m not descended from BH the 5^th, so he’s a cousin.  But still.  Cool!      For those of you wondering, the gift shop DOES sell full sized copies of the Declaration of Independence, but they are NOT $35.  You can get one WITH the secret code on the back for $17.50.  We did not – even though we watched National Treasure before we left home.  ;-)  

            After the National Archives, we headed back to the hotel for sandwiches.  

            Friday morning we woke up early.  Our goal was to see Manassas, Antietam, and Gettysburg Battlefields all in one day.  (I KNOW!!)   We made our first goal – to be at the Manassas Battlefield when it opened at 8:30.  They have a small museum with overview film as well as a gift shop and Jr. Ranger program.  We went through there and then drove around the Battlefield.  As you probably already know, there are actually TWO battlefields there:  First and Second Manassas (or First and Second Bull Run as you prefer – the North named battles after the nearest city, the South named them after the nearest creek or river).   The history there is really interesting.  Both sides thought this would be the ONLY battle of the war.  Both sides were very naïve and inexperienced.  There were actually spectators at the first battle of Manassas.  They were picnicking and trying to see the battle on the next hill!  We had wanted to have a picknick at Manassas just to be onery, but the timing didn’t work out.  We needed to head on to Antietam.   If you look on a map, Antietam, MD is about an hour and a half straight North of Manassas,VA.  But somehow, someway, our gps took us to West Virginia!!  I still don’t know why – unless there was a major road closed or something.   We found ourselves on the “Journey Through Hallowed Ground” highway, which, honestly, sounds like something only the Daughters of the Confederacy could name it.  Why not, “Journey through a failed rebellion?”  I don’t know, but I don’t like the name.  We drove through Chick-Fil-A in West Virginia and kept on going. 

            We arrived at Antietam a full hour and a half behind schedule.  I knew we’d want to spend a little more time at Gettysburg, so I told the family that we needed to be leaving Antietam at 1p.m.  We had about an hour.     However, it worked out o.k. because the Visitor’s Center had just that day moved to a new, temporary building while the real Visitor’s Center was being re-done.  They hadn’t moved any of the exhibits or the 45 min. film about the Battle (that I really wanted to see – narrated by James Earl Jones) to the temporary building yet.  So we didn’t feel guilty about skipping it.  We did purchase the DVD of the film to watch later.  We drove around the battlefield a little, not stopping really at all other than to point out Dunker Church and some other famous landmarks.  Maybe someday we can go back and get the full experience.  On to Gettysburg, PA!

            Of the three battlefields, Gettysburg certainly gets the most tourist traffic.  They are definitely set up for it too!  The museum is huge (as is the gift shop)! The movie is well worth the price and includes the “cyclorama” which, honestly I thought would be cheesy.  But, in fact, it was well done and worth it.  The Cyclorama is a 42ft. tall, 360-degree painting of the battle.  When you stand in the middle, you are slightly behind the Union lines.  You are looking across the field towards Pickett’s Charge.  Very cool.  The kids were pretty “museumed out”, so we didn’t spend nearly as much time in the museum as we could’ve.   I wasn’t pushing it.  I just wanted them to have an idea of how the Civil War went down, and the movie / Cyclorama had probably told them more than they wanted to know about Gettysburg anyway.  After the museum, we drove around the battlefield.  The map / tour did an excellent job of helping us see how it happened.  You can drive right up on “Little Round top” and other famous places from the battle.  (BTW, if you want an idea of how some of these battles went down, I highly recommend the “American Battlefield Trust” animated map series on YouTube.  They really helped me understand how it all went down.)  

            I know I keep saying it, but it keeps being true.  You could definitely take an entire day for each of these battlefields.  It borders on criminal that we saw all three in ONE day!  (Please don’t tell a real historian!)  Other than the fact that they’re so interesting, I wanted to have a day or two of not walking much in the middle of the trip.  It was nice for all of us to ride around the battlefields in the air-conditioning!  Our feet were pretty sore after Washington D.C.  

            We drove about an hour from Gettysburg to Ronks, PA.  What’s in Ronks, you say?  Nothing I’ve ever heard of.  I picked it because it was halfway between Gettysburg and our next stop.  We got to the hotel in time to go do laundry at a nearby laundromat.  (Top ratings to the laundromat – very high tech, clean and well lit!)  While we were out, the kids ordered pizza from a local vendor.  The hotel was clean.  We were on the second floor, and there was no elevator.  There were, however, three queen beds.  After Washington, D.C., we were very happy.  Breakfast was better, too.  We were right in the middle of Amish Country, and we got to see several horses and buggies going by.  I did not see one ugly horse there.  Gorgeous animals!! 

            The next morning, we headed to Valley Forge “Where it all started”.   Again, they were re-doing the Visitor’s Center (This was like the third one – did the govt. just approve all this?  Was it a Covid thing? <shrug>), so no movie, no museum.  But we did pick up the Jr. Ranger book and a driving tour guide.  This driving tour also had a phone number that you could call for a recorded message about each stop.  Pretty neat.  We didn’t stop at every stop.  But we did go in the model cabins they’d built.  We read that originally there were more than 2,000 of these little cabins.  To give us an idea, the park had cabins scattered all over in groups of 5 or so.  It helped us imagine that this peaceful area was once bustling with soldiers.  They also had George Washington’s original headquarters building.  There was a lot of stuff about Baron Von Steuben.  Valley Forge might be my favorite driving tour of the bunch.  There was also a chapel that was pretty.  It wasn’t original to the 1700’s, but still worth a stop.  When we got to the chapel, a sign read, “Service in progress.  Please do not enter.”  So we looked around outside.  Then a woman in religious (priest?) robes came out and said we could come in.  She explained that there was going to be a funeral, but it didn’t start for awhile and we could look around.  I scanned for a casket, but didn’t see one.  There was a small box near me with a white cloth over it.  The cloth had a cross on it.  I figured it was a communion tray or something.  Nope.  It was the ashes of the funeral-ee.  Then I got VERY nervous because Abby and Xander were just milling around near the box.  I might’ve grabbed them and said, “Time to go!”  I was really nervous they were going to bump into it and spill the contents!  LOL.  

            For lunch, we went to Cracker Barrel.  Unfortunately, it was very crowded and we lost a lot of time waiting for a table.  But we were also tired of fast food and ready for some veggies.  Well, at least I was!  

            After lunch, we went over to Washington’s Crossing Historic Park (Pennsylvania side).  This is a state park and not a national one.  But still, it was pretty good.  There was a movie and small museum.  The museum had a copy of the famous painting.  I’d always thought the ice in the painting was an exaggeration.  Could rivers really do that and you still be able to row across??  But the museum had a color photograph of the river iced-up almost exactly like what’s in the painting!  Cool!!  There were several buildings there as well.  All were closed (covid?) except the boat shed where they had boats like the ones used in the actual crossing.  Lots of detail in the museum about that night and its significance.  From there, we headed to Somerset, NJ.  Why there?  Because it was halfway to our next stop.  There was just one problem.  WE had to cross the Delaware too.  The bridge there at the park was one and a half lanes wide.  But there was two-way traffic.  When I got up there, a large pick-up truck was crossing, so I waited.  The guy behind me went nuts on his horn.  So I tentatively started across.  Erin rolled down the window and pulled the mirror in.  If he hadn’t, we would’ve lost it.  I was doing about 5 mph and it felt too fast.  It was fine to pass a small car, but there were vans and SUVs!!  I ended up scraping the side of the bridge with the van a couple of times.  We had the extra insurance on the rental van, so hopefully it won’t cost too much.  That guy behind me though!  I guess he drives it every day and is tired of tourists.  He sure liked his horn. C’mon dude!  Texas plates! 

            We stopped to pick up a few more groceries, but encountered sticker shock.  $6 for 6 slices of lunch meat?!?  What IS this?  We didn’t buy much.  We arrived at our hotel – which was the nicest of the trip.  Homewood Suites by Hilton.  They didn’t have any rooms with 3 beds left, so they gave us 2 rooms with 2 bedrooms each!  Sweet!  Very nice. Excellent breakfast! Wish we could’ve stayed in Hilton properties for the entire trip!

            We got up the next morning, Sunday, and headed to East Orange, NJ for worship.  Erin had actually been to this church before on a business trip.  The people there were so friendly.  It’s so nice to find friends all over the country who have the same faith!  We drove through Wendy’s (dining room not open) and ate in the car again.  Then we went a mile down the road to West Orange, NJ to the Thomas Edison National Historic Park.  When asked what people wanted to see on this trip, “The Edison Museum” came up as several people’s top 3 choice.  So we had to re-arrange the schedule to fit it in.  It is only open on the weekends.  Why the Edison Museum?  Because we are all “They Might Be Giants” fans, and they have a song about it.  It turned out to be worth the hype.  Edison was certainly a brilliant man.  His library / office was really neat.  He even had a bed in there for naps.  My kind of guy!  We were able to tour through the factory and labs.  The museum is well done.  If you get a chance to see it, please do!  You’ll be glad you did.  My only disappointment was that the Black Moriah (The first movie studio) didn’t turn.  I think they should’ve had it revolving or something.  But I understand why they didn’t – it was a manual operation back then.   The Edison Museum was a hit with everyone!     

            From there, we took a slight detour to the Weehawken Dueling Grounds where Alexander Hamilton was shot.  There’s not much to see there.  The original flat piece of earth on the shore of the river has been paved over, and railroad tracks and buildings have been added.  But there’s a nice bust of Hamilton and a description of the duel and the dueling grounds.  There’s also a decent view of New York City.  Worth a stop, but not worth driving out of the way probably.  From Weehawken, we drove back down to Philadelphia.  (I know – not geographically the best way to do it, but THE EDISON MUSEUM!!!)

            Our hotel in Philadelphia was also a Hilton property.  Very nice!  We didn’t get separate rooms again, but I would still stay there again.  The breakfast was the best so far.  It seems like we picked up fast food on Sunday night, but I don’t remember from where. 

            Monday we were at Independence National Historical park when it opened.  We picked up Jr. Ranger handbooks and started out.  Independence is a large park.  For once, we’d planned a whole day!  LOL.  We walked around and saw Benjamin Franklin’s grave through the cemetery fence (Christ Church Burial Ground was closed).  Then we saw the President’s House.  There’s not a house there anymore.  But there is an excellent exhibit about how enslaved people lived in the house and their role in building our country.  From there we went into the Liberty Bell exhibit.  I’m not really sure why the Liberty Bell is such a symbol, but it was neat to see it.  The ranger was giving a talk about the history of the bell and that was interesting.  

            Next, we decided to find lunch.  We walked over to “The Bourse” which was an indoor food court / shopping area.  There wasn’t much in there.  (Covid?)  But we did find a Philly Cheesesteak stand.  It was expensive!  But it was very good.  

            After lunch, we made our way over to Independence hall.  We had tickets for 2pm.  We were a little early and thought we could see Congress Hall beforehand.  The ranger at the information booth had circled the entrance for Congress Hall, but she’d circled the wrong thing.  We ended up making a very painful lap all the way around the block (we had to lift the wheelchair up and down stairs).  We ended up back where we started and found the acutal entrance through security.  By then we just wanted to sit down.  So we did.  We rested for about 30 min. before time for our tour of Independence Hall. (“Where it all started”.)  [Yes, this was a running gag by this point in the trip.  Every tour leader for two weeks said this phrase at least once.  We started talking about where we think “it” actually started.  Independence Hall is not a bad vote.]  I was thoroughly awed to be in Independence Hall.  Several places where we visited were actually reconstructed or replicas.  This was the. Actual. Room. Where it happened.  Actual chairs and tables.  I could see the chairs and tables where George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, etc etc. (and don’t forget Benjamin Harrison V) sat before signing the Declaration of Independence.  Wow.  

            Afterwards, we went over to Congress Hall.  This is where the first US congress met and where the first peaceful transferal of power (from Washington to Adams) took place.  The furniture is replicated, so they let us all sit down at the tables during the talk.  Still.  They had the speaker’s area roped off, so I’m guessing that was a little more original. Upstairs is another chamber and several committee rooms.  You should see this building if you get a chance.  It’s not as famous as Independence Hall, but it’s just as good! 

            After Congress Hall, we went to the Franklin post office and mailed ourselves some souvenirs with the “B. Free Franklin” postmark.  (Franklin was the first Postmaster General.)  Then we went to the Franklin Museum.  This was an excellent museum.  There were several really cool things in there and lots of hands-on things too.  The kids and adults all loved it.  There was an electrostatic machine (to generate electricity), leyden jars (to store the electricity like a battery), a glass armonica (digitalized so you could play it!), a number puzzle like Sudoku that Hannah, Erin, and Owen all had fun playing, and several other things that were very cool.  This was not an “all-day” museum, but I’d still plan a couple of hours for it. 

            After the Franklin Museum, we walked back over to the Visitor’s Center to hit the gift shop and turn in the Jr. Ranger books.  The ranger there was extra sweet with Abby & Xander.  He really spent a lot of time with them and made them feel super special.  The park had a series of trading cards with founding fathers (and mothers) on them.  Abby & Xander had already collected a few from rangers along the way.  This guy gave them the rest of the set, but told them they had to answer a question to get each one.  He also turned around and said, “Hey John!  We’ve got two new Rangers here!  Come meet Abby & Xander!”  He was just so nice.  He talked to them for probably 15 minutes. 

            I don’t remember what supper was that night.  Probably sandwiches.  

            In 2020, I had purchased an all-access Philadelphia “Go City” card valid for one day.  But now, the places that we’d planned to see to get our value for the card were closed.     So we decided to use them to see the Battleship NJ and do the Hop On / Hop Off Bus tour and take the Ghost Tour of Philadelphia. 

            Because I’ve been involved in BSA for a while, I’ve had the opportunity to tour several battleships.  But Erin and Hannah have not been on one other than the USS Alabama – and that was many (15?) years ago.  They had forgotten how HUGE these ships are!  We spent the morning there, and barely covered 1/3 of the ship!  Abby and I sat down and waited for them to basically run through another 1/3, but then we all had to move on.  

            We ate lunch at Victor’s Pub in Camden, NJ.  It was very good, and a welcome change, though I again got a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich – because why not?! 

            Next we headed back to Philly to ride the Hop On / Hop Off bus.  We parked near the Betsy Ross house and first went in to see that.  It was pretty neat.  I’ve been a skeptic about her actually involvement, but they convinced me.  They presented some pretty good evidence the makes it seem at least likely that she really did sew the first flag.  Her house is still there, and they have it staged out like it would’ve been in 1776.  In her sewing room, they had the flag draped on her chair as though she were in the process of sewing it.   One of the kids said, “I thought the flag wasn’t supposed to touch the floor!”  About that time, Hannah read a sign that said that even though the flag code didn’t exist in 1776, they had put a piece of plastic under the display flag to keep it from actually touching the floor.  LOL.  

            Next, Erin, Hannah, and I walked over a few blocks to see Elfreth’s Alley.  This is just a small street with 200+ year old houses.  People still live there.  There were maybe one or two shops, but we didn’t go in.  Kind of neat to see, but not worth a special trip just for that.  We walked back over to Betsy Ross’s house and caught the Hop On / Hop Off bus.  The bus was pretty good!  We took it over to the Chinatown stop and got off to walk down to Hard Rock Café for a pin.  We should’ve just stayed on the bus for one more stop.  I’d thought we might enjoy looking around Chinatown, but everyone was too hot and tired.  We went in a smoothie place instead and got cold drinks to sip while we walked down to Hard Rock.  After pin shopping, we hopped back on the bus and rode it around.  This guide was better than the first and gave us a really good tour.  I had been debating about getting off at “the Rocky steps” and running up, but everyone was tired and I didn’t want to hold us all up.  But it turns out that the bus was running a little ahead of schedule so our guide told us they were going to wait at that stop for a few minutes to give everyone a chance to take pictures or get ice cream.  So Erin, Hannah, and I took off up the steps.  We ran.  It wasn’t that hard really.  But I tried to take them 2 at a time and my knee said, “nuh-uh” so I just ran regular.  It was fun to do the Rocky pose at the top.    Then we hustled back down and back onto the bus.  I’m not sure how embarrassed the other kids were by our antics.  Maybe they were used to it at this point.  

            After the bus tour, we went back to the hotel to relax for an hour before time to join the “Ghost Tour”.  This tour had really been hyped to us.  Supposedly it’s in the “top 15 things for kids to do in the country!”.  Yeah.  Not so fast.  It was a nice walk around Philly with much nicer temperatures.  We got to see Washington Square, the American Philosophical Society Library (home of Ben Franklin’s ghost), The Bishop White house, City Tavern, First Bank of the United States, Hill-Physick House, Powell House, and St. Peter’s Episcopal church.  There may be more, but those are the ones I remember from a website about Philly’s most haunted places. The guide stopped us at each place to tell stories about that place.  I don’t think any of the stories was particularly scary, but it was a nice way to spend the evening.  I guess they can’t show you actual ghosts.  Certainly not in my top 15 things to do in the entire country, but again, a nice evening – except for the guy we saw peeing in a corner on our way to the tour.  He saw us and said, “Don’t look at me!”  

            It was unfortunate planning that had our latest night out right before our earliest morning.  We left the hotel at 6:30 in order to try to be in New York City around 9 or 9:30.  We did make it to our parking spot around 9 a.m.  Of course traffic was at a standstill trying to get into the city, as well as getting into our parking garage.  (Again, THANK YOU Spot hero!!)  We walked up to Broadway to catch our Hop On / Hop Off bus.  As a country girl, it was already intimidating just being in NYC.  So much concrete!  So many people!! So little sky!  We waited 45 minutes for a bus.  I thought they came every 15 – 20 minutes?!?  Hmmmm.  The app was accurate though.  It said 45 min. and it was 45 minutes.  We finally got on.  This bus had nothing on the Philly one!  No live guide. In fact, the recorded commentary had a lot of holes in it.  No mention of Wall St. or the famous bull statue.  Trinity church might’ve gotten one line.  We basically just pointed at things we recognized so that others could take pictures. I’d give the commentary a D-.    We did get to see One World Trade Center.  We had planned to ride the red line around lower Manhattan, and then switch to the blue line for upper Manahattan.  But we decided pretty quickly that we didn’t have time for that.  So we got off at the place where you catch the blue line and looked for lunch places.  We saw a pizza place, McDonalds, Carlo’s Bakery, and a gyros place.  We decided to walk over to Hard Rock first and get a pin.  Maybe we’d see something else along the way.  It was only a couple of blocks.  By the time we got out of Hard Rock, we had decided on New York pizza.  The pizza was good.  It was a nice place to sit and eat out of the heat and crowd. After lunch, we walked across the street to a small souvenir shop to buy trinkets, magnets, etc.  We also went in Carlo’s Bakery to get pastries.  YUM!! 

Then we got in line for the blue bus which would take us up to see Central Park and upper Manhattan.  We stood there.  And we stood there.  The line wasn’t moving.  Finally, I found a person selling tickets for our bus company.  She told me the blue line was here (closer to her), so I had everyone come up to THAT line.  Then we waited and waited some more.  That line wasn’t moving at all, but now the red line was moving pretty well.  Finally, we looked at our watch and it was 3:30.  We were supposed to be at the pier for our Statue of Liberty cruise at 4:30.  Now we didn’t even have time to ride the bus!!  Grrrr…  We ended up calling an Uber to take us to the pier.  The Uber driver was excellent.  We got to the pier with plenty of time to spare.  We sat on a bench in the shade and ate pastries and read books.  It was a nice break – even though we felt defeated by the bus company and NYC in general.  When it was time, we went down to get in line for the cruise.  We had to stand in the hot sun for 45 min. more.  There was a guy making a killing selling cold water and beer.  The cruise itself was nice.  O.k.  maybe it was a little too crowded.  And maybe the commentator had his microphone turned up way way WAY too loud, and maybe it was his first day on the job and he made some really flat jokes.  But overall, the commentary was informative and interesting.  He did basically tell us that next time we should’ve just taken the Staten Island Ferry because it’s free and goes right by the Statue of Liberty.  (I wonder if he got to come back for a second day after that line!)  But we did get a close-up look at Lady Liberty herself.  I enjoyed the cruise and the breeze on the deck.  

After the cruise, we walked the ½ mile back to the van.  I’m glad we planned a day for NYC, but I sure would never, ever want to live there.  It was just too crushing.  Even if I took the whole bus thing out, I just don’t think I’m cut out for big city life. I felt extremely sad for the dogs I saw there. 

We had a surprisingly easy time getting out of the city at 6pm.  Maybe because we were headed north towards Connecticut?  It didn’t take us long at all to be moving at highway speeds.  We stopped at a service area for gas and Subway.  We waited a long time for Subway, but we weren’t sure how far it was to the next food opportunity.   We spent the night in Meriden, CT.  The hotel there was pretty good. We got there late (for us) and left early, so we didn’t really see much of it.  If I remember correctly, there two queen beds and a sofa bed.  I don’t remember the breakfast at all.  

The next morning, we drove into Boston.  I neglected to mention earlier that a friend of Erin’s from work had loaned us an EZ Pass device to take on the trip.  We used it several times, including getting into New York.  When we came upon a toll gate, the front seat passenger was in charge of holding the device up to the windshield (where it would normally be attached by Velcro) so the toll could be paid electronically.   I was driving into Boston, and Erin was napping.  But two things:  1) I didn’t know he was napping.  2) I’m very accustomed to driving through EZ tag tollways in Houston and not having to do anything at all.  (We have EZ Tag affixed to our windshield, so it’s automatic.)    So, when we came around a curve into the city and I saw a toll gate, at first it didn’t really register.  Then I might’ve yelled, “TOLL! TOLL! TOLL! TOLL! TOLL!”  Erin jumped awake and grabbed the devise.  I’m pretty sure he made it in time.  But we got a good laugh out of it.   A mile or so down the road from there, I saw a sign that said, “Fenway Park next exit” and I said, “Oh, cool, Fenway Park.”  Erin didn’t see the sign and he thought I’d actually seen Fenway Park from the highway, so he started turning around looking for it and nearly missed the next toll! 

Once safely parked in Boston our first stop was the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum (“It all started here!”).  I’m glad we got there when we did!  It turns out, that you have to queue up for a return time.  Who knew?  They certainly didn’t explain it on the website!  We were just planning to go to the museum.  So while in line, we re-worked our schedule and decided to come back and see this last thing in the day so we’d be near our parked car.  (Spot Hero!) We got a 5 pm return time, but the ticket lady told us the gift shop and tea room would be closing at 5.  So we shopped for tea and a model ship and coins and magnets etc. and then went down to the tea room for the tea tasting.  If you like hot tea (and Erin and I do!), this is definitely something you should do.  We tried all the flavors and chose a favorite to sip as we walked to Boston Common.  

It was a pretty good hike over to Boston Common.  When we got there, Erin and I decided to go over and see the Cheers set.  While we were in line at the Tea Party Ships, some ladies from Georgia told us the food at Cheers was expensive and not good.  So we decided to just poke our heads in and see it.  That didn’t work too well either.  It was super crowded.  I got a glance – enough to say, whelp what I saw looked like the set.  On the way back from there, we accidently found the “Make Way for Ducklings” duck statues in the park.  So cool!  We had to wait a while to get a picture without someone else’s kids in it.  

Next stop was the Visitor’s Center “It all started here!”.  We picked up a guide for the Freedom Trail and started out.  The Freedom Trail is a walking tour that includes: The Massachusetts State House, Park St. church, the Granary Burial Ground (Benjamin Franklin’s parents, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Sam Adams among many others), King’s Chapel and King’s Chapel Burial Grounds, Boston Latin School / Benjamin Franklin statue, Old Corner Bookstore (now a Chipotle), Old South Meeting House, Old State House, the Boston Massacre Site, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere’s House, Old North Church, Copp’s Hill Burial Ground, the USS Constitution, and the Bunker Hill Monument.  

We looked at the Massachusetts State House from a distance, decided it was cool looking, but not cool enough looking to make us walk over to it and go inside. We found the red brick path that designates the Freedom Trail and moved on.  When we got to the Granary Burial Ground, a few of us went in.  It was super crowded and there were 3 tour guides in there giving long, long speeches that I basically just rudely pushed my way through so that I could get a quick look.  We didn’t really stop at King’s Chapel other than to read the blurb from the guide we’d purchased.  We took pictures of the outside of the Latin school and Ben Franklin.  By then we were about ready for lunch.  Hannah and I were in a Gyro mood again.  We saw a Mediterranean place that looked good.  The boys were not up for that, but the restaurant they chose turned out to be closed, so they joined us anyway.  There was no room to sit inside, so we went around the corner and sat on the ground in a little cobble-stone alley.  We could see the Old South Meeting House and the Corner Bookstore from where we sat.  We could also see a real bookstore!!  The food from the Gyro place was not that great.  The beef was tough.  Also, there was too much of it.  None of us could finish their Gyro.  Erin tried to offer a homeless guy some food, but he was too stoned to understand what Erin was saying.  Erin said, “Are you hungry?” and the guy said, “uhhhh drugs????”.  So we left it at that.  We did go in the little bookstore.  He had a lot of really old books in there.  If I lived in Boston I would frequent that place.  But my suitcase was heavy enough.  I sure didn’t need to buy more books!  I think Hannah bought a couple of discount books.  

Once again, for Boston I’d purchased (in 2020) an all-access pass good for 60 days from first use.  However, we arrived at the Old South Meeting House (where the Boston Tea Party was planned) to learn that they no longer accept the Go City cards.   They wanted $15 ea. to enter, so we skipped it. We got a little confused looking for the Boston Massacre site (“It all started here!”), so that when we finally found it, we accidently skipped the Old State House (“where it all started”) right behind it. (Which in theory was covered by the Go card.)   I kinda hate that.  Oh well.  The next site was Faneuil Hall.  This is a shopping place / meeting house.  Supposedly the Sons of Liberty frequently met here and first protested the Stamp act here.  We spent some time sitting and cooling off and then moved on. 

As we were walking to the Paul Revere House, we looked down the street and saw the Hard Rock.  What?!  So of course we walked down there so Hannah (and Erin and maybe Xander) could buy pins.  Then we saw the Paul Revere House.  It was pretty neat.  They did a good job presenting it.  I was glad to see the maps and his descriptions.  It was interesting that his own accounts were not consistent.  

The next stop was Old North Church.  It wasn’t completely wheelchair-accessible, but we made it work.  We had to carry the wheelchair up and down a few steps.  I wish they would’ve let people go into the tower where the lanterns were hung.  But I’m sure it’s not safe.  One thing they had that I thought should catch on everywhere – box pews.  Each family has a little area with a door.  The walls are about 4 ft. high.  Still plenty of room to see what’s going on in the front, but with the door, the babies / toddlers could play in the floor and be contained.  Seriously, this idea needs to catch on!  (I guess after 200 years, if it hasn’t caught on by now it isn’t going to.  Sigh.) 

After seeing the Old North Church, we decided that we needed to start walking back to the Tea Party Ships and Museum, and save the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill for Saturday morning.  It was a pretty good walk back, but at least the weather was wonderful with temperatures in the mid-70’s.  We arrived a little early, but they let us go on in and sit down to wait. 

Our trip through the Tea Party Museum was a guided tour.   We started in a ‘meeting room’ designed to represent the Old South Meeting House (see above).  Some of us were given speaking roles and all of us were taught to respond in appropriate 18^th century style to inflammatory remarks.  (booing, hissing, stomping our feet, pounding our fists on the wooden benches, wiggling our fingers in front of our nose while saying “Fie!  Fie!”, etc.)  Our female host (I’ve forgotten her name, but she portrayed an actual woman from the era.) told us the background information, including why the intolerable acts were done and why the colonists didn’t like them, as well as why people attacked those particular ships on that particular day.   “Sam Adams” got up and gave a rousing speech (sounded memorized word for word to me, and it wasn’t a short speech) about how oppressive the British government was being.  We all stomped and booed, and ‘fie-d’.  He worked the crowd up into a frenzy until we were all good and ready to throw some tea into the harbor.  At that point, they led us down the gangplank to the ship with the “tea”.  The “tea” was light enough that Xander and Abby could toss it over.  It was also tied to a rope, so they could haul it back onboard for the next person.  ;-) They did explain on board the ship exactly how heavy the real crates were and how they all worked together to destroy it.  It was very detailed and interesting.  I remember her saying that the chests were lead lined, so they had to chop all of them open so the tea was unrecoverable.  She also said they threatened the ship’s crew who basically just stood aside.  

After a hearty round of tea throwing into the actual harbor, about 100 yards from where it actually happened, we toured the rest of the ship.  They showed us the block and tackle and nets like the ones used to bring the tea up from the hold.  Then we got off the ship and went in to the museum.  This was also guided, but we didn’t mind.  The information was interesting and presented in such a way that my kids are still talking about what a good museum this was.  (And remember how many museums they’d seen at this point!)  One of the neat things they had was an original box from the real Tea Party in 1773.  They had letters from owners telling its story.  One letter was from someone in Knoxville, TN and another was from Corpus Christi, TX.  The chest had been passed down through the generations and used for various things.  It was an interesting story.  

In summary, the “Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum” was expensive, but we all still remember details from it and also remember more about the Boston Tea Party than I think we would’ve otherwise because the whole experience was VERY well done.  

We checked into our Boston hotel which was a Comfort Inn.  It had an unusual configuration:  2 queen beds in the ‘normal’ room, and then a door to a private bedroom with another queen bed.  Sweet!  I think we drove through McDonald’s that night.  It was raining again, and there was a McDonald’s across the driveway from our hotel.  

The next day, we drove down to Plimouth Patuxet Museums (formerly known as Plymouth Plantation).  This was very similar to the Jamestown Settlement.  There was a Wampanoag village and an English village.  The Wampanoag village was more ‘natural’ than the one in Jamestown i.e., they were trying to grow native plants in many more places, and you really felt like you’d left the 21^st century behind more than in Jamestown Settlement which had concrete sidewalks.  (There was still a gravel path that worked for wheelchairs – mostly.  They did offer to let Abby ride in a golf cart if we needed, but we managed with her wheelchair.) The re-enactors, however, were not dressed as Wampanoag people.  Maybe they had costumed re-enactors that came at other times.  We were there right as they opened and it wasn’t crowded.  As we were leaving, a school group showed up.   We had seen the long house and set up before, so we didn’t push the kids to stay long in the village.  We went on down to the craft center which was interesting.  They had pottery and other art and crafts there.  Hannah bought a few things.  Then we continued to the English village.  They had live farm animals and were growing gardens.  We went in a home that was fully furnished.  Then we met two “sisters” (not sure if they were sisters in real life, or just at the museum) who taught us how to play ‘stool ball’.  This is a game similar to Nuke’em, but slower and without a net.  A three-legged stool is used as a target.  The girls were teenagers, and it was nice to see them working there and explaining things.  They remained in character and did a fantastic job.  Erin watched a guy making a fishing net.  Then the villagers were called to have a dance.  I was surprised to learn that they danced!  I have a very strict image of Puritans in my mind, but one of the sisters explained that Plimouth was settled by ‘separatists’ and Boston was settled by Puritans and thus the difference.   We tried our hand at some of the toys and games they had laying out on a table, then we walked up to the fort.  They let you climb up to the second floor and look out.  It was a great view!  They also had a bunch of cannons up there.  Afterwards, we made our way back to the entrance and exited through the very nice gift shops.  

When we entered, they had given us directions to their ship Mayflower II which is down in modern Plymouth.  But there was no map with the directions it simply said something like, “exit the right corner of the parking lot”.  Well, we tried that and ended up pulling out the gps.  When we got to Plymouth the round-about way, we did drive past the other end of the driveway to the museums.  Oh well, it was only a 5 minute detour.  We parked and went over to the ship.  It was pretty neat, and yes, it’s smaller than you think.  By now, we’d been on four of these old three-masted ships, so we may not have been as excited as we should’ve been.  But we still enjoyed it.  Then we walked over and saw “Plymouth Rock”.  Or at least a piece of a rock that someone picked in the 1700’s to be the traditional landing place of the Pilgrims.  The rock has an interesting story, but it is honored now.  Hey, don’t judge, it was free!  

Then we looked for lunch places.  I tried to talk the group into one of the little stands there across the street from the Mayflower II, but no dice.    We ended up driving into town for McDonald’s.  ugh.  McDonald’s twice in two days.   We ate lunch on the way to Lexington.  The small towns of Lexington and Concord are the two ends of Minute Man National Historical Park (“It all started here!”).   This park was very well done, and I truly wish we’d had a day or two to see more of it.  Instead, we had an afternoon.  We started at the National Park Visitor’s Center.   A Ranger gave a brief talk called, “Battle in a box”.  It was a great overview and helped the kids understand what we were about to see.  Then we drove into Lexington and saw the ‘green’.  (Interestingly, when I went in the Lexington Visitor’s Center to get the kids’ passports stamped, they had an exhibit about the USS Lexington, which our Scout groups have spent the night on!  Cool!)  So, some people would say it all started on Lexington Green.  But no one knows who fired that first shot.  The Colonists weren’t ordered to fire and they mostly ran away when the British opened fire.  From Lexington, we began a driving tour.  We only stopped at Paul Revere’s capture sight, and then headed on down to Concord.  There were a lot of places to walk to, but we were getting tired.  It would be particularly fun to walk the entire distance from Lexington to Concord (about 5 miles), but no way were my kids going to do that! We missed a lot of historic houses along the trail.  Nevertheless, we arrived at the Concord Visitor’s center where they had a short film and small museum.  Then we drove down and parked near the Old North Bridge.  The bridge is there as well as a monument.  In my thinking, this is truly “where it all began” because here was where the rebels were ordered to fire at the British for the first time.  

From the Old North Bridge you can see “The Manse”, a home where Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson both lived.  Probably why Emerson wrote “The Concord Hymn” (which contains the line “the shot heard round the world”) for the dedication of the monument that is still there.  

In fact, we could’ve spent a lot of time going to authors’ houses.  We drove past several.  We just didn’t have time.  Louisa May Alcott lived nearby, and “The Wayside” (where Alcott, Margaret Sidney, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all lived at some point) is there.  Emerson had a house in Concord called the “Bush”.  Walden pond is nearby.  Etc. 

After seeing the Old North Bridge, we went back to the hotel to order pizza.  Well, most of us had pizza.  Erin wanted to make sure he got some clam chowder while in Boston.  He did a little research and then drove over to pick up his takeout order.  I’ve had clams before and they were o.k.  – not too fishy.  Erin offered to let me try his chowder, but it smelled like fish to me, so I turned it down.  He said it was o.k. but not great.  I’m 100% certain there were restaurants nearby with excellent clam chowder.  But when you start trying to read reviews, EVERY restaurant has the best clam chowder.   I enjoyed my pizza.  LOL.  

We spent some time that night trying to get everything packed up in such a way that the suitcases would be under 50 lbs.  

The next morning we loaded everything up and headed back into Boston.  We decided to finish the Freedom Trail by visiting Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution.  (Fyi, There’s a parking garage near the Constitution that charges a flat rate with a parking validation from the National Park.)  We walked up to Bunker Hill.  There had been a lot of conflicting information – with some places saying Bunker Hill museum was closed but the monument was open, and other sites said the opposite: monument closed, museum open.  Turns out, the inside of the monument was closed, but you could still go up and look around outside, and the museum was open. 

The ranger in the museum was impressed by how many pages of NPS stamps the kids had collected.  He talked to us for a long time about our trip and scouting.  He mentioned that he loved his job and loved seeing families come in to learn about history.   I have to say that, before the trip, I mentally prepared myself for the people to be brusque or rude.  I’d heard stories of Southerners visiting up North who were ridiculed and mocked for their accents.  This did not happen to us at all! (Not even in New York!)  Of course, we were at tourists sites and people were making money off of us….  The NPS Rangers that we met were thrilled we were there and even more thrilled that we were interested enough to do the Jr. Ranger things and ask questions.  Erin noticed that many, many people up North wanted to ‘corner’ us and talk for a long time about their particular thing.   It was good to see people who loved their job!! 

The museum had a good display about the Battle of Bunker Hill (which was really on Breed’s Hill – nobody knows who first confused the names).  It’s an interesting story if you want to look it up.  The rebels really surprised the army by holding out so long!  

From Bunker Hill, we walked back down to the Charlestown Navy yard which is still part of the Boston National Historical Park.  The USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) is here, as is the USS Cassin Young.  We went through the small museum there.  They had a good exhibit on the women of Charlestown Navy Yard who built ships during World War II.   Then we went on the Constitution and explored there.  It is operated by the US Navy, so there were sailors aboard to show us around.  We had been on replica ships on this trip, but this was the actual USS Constitution.  (Yes, it had been repaired and modified here and there, but still the same basic ship.)  You could go down two levels inside.  Pretty cool!  It was spotlessly maintained and smelled like the paint the military uses, and Brasso. (If you know, you know.)  We spent a good amount of time on there because it was so cool.  

Nearby was the USS Constitution Museum.  However, most of us were museumed out.  Erin wanted to go in.  The suggested donation was $10, and I didn’t think I’d get $10 out of it, so even I waited outside.  Erin came back afterward and reported that at least Xander should’ve gone in – he said there were lots of hands-on exhibits that he thought Xander would’ve enjoyed.  Oh well, the rest of us enjoyed sitting outside in 70 degree weather!  

From the Navy Yard, we headed to the airport to fly home.    We had had a fantastic trip, but we were worn out!  We were all ready to get home and sleep in our own beds!  Adam picked us up at the airport at 11 p.m. (or so – it’s all a little fuzzy!) and we got in bed around 1 a.m.              (Erin was preaching at the Highway 290 congregation the next morning, so the night passed very quickly!)  

I’m so glad we finally got to do this trip, and the memories and ‘memes’ from this trip will be with us for many years.  I think all Americans should see at least Washington D.C., so I’m really glad my kids have all gotten to do that!  It also worked out that we timed the trip between Covid surges.  The Delta variant was just starting to mushroom as we were in the final few days of the trip.  Places were just starting to require masks again for vaccinated people.  When we got home, we had a one week turn-around time before leaving to take Owen to school in Tampa.  So finally the timing worked out for us!  

If you’ve read this far, you really are bored congratulations!  Just be glad I didn’t make you sit through the slideshow!!