Monday, August 24, 2009

Vacation 2009 Part 2

Tues. up at 8am, breakfast at hotel, here we go again. The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg doesn't open until 10am so were not in any rush to get going this morning. 10Am The National Civil War Museum, we were the first through the doors. The Americans sure do history in a big way. I guess if we (Canadians) had to fight for our freedom we would have a different outlook on history as well. We are off to the Wildwood Lake Sanctuary to see the butterflies. For some reason the butterflies didn't want to be seen and they were outside. We expected to take a walk through a butterfly cage like the Calgary Zoo butterfly enclosure, don't believe everything you read in a brochure. The Wildwood Lake Sanctuary is free, paid by local tax dollars. We went to the Antique Auto Museum in town and had a good viewing of some very old cars. After the Museum we went to the Hershey Mall and bought some shoes. We looked at clothing but the prices are really not that much different than home. We ate lunch at Subway and now were on the way to Gettysburg. We have covered 2092km so far. While driving to Gettysburg, PA we traveled over a lot of concrete roads and there was a lot of roadwork. 2:10 we went to the Gettysburg, PA military museum. The Gettysburg museum is primarily dedicated to the three days of battle in the town of Gettysburg, PA. The Gettysburg museum has more information than the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. After the museum we traveled the local roads and you can see where the battles actually took place. There are monuments with the name of the division and the number of fallen solders. There is a graveyard not far from the museum where the fallen are buried.

4:15pm we enter Maryland and at 5:30pm we made it to Washington, DC just in time for rush hour traffic. “John” brought us into town and had us going in circles, I made an illegal left turn on a yellow light and screamed tourist as I went through. We made it to the Hotel Harrington and used our coupon book to get a room on the 6th floor. The view from the room was less than spectacular and I had visions of seeing spider man hanging on the exterior walls. We looked out into a mechanical courtyard of mechanical units, pipes and exhaust vents, just like some of the scenes in spider man. We had to go park our car in a lot a few blocks away as they don't have parking on site and on the way by the front desk I inquired about upgrading our room for a better view. After we parked the card and made it back to the hotel we were upgraded for free to a corner unit on the tenth floor. The Hotel Harrington is definitely not a new hotel but it has clean beds and a good working shower and extremely friendly front desk and cleaning staff. The Hotel Harrington is located at the corner of 11th & E Streets, N.W, a ten minute walk to the heart of the National Mall. There is a weird smell in the lobby of the hotel, seems to be either the laundry or the restaurant nearby.

Wed. up at 7:30am, couldn't wait to hit the “Mall”, Arlene wouldn't let me run ahead. We were headed to the Lincoln memorial and passed by the WWII memorial and the reflecting pool on the way. The Lincoln memorial is just as it is on T.V. who new! We walked all over the “Mall” , we stopped at the Vietnam Memorial and Constitution Gardens. Our first Museum was the Holocaust Museum, upon entering you have to get a free timed ticket for entry. We got our tickets and had an hour to wait but there are three other mini museums regarding the holocaust in the same building. We toured the other exhibits and were awe struck by the lengths the German government used propaganda to make the citizens believe that what the Nazi's were doing was a good thing. We heard the story of Dan who was a child when the Germans evaded Poland and started sending people to concentration camps. Imagine a school, say the school you were in when you were six. Well the number of children that the Germans killed was equal to your school a day for eight years. The Holocaust museum was definitely and eye opener especially in seeing all the information up close. We were now off to the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art. There were a lot of children on supervised trips in the museums and each group of children had all the children wearing the same colour t-shirts. There were children running around with oversized purple, orange and green t-shirts all day. Before you could enter a Museum you had to show picture ID, walk thru a metal detector and either have your purse searched or put your belongings on a conveyor belt just like at the airport. We stopped by the Canadian Consulate while walking along Pennsylvania Avenue heading back to our hotel. We had supper at the Hard Rock Cafe and our waiter was Jay and he showed us a fabulous time. We had beef nachos, beer and fruity drinks and were able to keep the glasses. After supper we tried to get a closer look at the White House but that was easier said than done. On the way to the White House we passed some local young men playing hockey in the 34C high humidity. A delivery truck arrived at a side road to the White House and the driver had to get out of the truck and open the hood while a secret service officer and a dog searched the inside and outside of the truck. We took a bicycle carriage ride back to the hotel which was well deserved due to all the walking we had done today.

We were in bed by 9pm and up at 7:30am, downstairs for breakfast and off to the National Air and Space Museum. We saw a replica of the Wright Brothers airplane and the spirit of St. Louis. There were a myriad of airplanes, space capsules and satellite models in the museum. We were told that there was another Air and Space Museum four times the size out at Dulles Airport, so after we check out we will check it out. 12:30pm National Aquarium, which was not a really great experience, kind of like the butterfly experience, don't believe what you read in a brochure. We wen to Arlington National Cemetery but with all the walking we had done yesterday and today we didn't get out of the car. 1:30pm we were at the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport and boy is it big. There are dozens and dozens of aircraft hanging all around like models in a kids bedroom. There is a concord jet and WWI and WWII planes on display and many other types of aircraft. 3Pm on the road to Somerset, PA, 2555km since leaving home. There are a lot of trucks on the road and Arlene was surprised with the number of women drivers driving those trucks. 6:30pm arrived in Somerset, PA at ate at the Pine Grill which had a few interesting items on the menu; Orange Ruffy (fish) and Calves Livers.

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