Traveling through Michigan

After a wonderful week at "The Ark", we turned the coach west and headed for Michigan. It only took $67.00 in tolls to get out of New York state! With those fees, you'd think the roads would be in great shape - NOT! I had to go hide in my soft nest on the bed to keep my teeth from chattering.

After one night in Ohio, we stopped in Frankenmuth, MI (just south of Saginaw). My humans tried to do some window shopping and see some of the quaint German town, however a big thunderstorm came up so they settled for going to the Bavarian Village Inn for dinner. So many choices, all the wonderful German dishes, and all you can eat fried chicken, not to mention the desserts, yum, yum.

Next stop was Mackinaw City. They took a boat out to Mackinac Island to tour the Island and Fort Mackinac. The Fort was very interesting, and the guides were dressed in period costumes. They also did several re-enactments during the day which were very interesting and informative. There was a court martial, rifle and cannon firing, music and dancing. No cars are allowed on the island. The only way to get around is walking, bicycling, or by horse drawn carriage. Arriving passengers who are staying over at one of the hotels on the island are met by bell boys with bicycles or horse carts who take their luggage for them. Deliveries for the stores and restaurants are made by horse drawn wagons. After returning from the island, they visited Colonia Michilimackinac which was the location of the original fort and the Point Mackinac Lighthouse.

View from Fort Mackinac

View of Fort Mackinac from the harbor

Two of the wonderful tour guides at Ft. Mackinac

The famous Mackinac Bridge which spans the two peninsulas of Michigan, is five miles long, and is the world's longest total suspension bridge. There is 42,000 miles of wire in the main cables. As we drove north across the bridge, Lake Huron was on our right, and Lake Michigan was on our left. The scenery along Lake Michigan on the upper peninsula was very beautiful, and made for a pleasant drive as we headed for Wisconsin.

You may have noticed that I've used two different spellings for Mackinaw.......one is English, the other French. They are pronunced the same, but are not interchaneable. It would be incorrect to write Mackinac City or Mackinaw Island??? Very confusing for a little kitty.


Horses and bicycles on the mail street.

Island style taxi

Mackinac Point Lighthouse

The Ark

We just spent a wonderful week in relative peace and quiet at "The Ark", in Saratoga Springs, NY. That's where John's niece Tamara lives with her husband Bobby. I say relative peace and quiet because they have 3 cats, 2 dogs, and a parrot. Buster the parrot is very talkative, and just loves to whistle and scream. The dogs, Niall and Blue don't bark much, but Blue did bark at me a couple of times, and I just don't like that! The cats, Sammy, Pippi, and Jello (I know, Jello?, don't ask) wouldn'thave much to do with me. Every time they saw me, they ran the other way.

I had a chance to practice my hunting skills in the woods, and take long walks around the property with John. When Tamara wasn't at work, she and Peggy spent time beading and scrapbooking. One day they went to the Saratoga Springs Spa and had saunas, mineral baths, and hour massages (sorry, no cameras allowed). Another day it was off for pedicures. So now you see why I had so much trouble getting Peggy to sit down and type for me! Bobby got John to help mow part of the lawn one day which reminded John why they gave up a house and yard for full time RVing.

We celebrated John's birthday while there, and Tamara had lobster shipped in for the occasion. Guess it was pretty good - but they didn'tsave any for me, so I just have to take their word for it.

Second Week in D.C.

Trying to get Peggy to sit down and type the blog for me is getting harder and harder. She says she just too tired from all the sightseeing!

The second week in D.C. started off with a bang - literally, as they joined a group of retired policemen from California, whom they had met at the RV park, for the fantastic Capitol 4th Celebration on the Washington Mall. They had a super location in front the Capitol building where they listened to the concert put on by the Beach Boys, the Washington Sympony, and a military band. An extra bonus was being there early and getting to hear the Beach Boys practice. The gals were all a titter. Seems as though the Boys ran through almost all the songs they've ever recorded, not just the few they played for the live broadcast.

Can you imagine John in a crowd of 500,000? It really wasn't that bad, and it was a very orderly exit from the Mall to the Metro, and they were back at the RV park an hour after the festivities.

Group from California we met at Cherry Hill. We all went to the Capitol 4th together.

Peggy giving her tired feet a rest. The gals had all been dancing to the Beach Boys, who were practicing for the evening concert.

It was really gooseflesh time, listening to the patriotic music, standing on the Capitol lawn, and watching the fireworks go off over the Washington Monument, with the Lincoln Monument in the distance.

Just a few of the 500,000 that John & Peggy joined on the Capitol Mall for the July 4th celebration.

After the excitement of the 4th, it was back to seeing more of the wonderful sites in D.C. One of Peggy's favorite places was Ford's Theater. It's the original building and has been restored and maintained just as it was when Lincoln was assinated by John Wilkes Booth.

The Presidential box in Fords Theatre.

The topcoat and clothes that Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot. The door in the background is the door to his private box. This is just a small part of the display in the basement of Ford's Theater.

The shuttle Enterprise. This was the shuttle used for training astronauts to fly the shuttle. Just one of many aircraft at the newest addition to the Air & Space Museum, The Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport. They have one of the Concords on display, the Enola Gay, an SR71 Blackbird, the first Fed Ex jet, and Russian, German, and Japanese fighters. It's a display you have to see to believe.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first U.S. president to fly aboard a helicopter in this U.S. Airforce H-13J on July 12, 1957. Not at all like the helicopters used today to ferry presidents to Camp David and Andrews Air Force Base.

And yet another Smithsonian museum - the American History Museum. It was amazing to see all of the exhibits - from all the First Ladies Ignauration gowns to Eisenhower's notated state of the union address in the presidential area, to the American flag draped over the Pentagon on Sept. 12, to a hugh locomotive, and a semi-truck in the American on the move exhibit.

Would you believe........this is one of the file cabinets from the Watergate breakin.

No trip to the D.C. area would be complete without a visit to Annapolis, and a tour of the Naval Academy.

The plebes just entering the Academy, were going thru their basic training while John & Peggy were there. They will be the Class of 2009.

Peggy standing in front of Tecumseh located in front of Bancroft Hall in T-Court. Ole Tecumseh, "lord of football games" and "god of 2.0" gets painted by the mid-shipmen on special occaions - he's been painted with flowers and flags.

After being lost for 100 years, John Paul Jones' boby was found in London and returned to the U.S. He is now entombed under the Chapel on the Naval Academy grounds.

Washington, D.C. - Our Nation's Capital

Wow! Have my humans been doing the tour thing. I've seen very little of them since we've been in DC. They are up and off every morning and don't come back until late afternoon. Usually with very tired feet!

The first day here, they took a drive down to Mt. Vernon (George Washington's plantation home). It was a very beautiful drive on the George Washington Parkway which runs along the Potomac River.

The following day they learned to navigate the city using the wonderful Metro system. (car has remained at the RV park.) After arriving at Union Station just a couple of blocks from the Capitol building, they hopped aboard the Tourmobile, and started a narrated tour of the major sites and monuments in D.C. The tour took them to Arlington Cemetery, where they saw the grave sites of John F. Kennedy and Jackie O. Buried just over from JFK, is brother Bobby. Both are on the side of the hill just down from Arlington House.

Robert Kennedy's gravesite on lawn below Arlington House. Arlington House was the home of Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Custis (step great-granddaughter of George Washington). The most moving part of this tour, was watching the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers . This tomb is guarded 24/7 by the honor guard. If you would like to know more about the Tomb and the guard, check out this web site. Tomb of the Unknowns

The changing of the guard ceremony was very impressive. We got
two for one, as they also had a ceremony to change the wreath.

The next day they went back to spend more time at some of the major monuments - Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Vietnam, WWII. All of the monuments are quite impressive, and beyond verbal description. You just have to see them in person. They are so enormous, and tell a lot of the story of our country's history.

World War II Monument looking toward the Washington Monument.

World War II Memorial looking toward the Lincoln Monument.

The hundreds of articles left at the Wall are collected
by the Park Service each night, cataloged, and stored.

One afternoon after touring the monuments, they hopped on another Metro train and went to Old Town Alexandria, just across the Potomac in Virginia. They visited Christ Church, the first Episcopal church in America. They saw the pew George Washington purchased for his family, and where they worshiped. This is also where the funeral service for Washington was held. Washington's town home was in Alexandria, and has been rebuilt on the lot he bought in 1763. Many of the bricks and stones from the original house were excavated from the site and used in construction of the replica.

George Washington's town house in Old Town Alexandria

After that John said he'd had enough sightseeing and was getting quite thirsty. This led them to Gadsbys Tavern.Well, old George, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams may have drank there, but not now! It's just a restaurant today, so they had to find another place, and ended up in a great Irish bar where they met a lot of really nice locals.

I can almost taste that cold beer.

Another day, they made their way to Chinatown to check out a barbecue restaurant they had seen on a Food Channel special on great places for barbecue. Go figure, barbecue in Chinatown???

On Thursday, they went off to have coffee with their senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison. Since they arrived at the Senate office building early, they went to the coffee shop in the basement and had great fun watching some very well know Senators coming to work!

Sen. Hutchison was a delightful person, as was her entire staff.
John was a big hit, of course, because he wore his great Texas shirt.

Waiting to meet Sen. Hutchison.

After coffee and having a chance to chat with Senator Hutchison, and getting their picture taken with her, a member of her staff took them on a tour of the Capitol. Peggy says it gave her goosebumps to stand in the Rotunda of the Capitol where Lincoln, Kennedy and just recently Regan, had lain in state.

Ceiling of the rotunda of the Capitol. Painting is of
George Washington ascending into heaven with angels around him.

After the tour, they had passes to the Senate gallery, so they sat and listened to some rather boring speeches. It was interesting however, to see our government at work. As they were leaving the Senate building, Senator Robert Bird was coming in. John and Peggy stepped aside to let him pass, but he would have none of that. He wanted to know who they were, and where they were from. When John said from Texas, Sen. Bird, said, well that's okay, I've some friends that are from there! Peggy said even through they do not agree with any of his positions, and he can be a real jerk, he was a very personable gentleman, and was a delight to speak with. Of course, John she's a bit swayed by the fact that he called her a "pretty little thing"!

Here we are being tourists in front of the White House. This is
the lawn where the helicopter lands to pick up the President.

Friday found them touring the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It is really an awesome place....they even have a piece of the moon that you can touch! After four hours and some very tired feet, they gave it up and headed back to the RV park.

Apollo lunar suit worn by one of the astronauts on the
moon. What looks like dirt is actually moon dust on the suit.

Saturday was a relaxing day. An old friend of Peggy's from Xerox, Bruce Loggie, came over and they all drove up to Baltimore for lunch. Bruce had to get back to DC, but John & Peggy took some time to walk around the Inner Harbor and see all the sights.

Peggy and her friend Bruce at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

John and Peggy on the Inner Harbor dock. The hill across the harbor
is Fort McHenry, whose resistance to a 25 hour bombardment during the
War of 1812, is what inspired Francis Scott Key to write our National Anthem.

And of course, do you think they could leave a town with a Railroad Museum without visiting? They got to see one of the big locomotives that pulled the American Freedom Train. This was a train that toured the US in 1976, celebrating our country's 200th anniversary.

American Freedom Train