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.