Colonial Williamsburg

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
Back to Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area.  Williamsburg was the capitol of  British Virginia before it was a state.  It had significant impact in gaining independence from Britain in the Revolutionary War.   This is a living history area with many actors in period costumes playing their parts in gaining independence from Britain.  Most of the buildings have been recreated from historic records as the originals had been destroyed.     We toured the old Capitol Building, the jail, a tavern, and a few other buildings before having a Virginia Ham & Cheese sandwich for lunch.  

Capitol Building

Fifes & Drums March, and yes, they did play Yankee Doodle.

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Moving On

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Marsha Brecht

There is so much to see and do in the Washington DC area, we could have stayed two weeks longer and gone through all the wonderful Smithsonian museums and saw more monuments and memorials.   However, it’s freezing overnights now and we really want to go further south where it should be warmer.  What we did see was wonderful, but now we’ll have to save the museums for next year or another time.

Off we go, heading down I-95 to Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Not wanting to pay for sleeping we pulled into a Walmart parking lot.  We always ask permission, and they said it was no problem.  One other RV pulled in and parked behind us during the night.
Walmart
Just across the Virginia border there is a very nice welcome center with this LOVE sign in the yard.  Virginia is for Lovers is the tourism and travel slogan of Virginia.
 
At Virginia Welcome Center
After checking our Passport America directory for a member RV park we found one near Williamsburg that was open and provided the half price discount over the weekend.  I got a kick out of the speed limit signs they have posted.
3.2 ???
Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, called the “Historic Triangle”, is where America began and survived.  We purchased a multi-day pass to these now tourist attractions and will see what we can in the next few days.  Last year we did visit Jamestown and Yorktown.  I’m not sure yet whether we will see them this trip or not.
 
Governor’s Palace
It was kinda late in the day when we got there, but we did have time to tour the historic Governor’s Palace in the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area.  Back tomorrow.
 
When we got back to our RV we realized we may be in for a bumpy night.  There is a noisy busy road right behind us and a train track not far in front of us.  Hmm, seems like there is a train passing by every 30 minutes and shakes the motor home when it does.
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US Capitol Visit

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
When Union Station was built in 1907 it was the largest train station in the world.  Now I think it’s the 3rd Largest.  We thought we would take the train to Union Station in DC for the day.  Somehow we got on the wrong road, missed the exit, and then decided to just drive in.  I don’t recommend doing that.  DC is a nightmare to drive around in.  Anyway, we did manage to find a free parking spot and then took the Old Town Trolley to Union Station to see it.  They are doing some repairs, so there was scaffolding and netting about. 
Union Station
Next we went to the Capitol for a tour.  Just as we arrived at the Capitol steps the cops pulled over a car and gave the driver a sobriety test while we watched, hahaha.   
Walk The Line Mister
Capitol tours are free and this time of the year there is no waiting; no lines.



Inside the Capitol Rotunda under the dome.
Looking up into the Capitol dome.
Former Supreme Court Chamber 1810-1860
In order to view the Senate and the House of Representatives (currently in session) we would have had to have gone to the office of our Senator or Representative to get tickets.  We did not do that.  We did stop for a piece of carrot cake in the Capitol cafeteria.
The US Capitol Christmas tree was just brought in a few days ago and crews were just putting it up today.  It looks wayyyyy better than the sad looking National Christmas Tree in front of the White House.

US Capitol Christmas Tree

We stopped at the Capitol Gift Shop and purchased this as our souvenir:
2011 Capitol Christmas Ornament
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US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
Our mission today was to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  On the way there we walked past the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  This is where your money is made.  There are tours, but no free samples.  There is so much to see and do around here that I don’t know if we’ll make it to this one this year or not.  I would love to see it.

Bureau of Engraving and Printing

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.. wow..what an experience.  We spent over four hours viewing the exhibits and the memorial inside.  Very well done.  There is even a German railcar in there that you walk thru.  Photography is not allowed so I can’t share it with you.  It begins with explaining the power of Nazi propaganda and how it all began and then how it all ended.  Free admission.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

“We who did not go their way owe
them this:  We must make sure that
their deaths have posthumous
meaning.  We must make sure that
from now until the end of days all
humankind stares this evil in the
face…and only then can we be sure that
it will never arise again.”
—Ronald Reagan
Matzo Ball Soup

Smithsonian Castle

Next we went to the Smithsonian Castle to view the orientation video about all the Smithsonian museums.  There are 19 of them, 17 in this area.  And they are all free.  They all look fantastic and I want to see them all, but that probably isn’t going to happen this year.  All of the museums and monuments in Washington DC are free admission.

Christmas Tree Inside the Smithsonian Castle

IBM Selectric Typewriter.
WHY is this in the Smithsonian???
I am feeling old now.
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Washington DC, Day 2

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Marsha Brecht

I forgot to include the picture of the Vietnam Memorial wall we saw yesterday.
Vietnam Memorial
Yesterday we walked everywhere, but today we took the Old Time Trolly Tour.  Here are some pictures from today:

Old Town Trolley Tour

Giant Panda at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park

Occupy DC

The White House

The Short and Pathetic Looking National Christmas Tree

President Kennedy Grave and Memorial



HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD



Arlington National Cemetery
624 Acres




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Washington DC

Posted on November 27, 2011 by Marsha Brecht

The weather forecast was for a beautiful day so we decided to go in to DC today after all.  Sunday morning is very quiet in the capitol city.  And they don’t enforce the parking meters on Sundays.  So we had no problem getting to the capitol and parking along the street.  Oh my gosh, we were a bit overwhelmed by it all.  There is so much to see here we could spend a week here and not see it all.  Our plan today was just to walk around and see what we could see and then possibly return tomorrow and take a tour or go inside some of the buildings. 
The first thing we saw was the Capitol Building.  No tours on Sunday.  Tickets are required and can be obtained by contacting your member of Congress.  There is a visitor center, but that was closed on Sunday too.  We’ll have to come back.



The Capitol Building



Next to the capitol building is the U. S. Botanic Gardens.  They are currently having a special display of buildings of the National Mall and Capitol Hill created by landscape architect Paul Busse.  The architectural details on the buildings are created with dried plant materials.



Capitol Building in Plant Material



Next to that building is the Hirshhorn Museum of modern and contemporary art.  We chose not to go in as there is so much more we want to see today.
Hirshhorn Museum
There are SEVENTEEN Smithsonian museums in the Washington DC area.  The Castle has a visitor orientation theater and information about all the other museums.
Smithsonian, The Castle
Eventually we made it to the Washington Monument.  It’s still closed to the public because of the damage it received from the 5.6 earthquake back in August.  Too bad, I would have loved to look out from the top.
Washington Monument
World War II Memorial
And then the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial



Out of the Mountain of Despair A Stone of Hope



Korean War Memorial



Abraham Lincoln Memorial
View from Lincoln Memorial overlooking the Reflecting Pool
that is being reconstructed.
Ooh, there is so much more, I just can’t put it all in today’s blog.  I took 100 pictures today.  And we still did not see the White House!  Hopefully, Tomorrow.
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Greenbelt National Park

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
What a beautiful day it turned out to be, upper 60’s and sunny.  We left New Jersey early this morning and headed down I-95 South.  Crossing the big Delaware Memorial bridge is expensive.  The toll to cross it was $20 for us!  Ouch.
Delaware Memorial Bridge
There’s a really nice service center in Delaware that we stopped at.  One of the nicest one’s we’ve been in.  They’re ready for Christmas.



Merry Christmas



Pretty



Greenbelt Park is a small National Park just 12 miles north of Washington DC.  It’s where we are staying for tonight and tomorrow night.  It’s only $8 a night for us!!  Awesome.  It’s a nice wooded park with lots of deer.  We plan to visit the Nation’s Capitol, but think we’ll wait until the weekend is over and go on Monday. 
White Tail Deer
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Back to New Jersey

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
After breakfast this morning we went to Teresa’s to retrieve Marble and headed back south to where we had left the motor home in New Jersey.  Marble has adjusted to travel and has no problem riding in the way back of the car. She didn’t appear stressed but did not leave the cat carrier.
Marble in the Trunk
We were amused by the attempt to disguise a few of the cell phone towers as big trees.  Other than that the ride home was uneventful.
Cell Phone Tower/Tree
I collect smashed penny’s as souvenirs when we travel.  It’s way cheaper than buying coffee mugs.  I found this one at a rest area in New York.
World Trade Center, New York

My Smashed Penny Collection
We had left our motor home in the parking lot of a Camping World store in New Jersey while we had gone to Connecticut with the car.  We’ll spend the night in it tonight and leave tomorrow morning.  Another motor home just drove up and parked beside us a few minutes ago.
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Thanksgiving Day

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
I haven’t been able to blog for the last few days as I’ve been having internet issues.
We left Elk Neck State Park on Monday morning and drove to New Jersey where we found a place where we could park the RV for a few days.  New York City is between where we were and where we wanted to be and the idea of driving the RV back that way again did not appeal to us, as well as we were unable to find any RV parks that were not already closed for the season in that area.  So, we put the cat in the car and drove up to see Teresa in New Haven, Connecticut, for the holiday. 
Our Thanksgiving dinner was at Hometown Buffet.  For those of you in Minnesota it is a sister chain to Old Country Buffet, owned by the same company.  After stuffing ourselves we went to a nearby park and went for a walk and a hike thru the woods.  We found this old tower at the top of the hill, not sure what it was at first.  An old water tower? A fire watch tower?  Then we realized there was a tunnel underneath us where a major 4 lane highway was going.  This has to be an old vent for the old tunnel.  Exciting, huh?

What is it?

After the walk we went for a drive around the city of New Haven.  I had to stop and take a picture of  “Occupy New Haven” in the city park.
Occupy New Haven
Becton Center
Becton Center at Yale University is where Teresa works on the 4th floor in a lab that makes superconducting circuits for quantum computing research.  If you want to know more about it click this link:  Schoelkopf Lab
Then back to Teresa’s apartment.  Teresa is babysitting Marble for us since the hotel said “no pets allowed”.   Marble is a very timid cat and hid under Teresa’s bed for a long time yesterday, but today she came out and made an appearance while we were there.
Marble
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We Moved!

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
It was time to wash clothes again but the laundry facility at the park was closed for the season so we drove in to North East to find a coin laundry.  Don’t say it….I know this isn’t one of my most interesting blogs!!  By the time we finished with that it was lunch time and, gee whiz, Woody’s Crab House was just down the street.  🙂  
$2 wash and $.25 for 6 minutes dry
 After enjoying another one of those best crab cakes ever we headed back to the park to pack up.  Time to move on.  We went north, back over the big Delaware Bridge and into New Jersey.  We’re making our way back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. 



Delaware Bridge
RV parks and campgrounds are closed for the season in this direction so we have to find alternate places to park.  We do have a plan.  Tonite we are staying in a Walmart parking lot.  I’m so glad they allow us to do this, they are everywhere and mostly along the major roads and best of all FREE. 

Walmart
The man on the radio today was talking about how many people are traveling for the holiday and cautioned everyone to prepare for traffic jams by packing food and water.  Ugh… New York City is between where we are and where we want to be.  I HOPE we don’t get into any traffic like that!
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Turkey Point 2

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
It’s Sunday and the hunters are gone so we walked out to Turkey Point Lighthouse again today.  There were leaves on the trees when we got here 10 days ago.  They’re almost all gone now.  Time to move further south.
Our next destination will be to see Washington DC, the White House, and all that.  However, President Obama can wait; Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  We spent the afternoon trying to figure out what to do and where to go.  It looks like we will  be leaving the RV somewhere close by here and then taking the car only back to New Haven, CT, and stay in a hotel for a few nights.  We still need to work out the details.
Trail to the Lighthouse
Turkey Point Lighthouse

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November 19

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
Woody’s Seafood Restaurant
Today is our 28th wedding anniversary so we decided to go in to North East to have lunch at Woody’s Seafood Restaurant since we enjoyed eating there a few days back.  It is rather expensive, but this was a special occasion.  This time I had the crab cake.  Best crab cake ever! 



Bait Vending Machine



There is a bait shop a few doors down that had this vending machine outside.  I don’t know about you, but I have never seen bait distributed in a vending machine like this.  You can get night crawlers and carp dough bait and catfish dough bait, and hooks.  It’s empty now, of course, because winter is here.
Just down the street are a few antique shops so we spent some time exploring those.  And then, on the next street, at the local fire station, was a small craft show so we walked thru that too. 
Then to the grocery store and back to the RV for the rest of the day.  We haven’t been doing much the last few days, just hanging out at the campground.  We’ll be here until Monday morning and then we will have to decide where to go next.
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Rain Rain

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
It rained all day so we didn’t do much.  We went to the office and reserved for five more nights since we don’t want to go any further south until after Thanksgiving (weather permitting).  Our spot has already been reserved by somebody else for the weekend so we will have to move again on Friday.
Woody’s Crab House is a restaurant in North East, that we have driven by several times.  This time we decided to stop and eat.  Yummy.  I had the crab bisque and Bernie had a the crab cake and a side of hush puppies.  This is our favorite restaurant so far. We know we’re in the south since we have crossed the imaginary Mason Dixon line and we’re seeing hush puppies on the restaurant menus.  I have not heard a “hi, how y’all doin’?” yet.
On our way back we stopped at the grocery store.  These are the first Christmas trees I have seen for this season.  I can’t imagine buying one this early.  

Christmas Trees!
 Still raining, so back to the RV.  That blueberry bread we bought a few days back wasn’t a big hit for us so I’m working on making it into blueberry bread pudding in the slow-cooker.  I’ve never done that before so we’ll see.  I figured why use my propane oven when I can use the campground’s electricity.

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Thunder?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Marsha Brecht

It was a noisy morning.  First we hear a huge flock of birds in the trees around us, reminiscent of that Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds”.  But then we heard and felt what we thought was thunder.  Turns out it was only the US Army Proving Grounds directly across the bay from us.  I don’t know what they’re up to but we were hearing “thunder” all day today.

It was another beautiful day and we walked around the park again.   Holly grows here, that’s something I have never seen growing in Minnesota.
Holly
Later on we drove out to the swimming beach here.  It really is closed for the season, but we took a walk around anyway.  I think all the debris must be from that big hurricane, Irene, two months ago.  I hope they are able to get it cleaned up before the next season.  It must be a hot spot since the parking lot was huge, nice picnic areas, playground, snack shop, and all that.



The Beach at Elk Neck State Park



In the playground by the beach we found this dragon.  Cool.



Dragon



That was our outing for today. I think it’s going to rain tonight.

 


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Chesapeake City

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
Chesapeake City Bridge
Today we went to see Chesapeake City.  This big bridge goes over the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal and links North Chesapeake City with South Chesapeake City. 
Chesapeake City
The town is only a few blocks long but nicely kept up.  Many of the buildings have plaques in front of them detailing the year they were built and who lived there.  Most were built in the early 1800’s.  We stopped for lunch in one of the old restaurants.
Detwilers Farm Market
On our way back from Chesapeake City we stopped at this nice produce shop and bought some veggies and a loaf of homemade blueberry bread.  When we got back to Elk Neck State Park we drove around some parts of the park that we had not seen before.  What a beautiful drive it was.
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Turkey Point

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Marsha Brecht



Turkey Point Lighthouse


It was a great day for a two mile hike so we walked the trail along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay out to see Turkey Point Lighthouse. We didn’t know it, but when we got there we learned that today was the last day of the season that the lighthouse would have it’s doors open.  We were able to walk up to the top and view out.


View at Top of Lighthouse



This is not a very tall lighthouse.  We climbed to the top and looked out over the Chesapeake Bay and went back down.  That was it.


Looking Down





New Location



Most of the weekenders have left the campground now and we were able to move back to the original loop that still has water and sewer hookups.  I think there are only three of us here tonight.

Deer!

We were sitting around enjoying a campfire when a deer decided to pass by!  He hung around for a while and didn’t mind at all when our neighbors and we took it’s picture.

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North East, Maryland

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Marsha Brecht



The Town of North East, Maryland
After a walk around our campground we drove out to pick up some supplies and to explore the surrounding communities.  There is an old town just north of here named North East.  It’s a small community with a Main Street that has become quite touristy.   It’s quaint and has the usual gift and antique shops you find in such places.  We bought some chocolates in a chocolate shop and some tea in a coffee/tea shop.  We found a really good seafood restaurant for lunch.  There is another one in North East that we may have to check out tomorrow.



Cowlamity Jane



Marble Looks Out Window (Finally)



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Maryland 2

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Marsha Brecht
Covered Bridge and Hedge Apples

It rained last night, but was really no big deal.  Today we drove out of the park and around the northeast corner of Maryland.  We found this covered  bridge and stopped for pictures.  On the ground around the bridge were Hedge-Apples.  You may have seen these in grocery stores, do not eat, they are supposed to repel spiders and other insects.  There was a tree nearby that they had fallen off.  I wasn’t sure what they were so I spent some time Googling.  They grow on an Osage Orange tree. There were several of them in that area.

New Spot

We had not made advance reservations before we got to this campground and it was already booked up for the weekend.  So, they allowed us to park in a loop that had already been closed for the season.  They gave us a premium spot (long and level).  We have electricity but no water here, but that’s ok because we filled up our tank before we moved, so we’re good for a few days.  They did give us a price break.

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Maryland

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Marsha Brecht



Home Sweet Home

We are now in Maryland at Elk Neck State Park which is on the north end of the Chesapeake Bay.  What a lovely place.  It’s cold and windy right now and I just heard some thunder.  My internet service is very very slow, probably due to the remote location as well as the cloudy sky.  I hope I can get this blog published tonight.

Deer

We drove around the park roads for a while this afternoon.  It’s very beautiful.  There are loads of deer here.  We saw about 15 deer as we were driving.

There is a trail leading to a lighthouse that we want to walk.  It’s hunting season now and that area is open to hunting.  We knew there were several hunters in the area so we chose not to walk out there today.  There is no hunting on Sunday so, we’ll plan for then.

We paid for four nights here.

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New Jersey 2

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Marsha Brecht

 

I-Pass or E-Zpass



One of the best things we did before we left for this trip was to sign up for I-Pass, which is also good for E-ZPass.  We knew we would be driving toll roads and this would save us some trouble.  Boy were we right.  Life is so much easier with an I-Pass/E-ZPass transponder.  We can just go right thru the toll booths without even stopping.  Some of the newer roads have special lanes where we don’t even have to slow down or squeeze between pillars, there is just an overhead scanner that gets us when we drive under at full speed.  slick.  No more having to dig for cash. 
No Self Service
What a difference a state makes.  We were seeing prices up to $3.79 per gallon in Connecticut.  Was it because of Snow Storm Alfred?  (yes, they named it)  Who knows.  We found gas in New Jersey for $1.30 a gallon.  I’m not sure what the capacity of our tank is but we put in 60 gallons on this fill.
New Jersey has a state law that you cannot pump your own gas.  You can be fined up to $3,000 for doing so.  So we didn’t even try.  The next question was… tip or no tip?  While the attendant was filling the tank I Googled it and learned that tipping is not usual unless the attendant goes above and beyond, like washing windows, checking oil and tires or if the weather is really sucky.
More Beautiful Scenery
 Miles and miles of pretty trees.

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