Gettysburg and Washington DC

 A map depicting the Union States and the Confederate States at the commencement of the Civil War  in 1861.
 The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and the slave states. The southern slave states declared secession from the United States and formed the" Confederacy". The states that did not declare secession were known as the "Union".

The Confederate Army triggered the war by opening fire and claiming the federal garrison(national military base) in 1861. Lincoln then call out the militia to suppress the insurrection.

The "Union" victory in 1865 preserved the United States as One Nation and ended Slavery.
The battle at Gettysburg played a significant role in the trajectory of that war.

 The Gettysburg Military Museum starts off with a documentary film of the battle at Gettysburg, then moves everyone up to a viewing of the  Cyclorama. A 360 degree painted mural  depicting the several  battles at Gettysburg. We were then provided with a map for a self-guided auto tour of the battlefield and the 16 monuments. The above is Gettysburg in 1863 during one of the battles. The 3 day battle at Gettysburg resulted in the most casualties of any of the 60 major battles of the Civil War.

Park bench chat with Lincoln outside the Gettysburg museum.

For a substantial fee, you can hire a fully authenticated licensed guide in full period attire to ride along in your car and regale you with Gettysburg Civil War history.
What fun that would be. Too bad, we have no back seat in the Jeep.

Norm at Gettysburg


To complete the visit, we took a tour of the Eisenhower Estate and David Wills House. In 1863 David Wills  extended an invitation to Lincoln, resulting in the Gettysburg Address.

Following that by a visit to Antietam. Home of the 1862 bloodiest one day battle in all  the history of the Civil War. Nearly 23,000 were killed, wounded or missing in that one day siege.





Moving on-------Washington DC

Smithsonian Institution Building. "The Castle" Washington DC.
This was the first Smithsonian building. Now there are a total of 19 separate museums and galleries.

White House visit. Apparently since 9/11, in order to get a tour you have to write your congressman 6 months in advance for tickets in order to actually tour the inside of the White House. Who knew?

United States Capitol building taken from the top of the Washington Monument.  The attached buildings at either end of the Capitol houses the Congress on one side and the Senate on the opposite side. When either one of them show up for a work day, they raise a flag from a flag pole on the roof of the buildings. Hmm? probably not a common sight.
 We arrived at the Washington Monument at 8:30 am and were given  free timed tickets for a ride up to the top. A 360 degree view of Washington DC. I recommend it.

Air and Space Museum in DC.
The original decommissioned Discovery Space Shuttle. The two Air and Space Museums were took almost 3 days of touring to get through them both.

We spent  8 nights parked in the Elks parking lot  in Fairfax Virginia.  Every morning we hopped on  the Metro train  to Washington DC, returning late in the evening.

We also visited the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of American History. The Postal Museum, both Air and Space Museums and Union Station for Lunch.
We ended the week  touring  the National Monuments.
Whew! This touring stuff is exhausting.


Above is the Metro station in downtown Washington DC. Just a moment before this shot the entire station was packed full of commuters and trains. I am amazing at the ability of the DC metro to move people. What fun we had riding in daily on the Metro with all the DC commuters. Everyone was kind and courteous at all times.

Boston Massachuttes with a couple of extra stops in Maine

 Boston from our Harbor tour

 

 Drats! Wrong weekend to tour Boston.  Labor Day weekend, Move-in weekend for all the college sororities. Seems there are over 50 institutes of higher education in the Metropolitan Boston area, Including Harvard and MIT.
The  town was jam-packed with students and their  U-haul trucks full of their treasures.
To top off---- there was a Tom Petty concert at Fenway Park.

 What were we thinking??

Oh, and if you plan on attending the Tom Petty concert, plan on spending $60-$100 just to park your car.

Did I mention---Don't Drive in Boston.

 Here's a fun picture. We took a  boat tour on Boston Harbor. How else were we going to get us both in the picture?

 USS Constitution(Old Iron Side). Worlds oldest commissioned Navel vessel afloat. First launched in 1797. Still travels the seas with a fully commissioned naval crew.

Odd Buildings, But what would you expect in the heart of MIT. The Stata Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 Word has it that Bill Gates put up the money for this building in Cambridge. Harvard  of course, where Mr. Gates  dropped out  to become a billionaire.

Boston is full of very old beautiful architecture. Many of the historic building still in their original state. Mixed right in with the modern architecture.














 We spent a full two days touring Boston on the Super Trolly Tour. Hopping off and on at various sites. We rode the "T" in from Framingham  to Boston and hopped on the trolly just down from the station.
We toured Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Paul Revers House, Fenway Park, the Freedom Trail, Faneul Hall Historic Market/Meeting Hall---- and the list goes on.

A visit to the MIT Museum.
 Kismet the Robot, Exploring artificial intelligence.  There are some very cool holographic pieces at the MIT Museum but we were not allowed to photograph them

Riding the "T" into Boston. The folks here on the East coast know how to do Mass Transit.

Eartha

A 3-dimensional scale model of the earth. The worlds largest revolving/rotating globe simulating the earths real movements.
Delorme headquarters in Yarmouth Maine. 

Norm standing down in front of the Eartha.

 LL Bean Mothership in Yarmouth Maine.
It's a Car Shoe.

Norm just couldn't resist.
 Male humor you know??

Visiting Cape Cod
Really, we did visit Cape Cod and then we toured the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. 












Random Observations:
Car Horns are very important here in the North East.
Dunkin Donuts are very popular in the North Eastern States. 
They are everywhere.
Walmart architecture is old English style on the outside. Very refined looking.

White Mountains and the Appalachian Trail

The Rattle River section of the Appalachian Trail. White Mountains New Hampshire.
I loved it here.
It is buzzing with energy and activity.
Hikers and Backpackers swarming the mountains.
Notice the head light  stretched over  the sign. This left behind for a hiker in need.

We took a photo of the back of this sign at the head of the Rattle River section of the Appalachian trail. Notice the bagged items taped to the sign and those  sitting on the ground.These are left by various individuals to help replenish the supplies of the weary thru hiker of the Appalachian trail.
I believe those are a couple of beers sitting down on the ground with a couple of bottles of liquid for starting a fire.

There are some very interesting stories about the perils of the Appalachian trail hikers if you ever have an opportunity to read some of the stories about their experiences. Approx. 2200 miles over varied and rugged terrain with all their daily needs  strapped to their backs.
 It takes about 7 months for a thru hiker to complete the hike. The trail starts at Springer Mountains in Georgia and ends at Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The trials are maintained by various Appalachian Trail Clubs along the borders of the trails throughout it's entire length.

Go Norm! Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Well, three miles of it anyway.
It is beautiful here in the White Mountains.

Rattle River Shelter on the Appalachian Trail. Constructed just for the use of the Appalachian trail hikers to shelter from the inclement weather. Multiple hikers are known to occupy one of these shelters at one time.

The Mt. Washington Cog Railway is the oldest and the first Cog railroad in the world. Started in 1866 . We boarded at base camp at an elevation of 2700 feet. Chugged up to 6288 feet to the top of Mt. Washington. The average grade is 25% with sections as much as  37%. Note the locomotive boiler is tilted so when going up the steep grade the boiler will be mostly level.

How the Cog Railway works--------The 2.8 miles of track are built entirely on wooden trestle. On top of the wooden trestle two light steel rails are laid in a method similar to standard railroad. The rails are raised to allow clearance for a spur gear which drives the locomotive. Located in the center of the steel rail is a cog rack. The locomotive and cars are equipped with cogs that engage into the rack. The cog is driven by steam pistons of the locomotive through the system of gears.

Then, while this little steam engine chugs down the hill with it's 37% grade, We passenger's in the little  red caboose, which is completely uncoupled from the little steam engine, plunging down the hill just behind this little steam engine depending on our brakeman to NOT make a boo-boo with the braking system. AAAAHH!
This little steam engine is only there to stop us should the brakes fail.

Mt Washington summit 6288 feet. The termination of Crawford path trail. the oldest mountain hiking trail in America. First laid out in 1819 and continues to be used today. Very foggy this AM. Soon to clear and warm to a lovely day.
It was fun to see the Appalachian trail hikers stop by the lodge up here for a respite. Norm talked to 3 fellows who had started hiking from Georgia in March and had been hiking for 6 months. They have 6 weeks to finish the last 300 miles.

Due to the high winds and unusual weather, this house at the summit of Mt. Washington  is chained down to keep it from blowing away. They have very high winds up here.

It's August, warm and humid in Gorham where we are staying at the base of the mountain . But up here on Mt. Washington it is foggy and in the 50 degree Fahrenheit range. NOTE the sign. The highest winds ever observed by man were recorded here on Mt. Washington. Again, see the chains holding the building.
I am all bundled up. I am wearing what I call "the Connie Scarf". My sister Connie knitted this scarf for me 10 years ago and I wear it often.

Baa Haa Baa Maine-----Thats Maine Speak AND Acadia National Park

Want more photos and dialogue about Maine and Bar Harbor? 
Check out a fellow Jojobian's  Blog . 
http://rainsbowroad.blogspot.com/
 

 Bar Harbor from atop Cadillac Mountain. Claims to be the highest mountain in the Maritimes. 1500 feet tall. We Oregonians call that a hill.
The town of Bar Harbor is to the left in the picture just at the shoreline. Cute little tourist town. Beautiful shoreline.
Free shuttle bus system through out the harbor and Acadia National Park. Ranger led tours, boat tours, bicycle rental, hiking, kayak rental, carriage rides AND lots and lots of Lobster for your dining delight.

We took a day trip on a sailing Schooner.  We boated to Baker Island with the Ranger,  who provided us  a complete history of Bar Harbor, Baker Island and Acadia National Park. Drove the 27 mile  oceanside loop around the  island, hiked Cadillac mountain, ate ice cream and dined on lobster. Life gets no better!

It seems in the mid-1800's,  the wealthy movers and shakers of the Eastern seaboard were looking for a summer location to build vacation cottages.  You know, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, JP Morgan, Henry Ford etc.etc, etc. They swept in to Bar Harbor, leaving their 100 room landlocked mansions to build  quaint little 20 room seashore bungalows. 

 Later, some of those same "movers and shakers" donated portions of their lands to  help create Acadia National Park.

Where Lobster was so plentiful they scooped it up off the shoreline and  the hired help wrote into their contracts to NOT have to eat lobster any more than 3 days a week. Imagine that!

Look at this beauty. Just a little vacation bungalow for the more moneyed folks of our society.

The coast line of Acadia is peppered with these modest vacation homes.

Blue Lobster. Genetic mutation.  One in a thousand are blue. Nobody eats the blue lobster. Very rare find.
Did you know Lobsters are either right or left handed. They have one smaller claw and one larger claw. The larger claw being the dominate claw.  It looks like they have teeth in that larger claw and your likely to loose the digit should that larger claw latch on. We were told it is impossible to open once  the claw latches on.

          Variegated cream and brown lobster. Another Genetic mutation. Did I mention we visited the Maine Lobster  Hatchery Museum?

Cooked Lobster.     NOT a genetic mutation. Yum Yum!     You can see the white teeth like protrusions in the larger claw on the left of the picture.

 

 Frenchmen Bay Cruise out of Bar Harbor on the Margaret Todd sailing schooner. We were invited to help hoist the sails once out of the harbor.

                           Sailing Bar Harbor on the Margaret Todd. Sailing is a very peaceful adventure.
                                   I  have a greater appreciation for the life of our sailing friends.

Maine Granite Industry Historical Society and Museum. Hosted and created by the above Steve Hayes.  He is a dynamic and passionate curator of the Granite Museum. He demonstrated for us  granite cutting and polishing with the hand tools from the 1800's. Steve started in the granite business at age 11 as an apprentice, collecting and preserving the history and tools of the New England Granite Quarries. He was a delight to visit.

                          




   Wait! Wait!     Did that lobster just move???

     This was too funny.  Tenting in the Walmart parking lot.  I have never known anyone to pitch a
                                     tent in the Walmart parking lot.