Thursday, day of departure.
After finishing packing, I had some time to spare. My Potomac cruise was at 11:30 a.m. and visiting Lee's boyhood home wouldn't take too long.
James N. 's Fort Ward thread was bumped in a timely manner so I decided to add that to my day's itinerary, but I read online that the park opened only at 9 a.m. and I was done packing at 7:30. Half an hour sitting in the hotel room got me antsy. Sitting still just isn't my thing. So I headed out earlier and good thing too for the park was already open. So much for opening hours on the internet.
I then headed to old historic downtown Alexandria. I bought my cruise ticket and then headed to Lee's boyhood home.
Across the street is the Lee-Fendal House which belonged to the extended Lee family. As it was just 10:15 and I had nothing else to do so I took a tour of the house. The guide told us that Lee's boyhood home is up for sale again:
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/robert-e-lees-boyhood-home-in-alexandria-for-sale.159884/
The corner where both the Lee-Fendal house and Lee's boyhood home stand is known as Lee Corner since many houses along both streets were built and lived in by members of the Lee family. Lee's father, Light-horse Harry Lee, purchased tracts of land in 1784 and sold a tract to Philip Richard Fendal I, Esq. who built the Lee-Fendal House for his second wife, Elizabeth Steptoe Lee. When Lee grew up in Alexandria, Fendal's third wife, Mary "Mollie" Lee, who was a sister to Light-Horse Harry Lee and thus an aunt of Robert E. Lee, lived in the Lee-Fendal House with her children so they believe Lee would have visited from time to time. From 1863-1865 the house served as Union hospital. Members of the Lee family continued to live in the house until 1902, then it was sold to a different family. It was in use as private residence until 1974 when it was bought by the Virginia Trust for Historic Preservation and became a historic house museum.
Entrance hall
Dining room
Parlor
Master bedroom
After touring the house, I took my Potomac cruise. I was still too keyed up and excited on the trip up to Georgetown, but on the return trip to Alexandria I just sat and watched and listened - and became drowsy. Not a good thing when I still had Washington traffic to navigate!
Lincoln Memorial as seen from the river
Georgetown and the Francis Scott Key Bridge
Glimpse of Arlington House
And then it was already about time to head toward the airport. On my way there I stopped at Chantilly which I couldn't do on my arrival day as my flight was delayed and customs took ages to get through.
The quartz stone shows where General Stevens fell, more or less right next to the monuments.
This marker shows a small box in the middle of the battlefield - which is all that remains of Chantilly. The rest is built over.
When I left Chantilly for the airport, it started raining. The thunderstorm delayed my flight: First, the plane in couldn't land, then they couldn't fuel the plane due to lightning and danger of fire, and finally we sat in front of the runway without moving for 30-40 minutes without information as to why we weren't moving.
It wasn't raining anymore and no lightning to be seen, though. No idea what held up our take-off. What I do know, though, because of the delay in flying out, I missed my booked train from the airport and the one I eventually caught - two hours later - was also delayed and full. *sigh* Joy to be home again and riding with the Deutsche Bahn...