Week Trip to DC AAR

[Harms88]

So the wife and I are in Denver International waiting for the connecting flight to SLC and then afterwards the 4 hour drive home.

A lot of historical spots were hit. Prior to leaving, I had a CW wishlist of:

- 3 Forts
- 8 battlefields
- 6 historical buildings (such as Arlington House, Ford's Theater etc.)

Mrs. Harms88 was the one whose stuffed got prioritized but I'd hoped to squeeze in a few things.

At the end of the day, from the wishlist I succeeded at visiting:

- 1 fort.

- No battlefields.

- 3 buildings.

However, I did visit a few CW stuff that were surprise hits. Some passed by so quickly that I wasn't able to get pics of them.

Pictures of the sites will be forthcoming after I get home, get settled and try to figure out how we're paying rent for the next month.

I'll also be adding a stock images to anything that I saw but didn't get a pic of.

 

[JackADriscoll]

Almost a 25 percent success rate. I'll take it

 

[Harms88]

it was going to be closer to 50% but our rental car fell through, which blasted all the battlefields out of the water

 

[bdtex]

- No battlefields.

No battlefields = massive supply of brownie points banked. Well done grasshopper.

 

[bdtex]

our rental car fell through,

"fell through" as in no cars available?

 

[Harms88]

Almost a 25 percent success rate. I'll take it

Better odds than the Confederacy had according to the Lost Cause Myth.

No battlefields = massive supply of brownie points banked. Well done grasshopper.

No brownies were made but lost actually.

"fell through" as in no cars available?

We originally were going to do only one day with a car and take metro the rest of the time. But the wife decided she wasn't for that idea but wanted to do Uber. So by the time we had spent several days worth of traveling on Uber, there wasn't enough money to pay the hefty security deposit fee on not having a credit card.

Which meant she didn't see her Patsy Cline house which made all Brownie Points I had gathered to vanish.

 

[Cato3rd]

So the wife and I are in Denver International waiting for the connecting flight to SLC and then afterwards the 4 hour drive home.

A lot of historical spots were hit. Prior to leaving, I had a CW wishlist of:

- 3 Forts
- 8 battlefields
- 6 historical buildings (such as Arlington House, Ford's Theater etc.)

Mrs. Harms88 was the one whose stuffed got prioritized but I'd hoped to squeeze in a few things.

At the end of the day, from the wishlist I succeeded at visiting:

- 1 fort.

- No battlefields.

- 3 buildings.

However, I did visit a few CW stuff that were surprise hits. Some passed by so quickly that I wasn't able to get pics of them.

Pictures of the sites will be forthcoming after I get home, get settled and try to figure out how we're paying rent for the next month.

I'll also be adding a stock images to anything that I saw but didn't get a pic of.

As long as you two had a fun time, that's all that matters. There is so much to see in the DMV area. I live here and I'm still finding new spots I haven't visited. Hopefully in the future you can make it out here again and see the rest of the spots you wanted to see

 

[Harms88]

First history stop, Mount Vernon. During the Civil War, it was considered neutral ground, in large part to the head of the Ladies of Mount Vernon Society happening to be a northern lady. Soldiers could visit three at a time, without weapons and had to wear scarves that hid their buttons which declared their allegiance.

The view of the Potomac and Maryland he would have enjoyed.

Traveling by boat was disrupted during the Civil War, due to Union blockading efforts on the Potomac. Much fear was had that travel on the Potomac would be used to aid the Confederacy and was thus curtailed.

 

[Harms88]

Washington's Teeth. There was a lady next to me that when I told her what they were made out of didn't believe it.

It's still a running farm, and my Dad was the type of person who would only take us to the fair so he could see the cows.

We had originally believed that 1.5 hours would be enough. Ended up being 3 hours. 30 minutes taken to eat lunch there. Wife was able to get a picture of Mount Vernon without any tourists in it, took her 15 minutes to get the pic.

Wife approval rating: 10/10

 

[Harms88]

Next Historical Stop: Theodore Roosevelt Island

This was one of the ones that Mrs. Harms88 really wanted to visit. The idea of an island dedicated to a president which happens to be wooded appealed to her, a person not much of a outdoorsy person. Also, gave her a good chance of practicing her photography without being swarmed by people or fighting for space.

What was most surprising when researching was that this island does indeed have Civil War history.

The island resides on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Within hours of the secession of Virginia, it was occupied by Union soldiers. It became a refugee for runaways looking for freedom, as basically once they reached the island, no southerner had the ability to get them. Once the Emancipation Proclamation happened Camp Greene was established on the island to give the new USCT regiments an area to train. The first regiment there was the 1st USCT.

Time spent here was 35 minutes. Might have been longer had the bathrooms been open but they were closed and the wife will not use the outdoors for a restroom if it can be helped.

Wife Approval Rating: 7/10.

Edit: Updated the approval rating from 8 to 7 after checking with her.

 

[farrargirl]

Better odds than the Confederacy had according to the Lost Cause Myth.

No brownies were made but lost actually.

We originally were going to do only one day with a car and take metro the rest of the time. But the wife decided she wasn't for that idea but wanted to do Uber. So by the time we had spent several days worth of traveling on Uber, there wasn't enough money to pay the hefty security deposit fee on not having a credit card.

Which meant she didn't see her Patsy Cline house which made all Brownie Points I had gathered to vanish.

For your wife….

from a trip up there about 3 years ago….

 

[Harms88]

For your wife….View attachment 503362
from a trip up there about 3 years ago….

We definitely appreciate the thought behind the post!

 

[Harms88]

Stop 3: National Mall

Originally, we were planning on doing it on the 2nd full day of our trip, however due to how close it was to Theodore Roosevelt Island, we decided to go here. Mrs. Harms88 had hoped that the Cherry Blossom Festival would be in full swing, but heavy rains over the past couple of days had knocked out a good portion of the blossoms.

The Lincoln Memorial was our first stop, and we discovered that the Memorial is undergoing a bunch of renovations, in preparation of a new Lincoln Museum they're adding to it.

It was getting pretty dark but that didn't stop us from getting pretty good pictures of his 1st and 2nd Inaugural Addresses. The wife got his 1st Address, so we just worked our way out of the Memorial, down to the Civil Rights Exhibit down below.

And then of course we spent the rest of our time looking at the different monuments. By the time we were done, the sun was setting. What we'd figure would be 1.5 hours turned into 2.5 hours. With appropriate bathroom breaks. There were so many pictures taken, it would simply be impossible to add them all. The biggest bummer for both of us was that the restrooms and the bookshop in the Lincoln Memorial were either moved or completely closed off due to the renovations going on.

Wife Approval Rating: 9/10

 

[iron bender]

Korea/Vietnam memorials are incredible

 

[Harms88]

Korea/Vietnam memorials are incredible

Indeed they are.

 

[Harms88]

Day 2 - Stop 1: Smithsonian Air & Space

This was our first Smithsonian we'd visit. It was the most interesting one to enter. Had to go to the end of a line that stretched almost to the corner of the block. Once it got moving, we got in pretty quick.

Two of the exhibits were closed as I recall for renovations, which meant what was open we could get through pretty quick. I was surprised that the original Kitty Hawk was on display there. There was a single information panel on balloons during the Civil War.

We ended up being in the museum for 1.5 hours and half an hour was spent either in the restroom or the gift shop.

Wife Approval Rating: 9/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 2 - Stop 2: Smithsonian American History

We cut across the Smithsonian Castle since it's closed currently for renovations, but the grounds are still open and allow us to cut through the what we really wanted to get to.

We focused on 2 exhibits, the Military History and Entertainment ones.

Unfortunately, the lighting within made it difficult to get really clear pictures. Many had glares on the glass making it almost impossible to get clear pics. Which is a pitty because many things were on display that I got pictures of but they're almost unusable. Such as Winchester, Sheridan's horse. Or the Appomattox surrender furniture. Some of the worst offenders were Sherman's uniform.

Winchester If it wasn't within the case, like the Bleeding Kansas cannon, they came out just fine.

However, not all were losses from the glassed windows. Such as the Spotsylvania Stump and the impacted Minie. These two also happened to be the ones that the wife was most interested in.

Although Mrs. Harms88's favorite exhibit from the military history section was not CW but the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia which amazed her was still in such good condition.

Definitely, her favorite exhibit though was nothing military history, but the entertainment one. Lots of fun film and sports memorabilia were to be found.

For here, we spent 1.5 hours in it. We saw a ton of cool stuff, and it was amazing to see artifacts and stuff I had read about. I remembered that Sickles had his leg preserved and was bummed that it wasn't there. The wife wasn't converted to becoming a history buff, but there was stuff that still got her interest.

The biggest drawback for us was that for the Military History section, it didn't seem to as clearly flow as you'd expect. The Civil War exhibit was not chronologically set with everything else, and you could actually bypass it completely if you didn't make the turn. Same thing with the Entertainment section. It wasn't clearly organized by what exactly they were wanting to do, decades were kinda thrown together along with differing types of media, sports or popculture.

Wife Approval Rating: 5/10 for the Military, 7/10 for the Entertainment. Giving us a 6.5/10 total.

 

[gjpratt]

Next Historical Stop: Theodore Roosevelt Island

View attachment 503325

This was one of the ones that Mrs. Harms88 really wanted to visit. The idea of an island dedicated to a president which happens to be wooded appealed to her, a person not much of a outdoorsy person. Also, gave her a good chance of practicing her photography without being swarmed by people or fighting for space.

View attachment 503341

What was most surprising when researching was that this island does indeed have Civil War history.

The island resides on the Virginia side of the Potomac. Within hours of the secession of Virginia, it was occupied by Union soldiers. It became a refugee for runaways looking for freedom, as basically once they reached the island, no southerner had the ability to get them. Once the Emancipation Proclamation happened Camp Greene was established on the island to give the new USCT regiments an area to train. The first regiment there was the 1st USCT.

View attachment 503348

Time spent here was 35 minutes. Might have been longer had the bathrooms been open but they were closed and the wife will not use the outdoors for a restroom if it can be helped.

Wife Approval Rating: 7/10.

Edit: Updated the approval rating from 8 to 7 after checking with her.

Roosevelt Island was my refuge and haven when I lived in DC.

 

[gjpratt]

The Spotsylvania Stump figures into an upcoming CWRT presentation. A PowerPoint slide was just created this week.

 

[JerryD]

Did your wife see the First Ladies dresses exhibit? That is usually our favorite exhibit for the ladies.