Week Trip to DC AAR

[Harms88]

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

Actually no, Mrs Harms88 didn't want to go to any other exhibits because she wanted to make sure we got to the Zoo. Part of the problem is that she is a pretty late riser so we really didn't get going until 11. We really could only allow ourselves about 90ish minutes excluding travel time to hit all 3 things before they all closed.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Your pictures are a real treat and make me wish I could be locked in the Smithsonian for a week or so. Awesome stuff!

 

[Harms88]

Day 2 - Stop 3: Smithsonian Zoo

Our last stop of the day was the Smithsonian Zoo. By the ime we got there, we only had 90 minutes to go through. We were both surprised though at how small the Zoo actually was. We kinda expected it to be much larger.

However, we both enjoyed it, even if there were no Pandas at the moment at most of the animals were sleeping!

Wife Approval Rating: 7/10

Note: I actually had got her to agree to seeing Fort Stevens because we weren't going to be too far, and afterwards we could stop at Walmart which was close. However, I noticed that we were spending a ton of money on Uber and knew that if I didn't save money somewhere we were going to be in big trouble heading home. So, I decided it was best to not go and save they money we'd have spent.

Day 3 - Stop 1: Fort McHenry

Day 3 was our Baltimore Day and the wife decided we should start off at Fort McHenry. One of the few military history places she really wanted to see, because of the relationship with the National Anthem. Also was the only place that I could be Historian Harms88 and she didn't roll her eyes. lol

It's obviously most famous for it's defense of Baltimore. Baltimore was home to one of the largest fleets of privateers in the US during 1812, this one city contributing more than the rest of Maryland and Virginia combined.

Ironically though, most of the guns of the Fort couldn't even reach the British fleet during the attack and the British fleet commander complained that the scuttled ships defending the harbor were a greater threat than the 4 guns that actually could reach them. However, despite the protests of the Britih to the contrary, militia actions, the fighting at North Point and the defense of Fort McHenry all contributed to not only defending Baltimore, but stemming the momentum of the victorious British forces and inspired "The Star Spangled Banner".

Of course, for us Civil War buffs we know the history of the Fort doesn't end there. The fort would be beefed up afterward and during the Civil War, it was used as a prison by a Union who, inspired by Lincoln's paranoia of how isolated Washington City was by the slave-holding state, threw anyone with even a suspicion of disloyalty in Maryland into prison. However, despite this blemish on personal liberties and Constitutional guarantees, it did nothing to diminish Fort McHenry's image as a symbol of freedom and defiance.

Spent 2.5 hours at Fort McHenry. We both enjoyed walking the Fort and the wife really liked getting pictures of the "Big Boom Booms" as we jokingly called the cannon. Would also be one of the few places I really could break out the historian in me, as there were a few places she gave me "permission" to do so, the rest being the CW battlefields that we ended up not visiting.

Wife Approval Rating: 10/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 3 - Stop 2: Babe Ruth Birthplace House

Our next stop was the Babe Ruth House. We debated over whether we'd start at the B&O Railroad Museum or Babe Ruth House first, as time was running a bit short after taking an hour stop lunch. It was decided the Babe demanded our attention first as the Sultan of Swat deserved it and we're both fans of the man.

We spent about 30 minutes here and ran into some other tourists who were in Baltimore for the Orioles game that we had seen at Fort McHenry and ate at the same Irish pub for lunch. While the house was nicely set up, both the wife and I agreed that it would have been nice to have more about his family and that the tourist gifts were massively overpriced. Also was not a place that the wife felt was deserving of more than one visit. Visit to say we we're there but nothing more.

Wife Approval Rating: 6/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 3 - Stop 3: Historic Ships of Baltimore

We decided to drop the B&O Museum because by the time we got out, we only have an hour we could have been there and an hour and half from what we really wanted to see, which was the Historic Ships. Our favorite ship just so happened to be the one most people here will be interested in. The USS Constellation, a ship that saw active service during the Civil War.

Built in 1854, this frigate first saw active service hunting slave ships, which she made several successful capture.

During the Civil War, she would help blockade the CSS Sumter in Gibraltar to the point that Raphael Semmes would abandon her in 1862. She would also make other captures throughout the war and be on blockade duty at Hampton Roads.

There were other cool ships we saw. Such as the Lighthouse ship Chesapeake, the submarine Torsk and the cutter ship Cutter 37. The last two have WWII fame, Torsk sinking the last two enemy vessels during WWII and Cutter 37 having fought at Pearl Harbor against an attack against Honolulu.

The last three ships ending up being too small for the wife to actually go below decks, so I was left to explore them myself. The only one I didn't explore we the submarine, but that was because by the time I got to it (we hit the Cutter 37 first) we had no time left.

Wife Approval Rating: 10/10 for the Constellation. 4/10 for the other ships since they were too small for her to feel comfortable exploring. Overall rating: 6/10.

 

[Harms88]

Day 3 - Stop 4: Platt Street - Baltimore Riot

As we had gone to the ships, I had spotted a Civil War Trails Sign and made note to go view it. Our plan was, once the ships was done, we were going to head back to take a pick of the Orioles stadium. First though, we noticed what looked like a 9/11 Memorial, which it definitely was.

As we looked at them, I spotted another Civil War Trails Sign and walked up to it.

I didn't realize how close we were to the Baltimore Riots place. The first CWT sign I saw pointed to the below information plaque and ended up being one of the few times I was able to break out the CW history buff hat on my wife!

I did end up getting the direction wrong first time I told the wife about it, she kept looking at me the entire time with a "Why is that exciting?" look to her face.

We could have had the time I guess to have walked all of it, but my wife doesn't like to walk and we were both hungry! So we went to a newer pizza place a couple streets away. Then afterwards, we got the picture of the baseball stadium as they were in the last couple inning left on the game. We did get rained on at that point.

Wife Approval Rating: 2/10 (the Riot stuff), Baseball stadium - 10/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 4 - Stop 1: President Lincoln's Cottage

Our first stop for the day is President Lincoln's Cottage. Along the way, we drove past the Old Soldier's Cemetery. I didn't know about this place before, so I didn't get a pic fast enough, so what I've got is a stock image to place here. However, the columns, with the names of Civil War leaders at the entrance caught my attention. I told my wife, "it has to have been established early because Scott was out by the end of 1861."

Our tour guide at the Cottage called it, "The Arlington Before Arlington."

Once we got past the gate, we were with a second couple touring the house. I made sure to answer most questions the tour guide asked.

No pictures were allowed to be taken inside the cottage. I suspect the main reason is that there is next to no furniture in the place. The tour guide explained that they won't add furniture to rooms that they can't find records or accounts to detail what they looked like. There is an exact replica of the desk that Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation of but you can almost count on both hands the amount of furniture throughout the building.

There is a very nice exhibit in the visitors center. Between the tour and the museum, we spent maybe 2 hours. We did have a security guard come rolling up on us while we waited for our ride to show up, and the chapel (I think) played the different anthems of the branches of the military, which was fun.

The wife was extremely disappointed. While the building looked nice on the outside, there wasn't enough within to hold her attention and for her, felt a bit lame. I agree that they're refusal to add furniture unless they know the exacts has led them to leave areas where they know pieces of furniture were blank, simply because it "didn't look" like what was back then, even though the building has had so many renovations done on it that it probably wouldn't hurt having place holder furniture.

Wife Approval Rating: 4/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 4 - Stop 2: Ford's Theatre

Next stop was Ford's Theatre. I didn't realize I didn't take a pic of the outside of the theater on my camera, but I got lots of good pics inside the house. We got there with about 10 minutes to spare before going in.

I didn't know what to expect inside, so I was a bit surprised when the entire basement was a large exhibit of his Presidency, and different aspects of it.

I was also a bit surprised with just how many artifacts they had from the conspiracy and assassination attempts, such as Lewis Powell's revolver and the dagger that Major Rathbone was slashed with.

I tried my best to be History Buff Harms88, but the wife wasn't having it for the most part. Like I tried to explain the massive panels they had showing the different Union generals Lincoln put his hopes on in the West and overall command. However, she did find it fascinating when I told her the derringer was partly designed as a lady's weapon to protect themselves.

I found the theater where Lincoln was shot as being much smaller than I'd assumed.

I also found the Presidential booth to be much smaller than I expected it would be.

Overall, we found ourselves as being enriched from our experience in Ford's Theatre. I did end up being yelled at one of the rangers on site, which was fun. We probably spent about an hour in there, ten minutes in the bookstore. I found a few books that I took pictures of for future purchases, but we found the gift shop to be pretty overall meh. Peterson House will be the next post!

Wife Approval Rating: 10/10

 

[Harms88]

Day 4 - Stop 3: Peterson House

No stop at Ford's Theatre is complete without going to the Peterson House. It's very much a part of the story of the Lincoln Assassination.

One thing I appreciated about the house is just how small it was. You have accounts of the house becoming overcrowded and walking through it, it's completely understandable when every a dozen tourists at a time seemed to make the house almost too many to walk through.

Another thing that surprised me is just how short the exhibit for the place was. Three rooms and that was it. One lady upon exiting the room with the Lincoln Biography Tower, stepped outside, came back inside and asked us if she had missed something. "Was it really just three small rooms?"

The Aftermath Exhibit is currently closed, so a major issue I think the combined Ford's Theatre and Peterson House has is that it's actually not that clear on what happens to Booth. You have the display case in the Ford's Theatre basement which has artifacts of the conspiracy and one of the masks they used on the prisoners, but neither really do any real job at explaining what happened to Booth. When we got to the book tower, this teenager behind us was super fascinated by the assassination but kept asking his dad what happened to Booth. His dad clearly was struggling with the answer because it was clear he wasn't a Civil War buff and didn't have the knowledge on hand. So I offered to explain it to them and for about five minutes I had an absolutely captive audience as I explained about Booth's escape, the reward, the hunt, the standoff in the barn and his painful death.

Afterward, my wife said and I think it's an extremely valid and probably common belief among the unwashed masses, "I think you can't visit the Peterson House without visiting Ford's Theatre but you really can visit Ford's Theatre without going to the Peterson House."

Wife Approval Rating: 5/10.

 

[danny]

Next Historical Stop: Theodore Roosevelt Island

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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.

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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.

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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.

So many trees waiting to serve the needs