VA MD 2017

Our first stop this year was Bevil and Alex's new home in Northwest DC. Bevil treated the 14 of us to a feast.  

Spacewoman Tess 

Bevil's house was minutes away from Rock Creek Park 

We went back to Chesapeake Beach for fireworks and beachcombing 

Thanks, Erin 

Quite a haul of shark teeth

Tessie and Mom left mid-week 

The German biergarten in Edgewater served up Erin's favorites

and the next day Dad took Caroline, Erin, Lyla, and Charlie to Gettysburg, where they joined the army 

and then over to the Eisenhower homestead, which Lyla accurately noted is smaller than her house 

The kids loved Mamie Eisenhower's "poof" 

David Eisenhower's signature looks strikingly like Ed Ehmann's signature

 Our reward: an early dessert before the ride home. Our discovery of the Hamilton soundtrack made the time fly.

 Back in VA, while Erin was at the beach in Delaware, we headed out to Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. It was no more than an outdoor concert venue with oodles of rangers on patrol and didn't feel National Parky at all

but Great Falls was Great. The to-die-for wall of junior ranger badges and patches,

a visitor center to learn about George Washington's colonial Patowmack Canal and the modern Potomac River,

and a great overlook of the falls themselves 

let's see what Caroline's written 

Thanks, Caroline 

Our reward was awesome poke