MD-VA 2015

After a two-day, snack-filled drive down to Maryland, the car needed detailing to remove crumbs and Katy's chickens willingly obliged

Charlie and Erin spent hours playing with the chickens

Not content to leave the National Park sites in the DC area unexplored, Dave took his girls, plus Lyla and Charlie on a busy day trip. First stop, Fort Washington, first established for the War of 1812 and expanded for the Civil War.

The kids dutifully worked on Junior Ranger booklets under Bobblehead George's watchful eye

The requisite cannons in the deserted fort didn't have signs prohibiting climbing...

Erin and Lyla made the hike down to the Potomac River for the view across of Mount Vernon and upriver towards DC

At the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Anacostia DC, Erin didn't have the stomach for the movie portraying slave life

Oxon Hill Farm was oddly situated inside a cloverleaf of the DC beltway, and proved to be a dense, if not mildly informative view of farming life

 The resident goat Aaron was a feisty kid and tolerated this extra attention

Have Charlie and Lyla been successfully infected with the Junior Ranger bug?

Not a bad day's haul: 7 badges and 1 patch for each

Back at Boxwood Farm, the kids swam and played

Erin loved the joy rides with Charlie

 In addition to entertaining guests, Aunt Katy's dental skills were also put to use

On the way to Virginia we stopped at the Clara Barton NHS in Glen Echo, MD. The founder of the American Red Cross and a tireless leader of relief efforts nationwide, we believe that she is a strong candidate for the upcoming addition to the $10 bill.

Her house was set up like a Red Cross shelter with many storage rooms and even a cotton muslin ceiling.

At Aunt Claire's the cousins had fun swimming and kayaking around Lake Barcroft

Brooke and Erin are losing their gap-toothed smiles

Tessie had fun romping around with the big kids

The eldest children

Back in Maryland, we prepped for Katy's square dance, which was a huge success, so much so that we didn't stop to take any photos

One more NP site day trip. The Fredericksburg battlefield preserved a bullet-ridden house

Aunt Katy leads the Junior Ranger charge

Outside Fredericksburg was Ferry Farm, the link between GW's birthplace and Mount Vernon

Caroline Ehmann, est. 2007

George Washington's birthplace can be found in George Washington's Birthplace, Virginia, on the neck of land between the Potomac and Rappahannock estuaries. It is a beautiful location with a re-creation of the original house and plantation.

Katy was envious of the boxwood on the grounds

There it is, Virginia's cash crop: tobacco

 Every year we get a little closer to a great lineup photo of the cousins

 Patriotic mustaches!

 This may be the last year the porch swing can support all 8 kids

 We had a great time with our visit

Fort Washington fun

Glen Echo carousel

Before the square dance

4th of July in DC

The day after school ended we kayaked around the Concord River

 

then Dave, Caroline, and Erin flew to Maryland to spend 2 weeks visiting sisters. At Boxwood Farm there is always great grilling

and while I worked during the day, Charlie and Erin delivered me lunch. (I actually read that 1884 1st edition of US Grant's memoirs. Quite a general was Grant and one of those great American stories of a kid from Ohio earning an education and rising to the highest levels)

We dog-sat for tenants of a house even older than Boxwood Farm. Sudley house dates from the 1720s and had huuuge fireplaces in the great hall and bedrooms. 

General Bobblehead George, you have come to the end of the road. You've seen your birthplace, Fort Necessity where you led your men into a massacre, the Cambridge common where you received command of the Continental Army, your winter headquarters at Morristown and Valley Forge, Yorktown, Federal Hall, the C&O canal, Fort Washington, and now your beloved home plantation of Mount Vernon.

All the cousins except Charlie made the trip

That is flax drying so its fibers can be harvested and spun into linen. Among the 3 natural fibers used for centuries in clothing, we'd seen cotton and wool demonstrations, but this was the first time seeing flax. It takes a lot of work to process the stalks into thread, but the interpreters who wore all-linen outfits loved the durability and softness.

Those are the fireworks for the DC celebration being loaded on a barge. I would guess that George's ghost approves of his docks use to commemorate an event from his lifetime.

And there is the original tomb and final resting place of GW

At Claire's we were treated to delicious meals and played many games

and the kids created a quest for me. In this one we had to direct the model to recreate famous paintings. Watch those arm and leg positions, Erin, you're a pre-Raphaelite.

The finale was a disarming of the "poisoned" soda bottle using Mentos

We knocked off the remaining unvisited NPS sites in DC. Here are the beautiful, ahem, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on the Anacostia River. At least they were very green.

and there are always new monuments going up. This is the Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial shoehorned next to the Dept of Education and across from the Erin Space Museum.

and when Tessie and Heather flew into DCA, why wouldn't we brave the heat and humidity to see the Jefferson Memorial?

Dinner at Jerry's house was much better

Katy had a bumper crop of honey from her bees. She's streamlined the harvesting operation, which entails cutting off the caps of the boxes, spinning out the honey, filtering it, and then pouring it into bottles to give to friends and family.