Month: October 2019

We headed north from Maryland to Rhinebeck, New York, about 100 miles north of NYC along the Hudson River and home of the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival, arguably the premier wool and knitting event in North America. We attended the festival last year and wanted to go back. The festival is great and the Hudson River Valley in the fall is stunningly beautiful. Carrie began the long weekend with a needle felting class, where everyone in the class made a Rhinebeck knitting gnome. Carrie is a financial sponsor of a sheep at Prado de Lana Sheep Farm in Massachusetts and at the festival Carrie got to meet Amanda, the shepherd who cares for her sheep. Amanda does a monthly videoblog from the farm, so Carrie felt like she already knew her. Carrie also got to connect with other online knitting friends from around the country.

While we were in the Hudson River Valley we visited the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, just a few miles south of Rhinebeck. FDR’s family had owned this estate for many years and it was one of his favorite places. While he was president he enjoyed spending time in Hyde Park and he had an office in the house where he could work. The house was interesting in that it was large and very nice but it was rather simple and not ostentatious. The grounds also house the FDR Presidential Library. Designed with input from FDR, it is the only presidential library in which a president worked while in office.

While in Hyde Park we also visited the Vanderbilt Mansion, owned by Frederick Vanderbilt, a grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who first created the Vanderbilt family wealth. The National Park Service maintains this estate not as a tribute to the Vanderbilts but as an historical snapshot into the lives of the wealthy during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. Unlike the rather modest FDR home, the Vanderbilt mansion presented a flamboyant display of wealth intended to impress the other members of New York high society. It was the location for many high society parties and it reminded us of a smaller version of the Palace of Versailles in France. Although it seemed like a fabulous mansion to us, it was only a seasonal cottage for the Vanderbilts, used mostly in the spring and fall. They spent summers at their “real” mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, and winters at their lavish apartment in New York City, when the social circle was in full swing.

We left New York on October 21 and, realizing that the weather could soon turn cold, we took a southern route back to California. Sure enough, we avoided an early-season snowstorm in Colorado just a few days later. We made a stop at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, site of the longest cave system known in the world. We took a guided cave tour in the morning and then had a wonderful picnic among the fall colors. As we were finishing lunch a deer came right up to our table and ate scraps of apples and strawberries leftover from some prior picnickers. She wasn’t the least bit afraid of us and stayed around for at least ten minutes. We then headed south to Spicewood, Texas, near Austin, to visit our nephew and his family. We had a fun family visit and had some great barbecue at Opie’s.

We headed north from Virginia to attend the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in mid-October. But we had a couple of weeks to spare so we decided to spend the time in the Maryland/Washington area. Carrie was born in D.C. but neither of us had spent much time there since we were kids so we wanted to visit. We rented an apartment in Severn, Maryland, approximately equidistant from Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis.

We began with a visit to Baltimore, stopping first at Fort McHenry, the site of a decisive battle in the War of 1812 and also the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner. We got to witness the daily raising of the 15-star American flag that flies every day (there were 15 states at the time). They normally fly a replica of the huge 30 by 42 feet garrison flag that was flown after the battle (we saw the original flag later, displayed in the Smithsonian) but we were there on a windy day so they flew a smaller version. The morning view of the flag was the inspiration for Francis Scott Key in writing the Star Spangled Banner. The battle in Baltimore Harbor in 1814 was crucial to the American victory in the war. Washington, D.C, had been burned by the British just a few weeks prior and if Baltimore had also fallen it might have been the end of our country as we know it.

After lunch we took a 1-hour boat cruise of Baltimore Harbor. We saw Fort McHenry from the water and we also had good views of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a previously blighted warehouse district that has been revitalized with skyscrapers and restaurants. On another day we took a van tour of location filming sites in Baltimore from The Wire TV series that ran about a decade ago. It was interesting to see the actual locations from the series but we didn’t get out and take any photos that day. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We spent a day exploring Annapolis, a colonial-era port that also serves as the capital city of Maryland and the home of the U.S. Naval Academy. Annapolis is a beautiful old city and it was fun to walk around the old streets. During the afternoon many midshipmen from the Academy were running through the streets in identical workout gear, getting their daily exercise.

We visited Washington, D.C., on several occasions. It was within easy driving distance and there was also a Metro (subway) station not far from our apartment in Maryland. As we have done in several large cities, we took a hop on/hop off bus tour to get oriented and to see some of the iconic sites. We passed by George Washington University Hospital, Carrie’s birthplace, which she had never seen as an adult. Our ticket included a 1-hour boat tour along the Potomac from Georgetown to a dock near the Jefferson Memorial. We like boats so it was fun, but much of Washington is set back from the river so there isn’t a lot to see (excellent views of Reagan Airport, though).

Our favorite stop in Washington (and currently one of the most popular in the city) was the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This new museum, part of the Smithsonian, opened just three years ago, and it has a unique and symbolic layout. You begin by taking an elevator to the basement, which houses displays depicting the early days of the slave trade. The museum down there is dark, evocative of the slave trader ship’s hull. You then wind your way up a series of spiral ramps with displays depicting the years of enslavement, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, and finally present-day America.

We made several other trips into Washington to visit other museums and attractions. The Renwick Gallery, near the White House, is an art museum featuring special arts and crafts exhibits. Part of the Smithsonian, it just recently reopened after major renovations. We especially enjoyed an exhibit of holograms, with moving flowers visible only by holding an iPad near the artwork. On another day we visited the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. A special feature there is a display of the inaugural gowns worn by First Ladies going back more than a century. Finally, although not strictly a museum, we visited the White House Visitor Center, which has displays of presidential history and daily life in the White House. We did not tour the White House itself but we walked around the perimeter. We were intrigued to see one of those huge airport fire department foam trucks enter the gates, and then about an hour later the Marine One helicopter arrived. It makes sense that such fire protection would be provided for the President, but it never occurred to us before. Since then we have seen the same truck in the background on TV when President Trump does his South Lawn press briefings before boarding the helicopter.

On one of our last days in the Washington area we intended to visit Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia home south of the capital. As it turned out, however, it was Columbus Day and also Homeschool Day, so the place was mobbed. We couldn’t get a house tour ticket until late afternoon so we decided to regroup and spend the day in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, instead. As it turns out we had a great time exploring this old colonial city on the banks of the Potomac. There is interesting history everywhere you turn along the Atlantic Coast.

After we left Prescott we went back to California for a brief visit with Andy. He wanted to see a new exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco featuring Japanese tattoo art, so we went there with Andy and his friend, Heather. Tattoos were very common in Japan in past centuries and the artwork depicting them was spectacular. We ended the day with dinner at one of our favorite Oakland restaurants, Chop Bar. A few days later we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary with lunch at Brix, one of our favorite Napa Valley restaurants. Brix has a large garden outside their patio and they harvest it regularly to provide fresh produce for the restaurant. Click on the first photo in each block to view the slideshow.

We left California and began the drive across country, taking our time to see some sights and stop to visit friends. We drove across Nevada and headed to Moab, Utah. There we took a twilight boat cruise on the Colorado River to view some of the beautiful red rock scenery. The next day we explored Arches National Park, with its striking red rocks and plentiful arches.

We spent a day in Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado, one of the best preserved Native American ruins in the US. Many spectacular ruins are visible along the cliffs in the park. Mesa Verde was inhabited from about 600 to 1300, after which most of the residents migrated to form the present-day pueblo communities in New Mexico.

We spent another day exploring the mountains north of Durango, Colorado, including the old mining towns of Silverton and Ouray. This area was a thriving silver mining region around the turn of the last century. Towns that once had thousands of people now have only a few hundred, and cater mostly to tourists. The mountain scenery is stunning.

After a week and a half on the road we reached our first destination, Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were there to house sit and cat sit for our friends, Norm and Emilee, while they ventured off to Europe for a few weeks. We had been there before so we were looking forward to seeing Mai-Mai and Rocio again. We had a mostly quiet and leisurely stay, enjoying walks along the Rio Grande most mornings, while it was still cool. We made a few local day trips, as well, including a day in Santa Fe for Carrie’s birthday. We also enjoyed the New Mexico State Fair and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.

After we left Albuquerque we drove to Nashville, Tennessee, to visit our friend, Kashena. We hadn’t seen her in over six years so it was a treat to have brunch with her and catch up on things. While in Nashville we visited the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home and estate. We toured his home and spent time in the adjacent museum to learn about his life and his influence on a young United States. We also took a drive through downtown Nashville, “Music City.”

We continued east to visit our friends Chris and Reed and to attend the annual World of Bluegrass, a week-long festival of bluegrass music always held in Raleigh, North Carolina. On the weekend Raleigh’s main street is closed down for about 12 blocks and bands perform on multiple outdoor stages. We also had the opportunity to tour the Plant Delights Nursery, a beautiful garden that is being donated to NC State University to be part of their arboretum. Finally, we got to see the finished Navajo rug which Chris and Reed had purchased partially completed off the loom when they visited us in Prescott!

After Raleigh we made the short drive to Charlottesville, Virginia, to visit our old friends Betty, Susie, and Michael. While there we toured the beautiful campus of the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson 200 years ago. We also spent most of a day touring Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home and estate. We toured the home and gardens and learned a great deal about Jefferson’s years at Monticello and about the enslaved people who made the place run.

After Charlottesville we headed toward our next apartment in Maryland which would serve as our home base for exploring Washington, Baltimore, and Annapolis, the subject of a subsequent blog post. But first we made a stop at the Fredericksburg Battlefield in Virginia, the site of a major Civil War battle in December 1862. Lincoln was planning to emancipate the enslaved people on January 1 and he wanted a Union victory to pave the way. But the Confederate military strategy was superior and they drove back the Union forces. The Fredericksburg area was the site of several battles over the next two years, making it one of the most contested places in the Confederacy.