To Williamsburg!  I haven't been here since I was in fifth grade.  What I remember most was that we came with no coats (because it was late spring) and that my father had to shell out for coats for all of us because it was so cold.  I guess I'm cursed because the weather was cold and rainy again this time.  But occasionally, as occurred this entire trip, the sun came out and thus my camera.  Just remember the good parts right?  Williamsburg is one mile long and three quarters of a mile wide.  I'm not sure how we walked ten miles, but we did.   How I loved the theater of it all!  Thank you to all the actor/guides/historians/interpreters.  I loved hearing the history and the back and forth between you and your audience.  Don't miss the print shop.  It is the best stop in the whole place.  The actor/printer/guide there was terrific!  He never stopped asking questions or talking...and we stayed quite awhile.  I was impressed.  The wig shop was right up there in my favorites.  Where did the phrase "powder room" come from?  It was where the men went to powder their wigs.  Ugh, can you imagine?  Puff, puff, puff color all over your wig, shoulders and clothes.  Some of those wigs were extreme and depending on what they were made of were very expensive.  So I guess things haven't changed much as far as how much we will spend to fit in and look good.  I loved the reconstruction of the capital, which was our first stop.  Could I have voted back then?  No.  In fact no one in the whole room of approximately 50 people met the criteria.  And yet these wealthy privileged people were willing to give all that up, give their lives, because their rights were being taken away.  This is our heritage.  Don't let anyone take your rights away.  At least that's part of the story, but don't forget that all that was predicated on the fact that we required the help of the British and then literally wouldn't pay the bill when it was due.  So the British sought payment by taxation instead...which seems reasonable actually.  Kinda puts a different spin on the tale doesn't it?  Also really enjoyed the Milliners shop and the Governor's Palace gardens.  Also don't miss the museum.  It was a highlight for me.  It looks pretty small, but most of it is underground and just fantastic.  The area upstairs dedicated to information about the insane asylum was tortuous.  But I admit I was surprised at the compassion evident in the doctor's notes.  In the actual art museum the paintings displayed were a highlight because they focused on the artist, not the sitter.  Yeeeesssss!  Loved it.  Very nice little town too by the way and school is over so it was pretty quiet.  Back to my brushes.

"I desire that you remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors."  - Abigail Adams

We started the day with news of a sinkhole on our route to Mount Vernon.  Luckily it was on the other side of the boulevard/parkway and didn't slow us down.  We did take an alternate route back though.  I visited there when I was about six years old and looked forward to sharing the experience with my partner.  It was again cold and spitting rain on and off.  Par for the course at this point.  We got there early to avoid crowds and my experience is that it is the best time to go.  There were hardly any lines, but when we left, lines were all we could see.  Mount Vernon looks totally different from when I saw it as a child.  The color of the home is not creamy white anymore as you can see from the photos.  Apparently, this is the color Washington preferred.  If you click on the photo you can read about his choice of local sand.  I have to say it was rather clever, achieving an excellent stone appearance.  It must have been a constant challenge though as it seems to wear off rather quickly now.  Perhaps it is a new environmental challenge?  I don't know.  Really enjoyed the day and the grounds.  The foxgloves were in beautiful bloom and I enjoyed the gardens tremendously.  The green room, his favorite room in the house, well...nice to know he appreciated color.  But the view is spectacular!  Hard to Imagine that he was willing to give up all that wealth and stature for the birth of this nation.  I picked up some heirloom seeds from the garden to give to my friend back home.  It is the only souvenir I purchased the entire trip.  Wonderful meal with friends that evening and met another watercolor artist too!  Good times.  Back to my brushes.  

"Bad seed is a robbery of the first kind; for your pocketbook not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved."  - George Washington

I have had Gettysburg on my list of things to see for some time and finally that was realized.  I even entered a show just for the excuse of going, but didn't get in.  (I told you I get decline letters too.)  So, the day was cold and spitting rain as usual.  I was really impressed with the new facility.  It was so clean and well run.  We were there fairly early to miss the crowds.  Good planning.  We started with a tour of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's home.  It backs up to the battlefield and has a beautiful view.  Informative and polite guides, but the opportunity to just walk around was quite pleasant despite the weather.  My favorite area started with the barn.  I loved getting in the barn as I had seen this style when we drove into this part of the country.  The barns back home don't look like this, so it was interesting to actually see the difference up close. Apparently Dwight and Mamie worked really hard to pick the right color. Really?  Army institutional green?  As a military kid, I can't count how many buildings I've been in that were this color.  I have to say if I had been given the opportunity to redo a house from the ground up, I would have made the ceilings higher.  A little stifling, though par for the times.  Perhaps they were looking for something more...cozy?  My favorite part was the linen closet.  Yes, Mamie's favorite color was pink but it was the organization that I admired.  The phones were fantastic and everyone had their own number.  Ike's "big" kitchen looks functional (he liked to cook).  I wonder what his apron looked like?  And this little vignette caught my attention and raised an eyebrow.  Really?  With the hairbrushes?  I'm still pondering that scene today.   It poured down rain as we got on the shuttle to leave.  Next was the battlefield and after the first stop on the tour it quit raining and the sun came out.  Hooray!  We went through town as well, but I would have liked to stay longer.  We enjoyed our thoughtful guide who stopped by the Arkansas monument just so we could take photos.  Although the close proximity of things were noted, I couldn't help but compare it to Vicksburg.  The proximity of combat in Vicksburg was really close; not a whole valley.  It was more like combat with the house across the street.  Close.  Really close.  It started raining again and we headed back to have dinner with friends at Passion Fish in Reston.  A delightful end to the day.  Back to my brushes.  

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."  - Dwight D. Eisenhower

After seeing everything we planned at the National Museum of Art, East and West, we headed to the Archives to finish the day.  We also walked over to take photos of the White House before catching the metro.  Only walked 11 miles that day.  Just a good stretch of the legs, but the following day was our planned monument walk.  It was overcast and again around 50 degrees which was actually pretty good for the excursion, but again it was misty.  Now let me say that I have done this before, but my partner had not, so it was new for one of us.  We started at the Washington Monument and proceeded in order to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial (my personal favorite), the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before we stopped and had a coke.  Then we proceeded to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, then the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.  This is where the sun came out.  Unfortunately, the pump house had flooded so none of the fountains were running.  I hope that is fixed soon, but I can appreciate the quiet.  I believe you can see the flooding in the photo of the Jefferson Memorial which was the last stop (click on the photo to make it larger).  The walkway around the edge of the water was flooded, so you had to take the long way around.  Plus they are working on the Jefferson Memorial, so once you get up those stairs the breeze you expected is shuttered off.  Disappointing.  Then we headed for the Air and Space Museum.  We got a hot dog and a drink before catching the show at the planetarium.  I'm not sure the heavens would be the same without Neil deGrasse Tyson's voice; such a pleasure.  The museum was filled to the brim with students, and almost half of the museum was shut down while they add on to one side of the building.  And to those that read my blog locally - yes, that is Louise Thaden in that photo!  I'm pleased that her home in Bentonville was saved, (even though it is still dismantled at this point).  And it wouldn't have been saved at all without the uproar from the public.  Who are we without our history?  We had a little over an hour before the museums closed, so we popped into the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to see the exhibit the Empresses of China's Forbidden City.  We really had to move fast, so I took lots of photos to peruse later.  Good thing too because straight up five they rounded everyone up like cattle and shooed us out the door in a mob.  If they had tried to brand me on the way out I wouldn't have been surprised.  Although if they had handed me a bottle of opioids I wouldn't have been surprised either; it is the Sackler after all.  But I hold nothing against the artists who's work I saw and admired.  The stitching was exquisite.  After that we perused the gardens at the castle which were just beautiful and finished the day by walking down the mall to the Capitol and back before jumping on the metro.  A full day to be sure.  Back to my brushes.  

​"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."  - Franklin Delano Roosevelt