Elgin

Hi,

I decided to write about our visit to Elgin, Illinois as a sole blog. The reason is that we visited our great nephew who is 13 and is fighting Burketts Lymphoma which is a very fast growing cancer. His was diagnosed back in November. He went through several treatments of chemo and now is starting again. They are hoping he will be able to have a bone marrow transplant if is the next round of chemo is successful. So please pray for him. He has the most wonderful parents (I just love them) and a sister and brother who have been keeping his spirits up. Jack's sister, Dor is staying with them presently to help out to take the pressure off his parents. (The photo was taken last summer)

We golfed with Jack's sister, Dor and Judy on Sunday at a beautiful course called Whispering Creek. I did not golf very well but the weather was excellent so it was all worth it. We spent most of our time visiting with family and enjoying the time with them. Lots of eating!!!

Annapolis/Gettysburg

It is time to catch you up with our trip. We went to Annapolis a week ago. We decided to take a walking tour so we could walk the streets where our fore fathers walked. Our guide was dressed in colonial attire which reminded us of early American History. Annapolis was the city where George Washington resigned his military command. It is also the home of the Naval Academy. We were lucky to see the 1200 recruits march in formation to the Naval Band. We visit John Paul Jones crypt. We ended our day with a wonderful meal of Maryland Crab. It was delicious.

We then headed to Gettysburg. We took a bus tour as there was so much to see and the battles in Gettysburg were spread out all around the city. We stood on the grounds of the different battles of the Gettysburg that occurred in a 3 day span in July 1863. It was amazing the number of men that were wounded and killed in those battles along with horses. There was so much death and destruction than that occurred there. Once the solders left, the town was left with the remnants of the battles. They had to bury the dead, take care of the wounded and destroy the dead animals which was a enormous task for a small town of 2,000 people. There is a new National Military Park Museum which was great. We spent hours in the museum with large displays of artifacts from the battles. There was a wonderful film that described the battles in detail. After the film we went into the cyclorama which is a light and sound show of a spectacular 377 foot painting. It was incredible. Gettysburg is also the location where Lincoln stood in front town circle giving the famous Gettysburg Address. So much history.

We are now visiting family and will write more on that later.

Washington DC

We have been in Washington DC for a week now and have seen so much. We are staying at Fort Mead which is about 30 miles to DC so we took the commuter train (MARC) each time we went to the city. It was interesting to see how people commute to DC which is not something I could have done. The train took us into Union Station which is beautiful. One the first day we took a tour bus to get our bearings and then walked so we could see as much as possible. We toured the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WW II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial and walked the Tidal Basin on day one.

Day two we drove to DC and took the tour of Arlington Cemetery, visiting President Kennedy's grave, Challenger, Iran Rescue Mission and Columbia Memorials, The Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. We were there for the changing of the guard. Very emotional for us. We then went to see the National Cathedral. That was very impressive.

Day three we walked to Capital Hill and then to the White House to get some photos. Then we visited the Smithsonian of American History and the Ronald Reagan Building.

Day four we walked to the National Achieves, Smithsonian Castle, The Air and Space Museum and the National Post Office Museum.

We were exhausted and are going to save the rest for another trip. There is just so much to see and so much history that it gets overwhelming. We saw so much more than I listed. We plan on going to Annapolis tomorrow before we leave to head to Gettysburg.

There have been a sad point on our trip. Last Sunday I lost my Aunt Helen. She was 93 and lived a great life but I will miss her. She was still living on her own and just days before her death, she was playing cards and out to dinner. I was so furtunate to have her in my life.

Virginia Beach

We have been in Virginia beach for 9 days and I am not sure where the time went. We stayed on Sea Mist RV Park on the Dam Neck Annex to the Naval Base. A nice small park with full access to the beach. The weather was great and we were able to enjoy some 70 and 80 temps and low humidity.

We spent a day at the Norfolk Naval Station looking at all the huge Naval Ships. There were several destroyers and aircraft carriers (wow are the big) docked which was great. Another day we went down to Hampton Roads Naval Museum and toured the Battleship Wisconsin. That was very interesting and we realizes that the Navy close courters would not have been for us. We drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which spans the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, connection Virginia's Eastern Shore with Virginia mainland at Virginia Beach. It is the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. This is a 17 mile bridge with 2 miles of tunnels. The ships actually cross on top of the tunnels. It was eerie.

Tomorrow we are heading to Washington D.C. We are looking forward to seeing our Nation's Capital.