Day of Capitals

Today, we travelled to Dover, Delaware to visit the state capital. Delaware calls their statehouse the Legislative Hall. Here is a picture of Lynn in front of the Legislative Hall.

  And here is the House of Representatives Chamber as seen from the Gallery.

This is the Senate Chamber.

While on the tour, we discovered several facts. Did you know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States thus becoming the first state in the American Union? That occurred on December 7, 1787.

 

Delaware had 3 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Next,we drove to Annapolis, Maryland and toured their Capital which at one time served as the U.S. capital in 1783, 1784. See the sign for details.

Here is the Maryland State House building.

This is the Senate Chamber.

and here is the House Chamber.

 It was in this building that George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in this very room, the Old Senate Chamber on December 23, 1783.

Here is the Government House (Governer's Residence)

We were going to visit the Navel Academy at Annapolis also but ran out of time so we need to come back later in the week.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and Lynn suggested we go out for breakfast. We drove about 9 miles into Bethesda to The Original Pancake House, one of my favorite places for breakfast. Lynn introduced me to this chain more than 20 years ago while we were dating. They have a restaurant in Anahiem, CA in an old house and we used to go there a couple of times a month. We haven't been to one in over a year and it was a real treat. After breakfast, we drove to the University of Maryland College Park Metro station where parking is free on weekends and took the subway to the Mall and walked to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where we spent the day. We saw the Hope Diamond, a large, 45.52 carats, deep-blue diamond, there. When we returned home, Lynn fixed a nice buffalo steak on the grill. While at the museum, I got a call from my daughter Wendy, wishing me a Happy Father's Day. All in all, a great day.

Visit Mount Vernon

This morning, we decided to drive to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.

Lynn and I have both been there before but in my case, it was 1972 and Lynn was even further back. Neither of us remembered too much about the place other then the back porch overlooking the Potomac.
The estate is around 500 acres and includes the farm. We very much enjoyed the visit and also took a 45 minute cruise on the river. There is a museum and we had lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, just steps from the estate. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

Return to Washington D.C.

With our Tracks to Adventure "Old South" trip over, we said goodby to our wagonmasters, Ken and Wanda Harris this morning and drove the 86 miles from Gettysburg, PA back to Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD where we will spend the next 10 nights. There is so much to see in our nations capital that we decided to come back and try to at least hit the highlights. We did laundry this afternoon and then went to Costco for some shopping and gas, followed by dinner at a Korean place. It was expensive and we did not enjoy the food at all. Bad choice. When we returned to the park, we watched a movie they were showing on the outside screen and then turned in for the night. It has been very hot and humid so we are sleeping with the air conditioning running. We much prefer having the windows open at night, but with lows about 75 degrees and humid, it is just to hot.
More tomorrow.