Washington D. C. trip

We spent April 8-12 on a brief trip to Washington, D.C. The trip was planned long in advance because the occasion was the NCAA College Hockey National tournament. We drove down on a beautiful sunny day, and were fortunate to stay in Alexandria, VA, with Barre's high school friend, Bruce, and his wife, Theresa.

The hockey games were on Thursday and Saturday evening, so it enabled us to enjoy D.C. touring during the day. Bruce was able to join us, having taken personal days from work. He is an avid historian, so it was interesting to learn some local history from him, too. We visited the National History Museum, and the American Indian Museums on Thursday. Walking the mall in warm weather, and seeing all the flowers in bloom, and trees with their buds, made us a bit envious for warmer weather at home. Crowds of people were enjoying the city, too. Many, many tour buses were in the area.

On Friday we spent the morning touring the Alexandria area near Bruce's home (which is very near Mount Vernon). We learned about George Mason and his part in history (having written the Bill of Rights for Virginia), and toured Gunston, his home. At one time his plantation on the Potamac covered 5500 acres. Now it is 550 acres preserved for posterity. The historic fact regarding George Mason, is that our Bill of Rights bears a strong resemblance to the statements written and approved for Virginia.

In the afternoon, we drove into the city and visited the Washington National Cathedral. We spent quite a bit of time in the building, starting in the gallery on the 6th floor. What a view of the city! There is so much beauty to admire in the cathedral, so many enscriptions to read, it requires more than one visit to absorb all of the beauty and years it took to build the cathedral.
We walked the grounds and admired the exterior as well.

We enjoyed our hockey games, and had a bird's eye view of the goalie and lots of action in front of us, since we were just three rows behind the rink. The teams who made it to the finals (not UNH) had very avid fans (like all college hockey teams do) and we enjoyed the music, their signs, and cheers.

I persuaded Barre to take a different route home and we stopped in Gettysburg on Sunday, for a tour of the battleground, the new visitors center, and lunch. We spent about three hours there, not nearly enough time, but better than none. We made sure we found the monument for the 20th Maine, led by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, which was so instrumental in the north winning the battle. We have just watched the movie Gettysburg again!