The Votes Are In!

We had a lot of fun in the DMV over the past nine days! Here are the highlights that marked our ballots...

Around the Beltway

For our penultimate day in the DMV, we planned to visit four parks in both Maryland and DC proper. Two of them are official units in the National Park System, and two are managed as part of the National Capital Parks unit. Because our first stop was in Maryland on the opposite side of DC, we decided to drive a clockwise loop around the Beltway (I-495), getting a little later start than usual to avoid morning commuter traffic.

80 miles, 2 hours

We're Going on a Stamp Hunt

Because the K St NW & 4 St NW stop was right across the street from our hotel, we started our day riding the P6 Metrobus this morning. We had already loaded SmarTrip cards onto our phones, so it was super easy to "tap to pay" when we boarded. Four stops later, we hopped off at 11th St NW & F St NW and walked the rest of the way, passing by the statue of Revolutionary War hero Brigadier General Casimir Pulaski on the eastern side of Freedom Plaza.

The stone pavers represent a map of Washington, DC

Monuments by Moonlight

Our hotel is on the corner of K Street and 4th Street NW in Mount Vernon Triangle, which I had read was a safe neighborhood. So it was a little disconcerting to hear a woman screaming from the street below when we were upstairs this afternoon. We found out from the front desk that someone had snatched her purse/bags while she was on the sidewalk nearby. Needless to say, that made us rethink our plans to walk the 0.75 miles to Union Station this evening and called a cab instead.

We grabbed a quick dinner from Raising Cane's inside Union Station before the 7:00PM check in for the Monuments by Moonlight Tour that we had reserved with Old Town Trolley Tours. Here's the view we had looking southwest at Columbus Circle and the Capitol while we waited to board the trolley...

The Freedom Bell is a double-scale replica of the Liberty Bell

We're Golden

Thanks to the National Park Travelers Club, I found out about another website which allows you to keep track of the counties you've visited. While I'm not as die-hard as my some of my fellow NPTCers when it comes to county collecting, it is a fun way to see where we've been. In Virginia there are 38 municipalities that are independent cities which are not under the jurisdiction of any county, so those are slightly harder to get. Having already "counted" Fairfax and Alexandria so far on this trip, we took a small detour through Falls Church this morning so that I could mark it off on our county map.

Really, it was on the way...

Ok, so maybe I *might* have a problem... 

Today's route: 30 miles

By George

The first stop on our tour of the DMV was Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, VA. Although the performance season ended in September, we were still able to access the park and hike the grounds this morning.

☑ Unit #191

Stuck in the Middle with You

When we road trip, we are usually sleeping in a different place each night. Throw in exhaustion from the previous day's activities on top of disorientation from only being semi-conscious, and it's almost guaranteed that I will narrowly miss bashing my face into a wall as I try to find my way to the bathroom in the dark without my glasses. Today I woke up in the middle of the night especially confused, thinking that we were home because the winds were howling outside just like the Santa Anas in Southern California. 

And they were still gusting at about 30 mph(!) this morning at Fort Larned National Historic Site when we arrived around 8:30AM. After getting our obligatory pic of the entrance sign, we drove in to the parking lot and walked about a quarter-mile to the visitor center. 

Hang on!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

...begins with a single step.  -Lao Tzu

Or, in this case, a journey of *three* thousand miles begins with a single *park*!

In order to get to our last two stops in Independence, MO before closing time, we had to stick to a tight schedule today. So we said our goodbyes to my parents and were on the road by 7:45AM. 

An hour later, we arrived at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield. Since we have been here many times before, this was just going to be a "stamp-and-run" stop. But because the visitor center wasn't open yet, we walked over for a selfie in front of the house while we waited.

Going for Silver

Since joining the National Park Travelers Club in 2011, our travels have gotten us the Special Achievement Award (minimum 10 units in 2 regions with 20 stamps) every year except for 2020 (pandemic 😢) and last year when we earned the Bronze Master Traveler Award (min. 25 units, 4 regions, 50 stamps). This year because we have been able to visit a number of different NPS passport regions (Western, Midwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Atlantic), we are really close to achieving the Silver MTA (min. 35 units, 5 regions, 75 stamps). Only need stamps from 7 more units before the end of the year! 

So, in an effort to get our (okay, *my*) certificate, we took a slight detour on our way down to my parents' house today to move 3 units closer to Silver...

225 miles

Escape from New York

To start off our last day in New York City, we walked with MH over to Central Park, stopping by Grabstein's Bagels on the way. We sat on a bench near the East Meadow to enjoy our picks. My toasted bagel with a schmear of cream cheese was sooo good!

Playing Hooky

Very rarely do I have to travel for work. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of places I've been while on the company dime. So even though the purpose of my business travel has been to attend scientific conferences (admit it, you just yawned), I've been fortunate to have enjoyed some extra time to play tourist in... 

• New Orleans (1993): Preservation Hall, Jackson Square, Cafe Du Monde, tons of great food and cool jazz
• New York City (1994): Manhattan, Empire State Building, Staten Island Ferry
• Frederick, MD (2017): not exactly a hotbed of tourism, but there is a Civil War battlefield and national park passport stamp (woohoo!)

Up 'til now, I've only blogged about our travels as a family, but I think I'll make an exception for my solo trip to Atlanta.

Youngsholm

The final stop of our trip to the Buckeye State was Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce. Because this unit was only designated in 2013, it's still a work in progress. They aren't open for regular visitation, so several weeks ago I made arrangements for us to visit the site at 10:00AM today.

The Plant Doctor

The first destination on our itinerary today was George Washington Carver National Monument, about 30 miles west of Monett in Diamond, MO. Because we also had two other places to visit later in the day, we hit the road as early as our teenagers could tolerate.

Third Time's the Charm

Currently there are 405 units in the National Park Service. As of today we have visited 111 of them together as family! We checked off our latest one with a tour of Port Chicago Naval Magazine N MEM. 

Port Chicago is one of the more challenging units to visit because it is located within MOTCO (Military Ocean Terminal Concord). When there are active operations at the base, no tours are available to the public for weeks or months at a time. And when it is open, reservations must be made at least two weeks in advance so that the military can conduct background clearance checks. The last two times that we have been in the vicinity, Port Chicago was closed. Needless to say, I was really happy that the timing was finally right for us to visit!

The Longest Day

Because our flight home didn't leave until late afternoon, we checked out of the Marriott and left our bags at the bell desk. After breakfast (Dunkin' Donuts, what else?!), we went back to the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial to start off on the Black Heritage Trail. The State House is right across the street from the memorial. While we were waiting to cross the street, the buses transporting the Boston Pops to rehearsal for the Fireworks Spectacular drove past, complete with their police escort. You would have thought it was a presidential motorcade! Haha!

On the Freedom Trail

We still had a lot of daylight left, so we set out to walk part of the Freedom Trail, even though many of the historic sites were already closed for the day. The Marriott is only a couple of blocks away from the Copley Square T stop, as well as Boylston Street and...

Boston Public Library

Dayton History

For our last day in Ohio, we went to visit the rest of the sites in the Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP. Starting out at the Wright Dunbar Interpretive Center, the boys worked on the other half of the Jr. Ranger booklet that was relevant to this location in order to earn another patch.

History Lessons

A thunderstorm rolled through in the middle of the night, but by the time we got up and going this morning, it was only a light rain. My aunt and uncle took us out for breakfast at a local pancake house -- J must have been hungry, because he downed 2 good-sized pancakes, an egg, bacon, *and* an order of hash browns! From there, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site was practically around the corner.