Baltimore Harbor, Arlington, and National Cathedral

Here's our final post about our vacation, and a few more things. We were pretty tired after our touring, so we decided to take it easy for the last few days there.

Baltimore Harbor and Camden Yards


National Cathedral--It was really beautiful. They pretty much let you wander where you want to go. It is the highest point within DC, so you can see all around from the top. I was surprised that it serves an Episcopalian congregation. I guess I just assumed that all cathedrals were Catholic. They also have many interfaith assemblies.



Arlington Cemetery: We watched the changing of the guard, and it was really amazing. We learned that even during hurricane conditions, the soldiers will still guard the unknown tomb. I thought the heat was oppressive, but I couldn't imagine how the soldier felt in his wool uniform and gloves. It reminded me that I can do hard things, too. At the bottom, our little Camden was marching up and down a drain grate. We thought he might have been imitating the soldier!

Overall, it was a very beautiful, reverent place. What an honor it is to live in our country!





As for the rest of September, we've been getting cars fixed, bodies healthy again, and refinishing kitchen cabinet doors. Much bigger project than anticipated...will post pictures when finished.

Happy October!

Maryland Trip Days 3 & 4

These were some of our favorite places to visit. On our third full day in Maryland we took a trip to Mount Vernon--George Washington's Estate. One amazing thing was how cool it was inside the house. It felt like they had air conditioning even though there wasn't any. We wished our house had been designed to stay cool like that house. It was a beautiful, peaceful place. We wouldn't mind taking up residence there.

Here is the main house at Mount Vernon. It's really nice inside, too.

This is the view from the back porch of the main house overlooking the Potomac.

The next day we went to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. This was an amazing place to be. The Liberty Bell was pretty cool to see, but the best part was this room.

This is where the founding fathers hammered out the details of the Constitution. Here they fought, argued, prayed, and compromised to finally bring the states together to form a nation. There's a reason that our constitution has been imitated by so many countries: it is definitely an inspired document. It was a humbling experience to look through these buildings and realize what great things happened there.

After we finished looking around the Independence Hall neighborhood, we decided to go farther into Pennsylvania to find some Amish villages. We went through the main road of Intercourse and Bird-In-Hand, but we got there kind of late when most of the shops were just about ready to close. We don't quite understand the principle that they're trying to uphold by the way they live. They can't drive cars, but they can ride in them if someone else is driving. They can use gas engines to cut their hay, but they have to pull the cutter with a team of horses. On a side note, they do have very beautiful horses. Every horse we saw looked like it could win a competition.

Anyway, those were a couple more days of our vacation. More to come soon (depending on your definition of "soon").

Maryland Trip Days 1 and 2

Our flight into Maryland was great. There were a ton of open seats, so they gave us our own row. It was great to have an extra seat for Camden to move around at least a little bit. He fell asleep about an hour before we landed, and as soon as he woke up he was pointing out the window saying "truck." We made it in without a hitch and got settled in at Grandma and Grandpa Marchant's house with a big box of trucks and horses (and some other less important toys). Camden loved diving into the box and playing with all of the toys and saying "truck" about 5,000 times a day.

On our first whole day there, we drove up to Gettysburg. It was a lot bigger than we imagined. It was interesting to see the battlefields mixed throughout the actual town. There also was an amazing painting of the battle--40 feet tall and 360 feet long, all one big canvas painting. You go into a circular room and stand in the middle of the painting.

There are several towers to climb and look out over the fields. This one was at least 8 flights, but probably more. It was really pretty at the top, though!

Beautiful Gettysburg--It's hard to imagine it filled with a battle.

Civil War cannon

On the second day, we went to several Smithsonian museums. First, we stopped in at the Natural History Museum--mostly for Camden. The huge elephant in the entrance makes elephant sounds, which Camden really liked. He also liked the dinosaurs and the bears.


Next, we toured the American History Museum. Michelle liked the exhibit of all the first ladies' gowns. Grandpa Marchant felt so "inspired" that he promptly walked back out to wait for us. :) We both liked to see the giant flag that flew in the War of 1812, and which our national anthem was written about. Brian's favorite exhibit was exhibit about all the wars involving American troups. Camden slept through most of it (hooray!) and woke up just in time for his favorite exhibit--the transportation (trains, cars, trucks, boats, etc.) section.

Camden couldn't understand why all the cool toys were behind glass.

Camden and Brian standing in front of a big train and a horse.

Finally, we stopped in at the Air and Space Museum. We were all pretty tired--3 Smithsonians is too much for one day! We saw some really cool things and got to climb in several different planes and space craft.

More coming soon!