Day 5 - VA to GA - Savannah

We departed the campground around 06:30 and pointed our little caravan south.  We got thru the DC traffic without any problems and hit I95 for the long haul. It was a pretty uneventful drive, we took a few breaks along the way and arrived at the Rivers End Campground on Tybee Island around 18:30 and got settled in. We passed through Savannah on the way to Tybee, but wanted to go back for dinner and walk the streets a bit so we did. We parked the Van at the Hilton Garden Hotel, where most of the family was staying and walked to the Savannah Market Place to find a place to eat. We decided to go light stopped a the wings place and got a good seats where we could see/hear the band on the market place. The market place is very similar to what you see in Burlington on Church St, with the exception that the bars are on the street and you can take your adult beverage with you.

After dinner we walked the water front and we impressed with the barges going by, and having visited Savannah the year before did not fall for the guy selling palms made into flowers this time.... :-).

We knew that Randy and Sue were at a rehearsal dinner so did not expect to see them, but they did come to the water front after their engagement. It was good to catch up with them. We were hopeful that Don and Louann would make it in time to have drink, but after a long day of driving we decided we needed some shut eye so headed back to camp, they did arrive in time to meet Randy and Sue.

Tomorrow we hope to tour Tybee a bit and then go to the wedding in the afternoon.

Day 4 - National Museums

Today we slept in a bit and then set off for DC on our own.  We stopped at the first Metro station to see if we could park but the only parking available was in the garage which lacks the height we needed for my van (9'6").  We decided to just drive downtown and park at Union Station, the traffic was pretty heavy but we managed to make our way there and eventually get into the garage where the buses park. We were lucky to park at all, the garage was packed with tour buses, it is the cherry blossom season, al beit late this year.  Union station is an experience in itself, pretty impressive.

We decided to walk the 1/2 mile or so to the mall and started with the Air and Space museum.

We were rather selective in what we saw at the Air and Space Museum and still found it 2PM before we stopped for lunch.  From A&S we crossed the mall and went to the Museum of Natural History, crossing the mall was a bit of a challenge since they have it all torn up for construction.  The NH museum had the best part closed for renovation...the dinosaur exhibition... doh.  We still enjoyed the museum, the girls spent way too much time in the gems exhibition if you ask me.

We looked at the clock and decided to head back, walking again.  As we made our way back to Union Station, we were delayed by a Motorcade, some head of state (we think Afghanistan and one cop said VP Biden).

 It was fun to watch...once.







We debated whether to head to camp or direct to the Malloy's since they invited us for dinner, we made the right call and went direct to their house in Fairfax.  We had a really nice visit and the Malloy's put on a very nice dinner.

Need a picture, will add later

We said our good bye's to the Malloy's and can't thank them enough for their hospitality, they truly are very good friends.

Day 3 - VA and DC with the Malloys

Today at 7:30AM sharp our personal tour guides arrived at our campground to shuttle us around DC. I became friends with Bob and Maribeth when they were working for IBM in the 1980's in Burlington, they left Vermont in the mid 80's and we have stayed friends all these years. They both took a day off work to spend with us, what great friends. Bob had our tour planned out for the day including lunch and dinner venues, he is a great tour guide. We started with Iwo Jima, always one of our stops in DC. It was cold but busy, this was our first indication that maybe there were a few more school age children than usual.

  

From Iwo Jima we intended to do the Arlington Cemetery next, however due to heavy traffic and rather cold temperatures, we decided that we would move on to the Air Force Memorial. This is one of the newer memorials and it is situated where you have a great view of the city, pictures do not really do not capture it well.

We next visited the Pentagon Memorial, this is in memory of the 159 people that lost their lives on 911. It is somber memorial, we took no pictures, the symbolism they built into the display is impressive and it really does make one appreciate the horror of that day.  

We took an early lunch at a small cafe in the city and got some time off our feet.

Next stop was the library of congress. This is one of Maribeth's favorite buildings in DC, she wants to spend her birthday there someday (pay attention Bob).

   

This building also houses most of what was Thomas Jefferson's personal library, an impressive collection to say the lest of books from philosophy to medicine. It does make one ponder if humans were actually smarter back then than today. We then took the tunnel that runs under the street to the capital building. Apparently you need to be signed up for a tour to get to see much and Bob had to bolt because it occurred to him that his parking meter was going to run out, so we did not tour the capital.

Our next stop was a the Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, something that would not normally be on our list to see, but should be. It is the largest church in north America and has unique chapels for about 65 different countries.

What I found most unique from other catholic churches is that it is still evolving. The Mosaic's are done by Americans (all but six) and really have a different style than those from hundreds of years ago. Our guide was unique to say the least, he was an elderly gentleman that clearly thought a lot of himself, but had a memory that was just amazing, he had more facts about each mosaic, shrine, chapel than you would think a human could retain….impressive.

From the Basilica we moved onto see Lincoln's cottage, another site that we would have probably missed had the Malloys not been our tour guides.

It is not a national monument so does not benefit from the tax payer funding like others, but none the less is a very interesting site to visit. Lincoln spent much of this time during the summers at this cottage to escape the heat of the city. He rode his horse three miles back and forth each day, think about that in today's world.

Next on the agenda was dinner, Bob had made us reservations at the Capital Grill in downtown DC. I learned from Bob that when in DC order a Manhattan at the Capital Grill, this may be my new drink, very good. To say everyone enjoyed their meal is an understatement, it gets five stars from all of us.

After dinner we planned to tour some of the memorials after dark, since we have always toured them during daylight in the past. This is when we really found out that the kids were out of school, holy cow there were bus loads and bus loads of kids everywhere. It was actually good to see so many young people taking in our countries history, for the most part they appeared genuinely in awe, as they should. 

The monuments at night take on a different look and feel, and we visited the Martin Luther King memorial for the first time, it is impressive and very well done.

By now we were all bushed, our guides chauffeured us back to our campsite and we turned in for the night...it was a really long but good day. Tomorrow we intend to tour some of the museums on our own.  

Day 2 - NY - PA (Yuengling) - VA

Today we got up early to 13F and snow in the parking lot, not what we were hoping for as we head south, but other than getting our vehicles coated in salt, no big deal.  

Our first stop was the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA. This stop was picked by Tom just to break up the drive….it was a good call. It is our country's oldest brewery, it looks it, and has always been owned and run by a member of the Yuengling family.  

At first you think, it might not even be open, old brick building that you can walk right into and you wander through a few empty rooms before you actually find people. But once we found the gift shop things changed, the people are very friendly and the tour, which takes about an hour was really interesting. In addition to covering the history of the brewery, from inception in 1929 through prohibition, to present, our tour guide was quite entertaining.

Most interesting are the caves below the building where there cooled and racked their beer in the old days, during prohibition the federal government came and blocked off the caves and some of the remains of the brick walls are still present.   

The tour ends in the sampling room, they had 7 different beers on tap, I tried the Porter and the Black and Tan both which were pretty good. I have only seen the Yuengling Lager around home.

After the tour we stopped at a hardware store in Pottsville and had lunch in our RVs and headed for Virginia. We arrived around 4:30PM, Fred screwed up and missed the exit to 15 south and ended up on 495 with all the traffic, Tom loved it, but it could have been much worse, we never really got completely stopped. Our campground is a county owned park with electric only hookups, which is just fine for us. It is pretty empty this time of year. Temps are still a bit cool but the sunshine sure feels nice. 

After we set up, I called our friends the Malloy's and they will be here before 8AM tomorrow to take on a guided tour of DC...what more could we ask for. 

Day 1 Travel - VT/NY to Binghamton, NY

FJJ - Today we met up with Tom and Candy after Candy got out of work to head south. It could not be soon enough as temperatures barely got above 20F at home today. This means we could not fill our water tanks for fear of freezing, this is inconvenient but not a big deal. We left about 3:45PM and drove about 4 hours to Binghamton,NY to stop for the night. Other than the cold temperatures and driving pretty much straight into high winds, it was an uneventful drive. We arrived at the Binghamton Cracker Barrel at about 7:45PM and had dinner.

After dinner we had a night cap and called it a night.

It is now about 13F and we got a light snow over night.

We intend to get going by 7AM and stop in Pottsville, PA to tour the Yuengling brewery just for fun.