Historic Eastern Seaboard Day 18

Today was a trip of a lifetime dream.  We left this morning and headed to Arlington National Cemetery.  We arrived at the National Cemetery after a nice drive through Washingtons great traffic, again I am glad we are on a bus and don't have to worry about anything.  We all boarded one of the trolly's that travel throughout the Cemetery and a specific route.  We can get on and off at each of the three stops.

There are over 350,000 burials here, and during the week they have up to 25 burials a day.

Our first stop was President John F. Kennedy plot.

Our next stop was the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers

While we were here today, we were very lucky to be able to see a Dignitary from Tunisia in Africa.  This was a great thing to see.

The 4 branchs of the service marched up the stairs, it made you feel proud to be an America.

The flowers be brought out for him to put at the Unknown Soldiers Memorial.

Our tour guide said she has only seen this happen once before in all the times she doing this tour.  We waited for the changing of the guards, which was just as impressive.

Sargent of Honor guards comes out to change guards.

New Guard shows up for inspection.

Every hour on the hour the changing of the Guards is done, rain, snow, or sunshine.  We were lucky today with sunshine.

This is the Tomb of the Unknow Civil War Soldiers

 There are 4 corner post with these Eagles guarding the gates to the Cemetery.

The Iwo Jima Memorial
Our next stop was Mt. Vernon Tour.

This was Washington's home at Mt. Vernon, we were not able to take any pictures inside the house.  They had the set up just like Washington had it in the 1780's.

The kitchen.

Cold storage.

This is the front of the house looking out at the river.

The old Tomb

The new Tomb

George Washington married Martha, you have to remember that George never had kids.  These 2 kids were from Martha's first marrage.

Historic Eastern Seaboard Day 17

I can't believe we are already up to day 17, were did these days go, they have gone by way to fast.  Today we left the park at 8:45 AM for Historic Annapolis.  Our first stop was the United States Naval Academy.

The fist Graduation class was 1854, it is the second oldest military collage.

As we entered the Academy we had to show picture ID, then the next stop was the restrooms, after a hour plus bus ride.

Our first trip was down King George St. to see all the commanders quarters.  If you notice there is a Marine and Navy flag in front of these homes.  When the midshipmen graduate they go into the Navy or Marines.

 This is the Commodore's house and from what I understand the only time these front doors have been used is for President Roosevelt came to visit for a formal dinner.  Otherwise you would enter from the first floor and then go up the stairs for the receiving line.

This is the dome of the Main Chapel.

Entering the front door of the Main Chapel.

Looking at  the front of the chapel.

Looking form the front to the back of the chapel.

The Crypt of John Paul Jones was one of the greatest Revolutionary War navel heroes, Jones is enshrine beneath the Chapel.

Here is another view of his crypt.

Looking from the front steps of the chapel out towards the Dewey Field.

Here we are looking towards the Midshipman's quarters.  That center door is used by the midshipman when they are sworn in and the only time they can come out that center door is on graduation day.

This bell came of off the USS Enterprise from World War II ship.

This is a strange face.

All the cannons have these faces on them, don't know why though.

After we left the Naval Academy we headed to Middleton Tavern for lunch on the company.

We were all waiting for lunch and talking about the Naval Academy.

After lunch we went on a 40 minute tour of Annapolis Harbor.

This yacht was build in Westport, Washington.

There all kinds of sailing, small boats and big yachts.
After our harbor tour we went on a trolley ride through town, there were a lot of old buildings and narrow roads.
Tomorrow we head out to Arlington National Cemetery and Mt. Vernon Tour.  Looking forward to this trip.

Historic Eastern Seaboard Day 16

Today is a travel day of 140 miles from Philadelphia, PA to College Park, MD.  This is were we stage for our Washington DC tours. 

As you can tell we went through Delaware and keep south of Baltimore, we hear that if we would of came down through Baltimore we may still be their trying to get through the traffic.  The drive we had was pretty easy just had to watch the directions real close, a lot of lefts and rights but we made it with no problems.

Here is the start of us heading across the Chesapeake Bay.

Starting over the Bay.

We had a great day, these people drive really fast, I was doing the speed limit and they were going by me like I was sitting still.  Tomorrow we start our tours in Washington DC, this is going to be great.