Happy Fourth of July

Today is the celebration of our nation's birthday - and that is what this whole trip has been about. Right now we are in the Colonial Triangle - Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown are within easy driving distance. Yesterday we visited the historic battlefields of Yorktown. Today we visited Williamsburg - the site of the first capital and a fully restored Colonial village. Then we drove the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown, the site of the first established colony on American soil. I was interested to be reminded that Jamestown was only discovered in 1994 and is still being excavated. That is really exciting when you think about it. It was so interesting. Rob wanted to show me what geocaching was all about. So, we tried to find one and there were a bunch of picnicers there. The next we spent almost an hour looking for - no luck. Rob and Mary Ellen did find the third and let us pull it out. I do have pictures. We finished up the day at a cinema cafe. I don't know if we have those in California. We sat down in rows with a counter, ordered food, and watched a movie. What fun!

That's it for now - up at 5:30 to head for home.

Washington DC Trip

Dee Curran finally gets to see the White House. Too bad the street was closed off so we could not get closer

Suzanne Kleinbub in front of the first lay light to be refurbished in DAR Constitution Hall.

Suzanne Kleinbub & Samantha Shaffer in front of the Pineapple display board showing our chapters donations.

The National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC July 1, 2012

Suzanne Kleinbub in the DAR Library - the new doors are behind her, the old entrance is to the left.

We are in Yorktown with Rob and family now. These are some pictures that Dee took while we were in DC. We had quite a trip to get here yesterday on Amtrak. We arrived an hour and a half late, but Rob, Mary Ellen, and Kayla were there to meet us and take us out to dinner.

Today we made a quick trip to Yorktown Battlefield and had some good family time. Rob helped me get these pictures on - so enjoy them.

Congress is over

July 1 - the first day of the second half of 2012, and the last day of the DAR Continental Congress. I forced Dee (who is on vacation, after all) to get up early so we could be at Constitution Hall in time for the Memorial Service for those DAR members who have died in the past year. It was a very moving ceremony - so glad that we made the effort to get there.
Samantha found us in mid afternoon - she drove from Baltimore to spend the rest of the day with us. We went to the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for 4:30 mass. Neither of them had seen the church, so we spent quite a bit of time looking around - what a magnificent structure! They had a giant flag hanging from the tower, which was very moving to see.
We ended up having dinner at an Italian restaurant near our hotel. It was nice to be together and to end the evening Skyping with my siblings and husband. Dee has some pictures. We will try to get them uploaded next time.
 PS To comment on a blog you can click on the blue "no comment" box at the end of the blog and let us know what you think.