A trip from Central Wis. to Williamsburg, VA &
stops
along the way...
We ended our summer of 1998 up with a two week trip to Washington
DC.
We were there the night Clinton did his sorry "I did a Boo Boo" speech
to the nation. We didn't see him in person, but were within 5
blocks
of him in our hotel room.
First we stopped at Cleveland Ohio & went to Sea World. We
hit it on a very nice day and Shamoo was kind enough to splash
us.
Nice park. We stayed the night at Motel 6 close to Sea World in
Macedonia
Ohio, a small cheap room but it had a roll in shower which is hard to
find.
Then on to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. It was
cool to see the actual suits & guitars of Jimmy & the
Beatles...
They had some movies to view of the history & the induction
ceremony.
Pretty relaxing afternoon, a must see. Next we went on the road
to
our history lesson. We tried something adventurous and stayed at
a youth hostel in Pennsylvania near Gettysburg. The place was
called
the Iron Masters Mansion, they said it was accessible and so we drove
out
into the boondocks and stayed the night. They did a half hour
speech
on what the place use to be and some of the highlights. It was
the
house where the iron master lived. In it's day they employed
10,000
people making iron for housing, railroads & the civil war canon
balls...
This place was a stop on the underground railroad & we saw
the
hiding spot under the stairwell below the house. Then on to
Gettysburg.
July 1-3, 1862 51,000 died out of 170,000 people, 3 days. One out of
three
people died, sad. Lots of statues along the driving tour.
Hard
to believe so much death and paralysis took place. Lots of museums and
hero's to read about.
After the day in Gettysburg we headed to our destination, Washington
DC.
We stayed at the Washington Plaza & tried to hit all the
monuments.
We especially enjoyed the grand tour of the capital & the
white
house. I even got to use the big guys private white house elevator
because
of my chair. They were out of town that day so we didn't
get
to say hi. We saw the renovated Fords theater where Lincoln was
shot.
Here is the Lincoln memorial.
The air & space museum is very interesting. To see the original
Wright flyer, Chuck's plane he used to break the sound barrier &
some
space capsules was just fascinating. They even had a star wars
exhibit
that month complete with Vader. The Vietnam & Korean wall was
a sad reminder of what happened not too long ago.
Our last stop was Williamsburg where we visited the 1 mile by
1/2 mile colonial village. This was a touring place in which all
the houses and buildings were restored to that time period around
1750-1783
through the revolutionary war years 1776-1783. It was neat to see
the old hospital & the William & Mary College... We even
took a ghost tour and scared our children. Old George was quite a guy
&
to stand up against the British to become independent was a feat to
behold.
We stayed at another Motel 6, same thing a roll in shower, FYI. We also
went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, lived up to it's high ratings as
one of the best parks. It was a bit hilly in areas though, kids
loved
the roller coasters nestled in amongst the scenic hillsides. Then
we made the long trek home to Wis., good old home.
After the day in Gettysburg we headed to our destination, Washington
DC.
We stayed at the Washington Plaza & tried to hit all the
monuments.
We especially enjoyed the grand tour of the capital & the
white
house. I even got to use the big guys private white house elevator
because
of my chair. They were out of town that day so we didn't
get
to say hi. We saw the renovated Fords theater where Lincoln was
shot.
Here is the Lincoln memorial. 
