Few more pictures from the Grist Mill

The fine ground grain goes through the sieve and the coarser grain moves down the belt into a barrel.






All the gears are made from wood.

Mt. Vernon

A very very interesting trip to Mt. Vernon and the Grist Mill (those are the first few pictures). They have opened a huge new visitor and education center. A must see for anyone who comes to DC.

Charles Town and Haprer's Ferry

Well we went to the slots. We spent $61 and got back $196. Not a bad day. Also had a great lunch and saw a little of Harper's Ferry.



Jack on the street of Harper's Ferry





Jack with our hard earned gains.




The track.

Trip Roundup

I have to say it was a very successful visit. We went to several new places for everyone including me. I'd never been to Blues Alley or Hillwood. The weather cooperated. The one day we were out walking along the Mall it was very nice sunny but not hot.

So a good time was had by all.

Pictures

Last Full day

A very fun, productive, interesting and sobering last day to Ed and Jennifer's visit.

We had tickets to the Holocaust Museum for noon. There was no rush to get out the door. So as talked about previously we all went for a walk.

When we got back home we had omelets. Jennifer chopped up all the things we added: cheese, tomatoes and green pepper. Ed cooked. I got to sit back and do nothing. Breakfast was very good.

Then we headed out to the Mall. I decided it would be easier to take the subway then drive. We arrived just in time to get our tickets and enter the Holocaust Museum permanent exhibit. It is a most impressive and sobering museum. It just so happens that there was a First Person talk form one of the survivors. Manya Friedman (Moszkowicz) told her story. It was very gripping and horrifying and eye opening. We then saw the rest of the permanent exhibit. This museum is a sobering reminder of the great evil man can go against his fellow man.

Because of our late start, we didn't have lunch. I brought along a banana for each of us so we had that. Ed wanted to see the National Museum of the American Indian. Along the way we stopped for some ice cream and we stopped off at the Hirshhorn sculpture garden where Ed discovered several Henry Moore works.

Finally at the National Museum of the American Indian, Ed took pictures of the outside of the building. It is a very imposing and beautiful structure and rather difficult to get the entire building in one frame.

Next on the agenda was dinner. My plan was to walk to Gallery Place and find a place to eat and then go to the National Portrait Gallery. As it turned out the gallery closed earlier than I thought it did so we did the gallery and then had dinner.

We saw the portraits of the presidents and then paintings on loan for the National Gallery of England. Then it was off to dinner at Legal Sea Food. Yum yum.

On the way home we stopped off at the store and picked up some ice cream. We enjoyed that while watching the movies that I'd taken of the trip.

It was a really great last full day.

Post 300 — Guest Post from Ed

This is post 300 in honor of that event I have a guest blogger my brother Ed who's going to tell about his visit to DC:


The most important thing about the Holocaust Museum is not how well it documents death, but how full of life it is. Photos covering a half-century of people in a single Latvian town. People playing chamber music in the ghettos. Countless stories of how people struggled to survive. And a survivor in the flesh, telling her story. I'm not trying to minimize the horror. I'm just saying I went in prepared for horror, got plenty of that, and also got an unexpected dose of affirmative stuff. And everyone know how those stories ended. The Latvian town had been a Jewish settlement for nearly a millennium, but now no Jews have lived there for more than half a century. The museum is active in sounding alarms about contemporary genocides; Darfur has a place there. The grim message is that we must be on guard at all times. Sickeningly, genocide is happening, somewhere, all the time.


I'm blown away by the architecture of the American Indian Museum. I've never circled a building tracing all its curves and swoops. It seems truly part of nature. It belongs on a bluff in New Mexico.


Jen and I have been following Chicago-based jazz singer Kurt Elling for nearly a decade. We've heard him several times at the Green Mill in a crummy north-side neighborhood where Al Capone used to hang out. We've also seen him at respectable places such as Ravinia Park in the north suburbs. Elling has progressed from a maverick who loved to yell into what must be his classic period now. We saw him Sunday at Blues Alley. His repertoire hasn't changed much, but his presentation is more polished. And the quartet behind him has never sounded better. Pianist Laurence Hobgood arranges each tune so that it is distinct and special. One one tune, Elling sings against only the bass riffs by Rob Amster. Another tune, "My Foolish Love," rises, dies back, and swells again like chamber music — complete with an interlude of poetry from St. John of the Cross among the Tin Pan Alley lyrics. On the most expansive piece, "Body and Soul," Elling sings original lyrics to the music of a transcribed solo by saxophonist Dexter Gordon, for an intense, driving effect. A great night at Blues Alley. If you go, try the jambalaya!

We had a great time. The Brookland neighborhood is wonderfully green and inviting. Our feet hurt!

— Ed

Hillwood Grounds

The visit continues

What a great day yesterday was. It was hot but besides that a very productive day.

We went to the Kreeger Museum and the Hillwood Museum. It is hard to imagine a greater contrast in styles to collecting art.

The Kreeger has a very modern collection. Follow this link to get an idea of one of the exhibits we saw. There were two early works by Mondrian that are completely different from his later abstract work. There were sculptures by Henry Moore. There was a room of Monets as well as a room of Picasos. There was a total of ten people on the tour of the house.

We grabbed a quick lunch on the way to Hillwood.

Hillwood is full of decorative arts. Glassware, plates, Faberge eggs (which were fantastic). A great deal of the art come from Russia. She was the wife to the ambassador to Russia in the 30s. At the time Russia was in debt so they were selling royal artifacts off to raise money. Ms Post got things at bargain basement prices.

If you look at the two web sites you can really see the incredible differences in styles.

We ended up back at my house around 4 or so. We rested for a little while and then made dinner.

Around 6:30 we headed out to see Hamlet at the Shakespeare Theater. It was very well done. The actor who played Hamlet recently had been on All My Children so there was a great deal of interest on Jennifer's part to see how he would perform. She reported back to my dad on how the performance went.

Today it is a littler overcast but supposedly it is going to clear later. All three of us went for a walk this morning. We went to the grounds of the Franciscan Monastery. There was some unfortunate guy whose horn on his car to stop honking. It appeared somehow to be connected to the alarm system on the car. Eventually he was able to turn it off or maybe he just drove the car away.

Today we are hitting the mall.

Annapolis Pictures I

Annapolis Pictures II