Ford's Theater [BY JENNA]

I went to Ford's Theater.  That's where President Abraham Lincoln was shot.  The shooter came from the back and shot Abraham Lincoln and then jumped out of the booth and onto the stage and broke his leg.  After he was shot they took him to the house across the street.  He was shot in the back of the head.  Ten days later they found the guy who shot him.  I thought it was cool to see where Abraham Lincoln was shot.

That's where Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.

Memory at the Memorial

The penny is worth 1 cent.  We may not realize the value of a penny just like we might not realize the value of Abraham Lincoln and that's why the government built The Lincoln Memorial, the place where many people come and remember what a great president he was and what things he did for this country. With ending slavery as his main goal he did just that. The Lincoln Memorial is a very unique building with an ancient roman design and a 19 foot high sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in a curl chair. The Lincoln memorial was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. In the Lincoln memorial his most famous speech is carved in one of the stone walls: the Gettysburg Address. Earlier in the trip we saw the place were Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

Abraham Lincoln in the curl chair. 

The Lincoln Memorial from the outside.

Abraham Lincoln in the curl chair.

The place where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

Run on the Mall

This morning I had an hour-long, guided, running tour of the National Mall in Washington DC.  On the tour my lovely tour guide, Elaine, showed me the National Archive, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial.  In all we ran about 6 miles.  I think it is the most patriotic place I have ever run and can't think of another that would be more patriotic.

I owe two heartfelt apologies.  First, I apologize to all of the service men whom we did not properly stop and remember at the memorials.  The memorials were touching even as we ran past them.  Second, I apologize to the other passengers on the subway.  I'm sure I didn't smell nice after our run in the heat and humidity.

Video Conferencing via Skype for Meetings

At work we have a monthly reporting and planning meeting.  We all come together and talk through what we've accomplished during the past month and what we plan to accomplish during the next.  My employer has been very supportive of me working from the road.  Recently we had the first monthly meeting since I've been gone.  Skype was the technology we used and it worked fabulously.  It isn't exactly like being there but I would recommend it to anyone who needs to be remote but stay connected.

Beware, the pictures aren't very flattering of anyone in them but they are good enough to illustrate how it worked for us.  The formal meeting was in a conference room in Utah.  The conference room is set up with a PC and a big screen monitor mounted on the wall.  There is a webcam mounted at the top of the monitor (the little black rectangle).  You can see most of this in the first picture below.  The PC sits in one of those cabinets and runs Skype.  My picture is on the monitor on the wall, larger than life.  I was reclining in a lounge chair on my mom's covered patio at the time.

The meeting's view of me.

The next picture shows what I saw during the meeting.  Again, not a great picture but good enough to feel almost present.  It really surprised me how well the sound worked.  The microphone in the conference room was so sensitive that when no one was talking I could hear the ticking of the clocks on the wall (see photo above).  The microphone being so good had a downside.  Whenever there was a side conversation the microphone picked it up and mungled all of the sound together.

My view of the meeting.

For now this arrangement is working great.  It will be interesting to see how it works when I am in Europe or Asia.  I'll post again later and let you know how it works.

The Amish Don't Use Technology

We went to an Amish town. The Amish don't use any technology. There reasoning is that their forefathers didn't have it so they don't need it. The five oldest bishops decide what is too modern. When bikes came out they said it was too modern and outlawed bikes, but when scooters came out they didn't say anything against them so everyone has scooters. They can pay other people to use technology. Many of them that have a large business pay someone to use a computer and track the money they make. They can have telephones outside their house, at the end of the driveway, but not any closer! Everyone in the town gets around with buggies. We went on one that went through the farming places. The tour guide was Amish until he was 17. He lived on a farm and every year when his dad needed to contact people to get all the crops they moved there phone closer to the house. They did that for five years until one of the bishops said no phones for you. Then they stopped being Amish and changed to Mennonite. They also have the best soft pretzels in the world. They dip them in butter, they were really good.

This is Jenna and a horse

This Is Seth :) and Joe :( waiting for the carriage

An extended Vacation?

So far our trip has felt like one long vacation. We started out with a road trip to California where we stayed with relatives. We spent our time at the beach , swimming in the pool most every day, and just having fun with grandparents and cousins.

The next phase of our trip consisted of flying to Baltimore, renting a car and doing a week long road trip.

We walked around the battlefields at Gettysburg

bought chocolate in Hershey

and went on a buggy ride in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 After a few days in Pennsylvania, we headed to Virginia.

We imagined what life would have been like for the first settlers of Jamestown, 

participated in a cannon firing at Yorktown,

learned about early colonial life,

enjoyed the air conditioned science museum in Richmond,

 and wished we hadn't gone to Kitty Hawk.

Finally it was time to return our rental car and now we rely on public transportation as we stay in Washington DC for the next few weeks. We checked into our apartment, walked to the grocery store, bought metro passes and are ready to continue the US history portion of our home school.  Maybe now the reality of what we are doing will set in and it will feel less like an extended vacation!

Wright Place Wrong Time

The starting point of those first flights.

Saturday we tried to go to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  We left Williamsburg, VA at 9:30am thinking that would be enough time to make the 1.5-hour drive*, leisurely enjoy the park, and learn something too.  I was really looking forward to it.  We knew the park closed at 5pm and thought we had included sufficient travel time in our plan.

Markers indicating the distances flown.

If you didn't know (like us), the Wright Brothers National Memorial is on an island called "The Outer Banks" in North Carolina.  It is a very popular vacation destination and there is only one road on to the island and one road off.  It is all governed by a single traffic signal on the island.  Consequently, long streams of traffic get backed up on the island, across the only bridge to the island, and back 30 miles on the mainland.  We sat in traffic for 5+ hours, considered turning back several times, and eventually pulled in to the parking lot at 4:45pm.  We were so late that there was no Park Ranger at the gate to collect our fee.

We used the restroom and took a half dozen pictures in those few minutes before we felt obliged to leave.  I would have loved to learn more about the Wright brothers and their experience but the timing wasn't right.  Saturday afternoon is not the time for a quick trip to the Outer Banks.  It was definitely the Wright place but the wrong time.

*We learned that Google estimates the impact of traffic on your route and time to travel based on real-time data meaning that the estimate you get now is based on current traffic conditions and may not be accurate for the day or time you intend to travel.