We Celebrated: Our 40th Anniversary, My 61st Birthday, and BSU vs VA Tech in Washington, D.C.

We arrived Friday, September 3, and headed out to see the sights...

We were especially moved by the World War II Memorial...I had just been doing some genealogy research, and found my mother's cousin, Oliver Pincombe had died in Stalag XII right before the liberation of his German prisoner of war camp. I found his name in the Memorial's archive.

Our morning began with a tour of the White House...after passing through many security stations, we made our way through the public rooms, each room being manned by a Secret Service agent who willingly shared stories and fascinating details about its history.

The Capitol dome through the glass ceiling of the visitor's center

"the whispering spot" in the old Senate chamber

We had a personal tour of the Capitol and the Library of Congress by a young lady who grew up with Dallin, and is now an aide to Senator Crapo...she had access to all the "behind the scenes" areas,and lots of stories to tell. We loved our visit to Ft. McHenry. The battle there, during the War of 1812, produced the poem, by Frances Scott Key, which became our National Anthem. We watched a film about the battle, and his experience, in a darkened auditorium...then the National Anthem began to play and the blinds began to draw back to reveal the view of the flag waving over the fort...magnificent!


I spent my 61st birthday dipping my toes in the Atlantic Ocean at Rehoboth Beach, DE! We got a little lost on the way, only added 2 hours to the trip (!) but we wanted to compare the East Coast with the West Coast, Atlantic with Pacific, and decided it was a little more crowded, but worth the trip!


We did some last day sight-seeing on Monday...The National Archives (no photos allowed) and Ford's Theater and the house across the street where Lincoln died...they are right in the middle of a modern city, but have been preserved so well that one feels transported back to that time and place in history.

We met our friends who share our anniversary, at Clyde's in Washington, D.C., for dinner before the game. We were staying in Baltimore, so we had to show up in our "spirit gear"...no way to change before the game!

Our trip culminated with a BSU victory! We were out-numbered, out-yelled, but not out-played! I was so excited, I forgot to get out the camera while we were IN the stadium! This was BIG-TIME college football! At Fedex Field in Landover, MD, we got to see what 80,000 screaming Hokies sounded like...our little (10,000) band of BSU fans did our best to cheer on our team. Getting to the stadium was a challenge (up and down hills and through the woods!) but what a game!!!!