Climbing Mt. Whitney

NOOOOO! NOT ME!!! At least not in THIS lifetime!

But my friends, Claudia and Nancy, did just that a few days ago. I am just in awe! If you'd like to read all about it, and look at the beautiful pictures, Claudia has the whole story on her blog here.

This and That

I forgot to mention that while in the DC area, I went to the new Air and Space Museum in Northern Virginia near Dulles Airport. The museum downtown was grown out of, for obvious reasons. This one is big enough for all the planes, even a Concorde! The Concorde was flown from 1976 until 2003.


It even has a space shuttle, although this particular one was never flown in space and just used for training.


Heading back out West, I was happy to see the Arch in St. Louis. That meant I was back west of the Mississippi.


Back in Sedalia, MO again, Phil was shopping for a new car. Well, maybe not here.


Fireworks in Sedalia on the Fourth. This were taken with my Canon using the fireworks setting. I thought the 2 second exposure was a little slow, but maybe with anything slower it would be hard to catch the right moment.


Heading up towards Iowa, I went through Amish country.


I thought this huge bonnet was the most amazing part of it.


In Iowa, we went out for ribs. It's hard to see just how huge they were, but this is on an oversized plate. The bones just fell out, it was so tender. I managed to eat almost half of it and took the rest home. These Iowegians really know their meat!


And love was in the air!


Finally, Phil's new car, a 2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara.

Results from the Trip Back East

This was a whirlwind trip, primarily to visit relatives. First to Durham, NC to visit Phil's 94-year-old mother. She's almost blind, but sharp as a tack. She listens to a lot of books on tape, and that really seems to help her.


Also in Durham is Phil's favorite niece, Joanna, and favorite brother, Dennis. We went to an outdoor concert and were amazed by this beautiful sunset.


Next, on to Northern Virginia, where I used to live. My son still lives in the area, and I got to see him in a softball game. I still think of him playing T-ball!


He is quite the wine connoisseur, and brought out this 1949 bottle just for me. Tasted really good for such an old wine ;-))


Then on Pennsylvania to visit my father. He's an excellent photographer, but it's hard to get him to smile for a picture. This shot is nothing short of a miracle.

I also got to visit with my one-and-only cousin, Linda, her husband Terry, and my Aunt Bea, but alas I got no picture.


My father lives near the Gettysburg National Military Park, which encompasses just about the entire town of Gettysburg, PA, and it's surroundings. It was the site of the battle that was the turning point of the American Civil War.


There are hundreds of monuments and memorials in the area, but the largest one is the Pennsylvania Memorial, which lists the names of each of the 34,530 Pennsylvania soldiers who participated in the battle.


My great-grandfather, David Wolf, was among them.



In the museum is this "Battle of Gettysburg" cyclorama, which attempts to show the horrors of this terribly bloody war. An unbelievable number of young American men, 620,000, died in the war. Two-thirds of those were from disease or other non-combat deaths, but they were still gone.


I'm now back west of the Mississippi, in Iowa. We visited Phil's sister, Peggy, and her puppy, Sam, shown here is last year's picture.


Wow! Sam has really grown! He's now 95 lbs, and I don't think he's done yet.


And Phil celebrated his big 63rd birthday at his sister's. She made him all his favorite foods.

The Nation's Capital, Part 2

Another new memorial in Washington is the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Located along the Cherry Tree Walk on the western edge of the Tidal Basin, it's spread over 7 1/2 acres.

There are several waterfalls, and 10 bronze sculptures that depict scenes from his 12 years of presidency and the Great Depression, such as this one showing a bread line.


My favorite was this one of Roosevelt and his Scotty dog, Fala.


Continuing around the Tidal Basin you come to the Jefferson Memorial, built in the 1940s.


The interior has a 19' tall bronze statue of our 3rd president, along with engravings of passages from Jefferson's writings.


In order to get a tour of the White House, you have to arrange it ahead of time with your congressman. I don't even know where I live, let alone who my congressman is! It looks pretty peaceful from this direction.


But the view the other way shows the loud protestors.


I'm not big on museums, but I really like the dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural History.


This woolly mammoth could use some dental work.


The Hope Diamond is a deep blue 45-carat diamond that is supposedly cursed. It has quite a history, dating back to the mid 1600s.


I walked by the Capitol, but did not have a tour. I did go through it here when I visited last September.

The Nation's Capital, Part 1

Before I retired, I lived in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, for 27 years. But when you live nearby, you tend not to go sightseeing. I was here for five days this time, visiting my son, and I think I saw more of DC than I did in the 27 years I lived here.

The Washington Monument is the first thing you see when you exit the Metro at the Smithsonian stop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the top because all the tickets for the day were gone.


If I had gone to the top, I would have had this view of the fairly new National World War II Memorial in the foreground, with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.


The World War II Memorial is one of several new memorials that I had never seen. Completed in 2004, it consists of 56 pillars and 2 arches surrounding a plaza and a fountain.


The Lincoln Memorial was the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.


Outside, the Park Police's horses were a popular attraction.


Inside is a 20' tall statue of Abraham Lincoln, along with inscriptions of 2 of his most famous speeches, the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address.


Nearby is another new memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1995. It consists of 19 larger-than-life stainless steel statues, representing a squad on patrol.


Behind the statues is a 164' granite wall containing more than 2500 archival images sandblasted into the wall, representing troops that fought in the war. The wall creates an eerie effect combined with the reflections of the statues.