A Trip To The East

Last February when returning from Cuba, Delta Airlines decided to bump us in Atlanta and we ended up with a nice chunk of "Delta Dollars" that we needed to use by the end of the year. We have been East several times but we had never seen the Fall Colors of New England and never had enough time to "do" Washington DC. And of course if we were back there it only seemed reasonable to take in some Broadway Theater.

So in mid October we were off to Vermont. WOW! Not only did we hit the best Fall Foliage they had had in years but we hit the perfect week.  It was just stunning how colorful the foliage was and in the right light it was vibrant, ignited by the sunny days and we were mesmerized.

Even though the palette of foliage in the countryside panoramas was breathtaking, we often found ourselves stopping to admire individual trees and gawk at their dazzling colors.

 We both just had our iPhones and I-pads, but still we couldn't help ourselves and took a jillion photos.  Here are some of our favorite tree shots.

    From Vermont we headed down through Connecticut and ended up in New Haven where Sheryl wanted to see the Yale art gallery. Stunning! As was the Yale campus.

Yale

 We also dropped by the Mark Twain House where he wrote several of his more famous stories.

Buddies

Washington DC

From New England we drifted down to the Chesapeake and into Washington DC. We had been there several times before but it had always been rushed.  We had seen the memorials previously but had little time for the museums, so this trip we took our sweet time and had a good visit to the News Museum (excellent), the Air and Space Museum, The National Art Gallery, the National Holocaust Museum, the Natural History Museum, The National Archives, the American History Museum, and the Spy Museum. Whew.  But before we did all that it turned out we were in DC the one weekend in the year they open up the White House gardens to the public so soon we were off to chat with the Obamas and take a look.

Even Old People take selfies.

Michelle and Barack are So  nice, they invited us up close..

And over to the Oval Office...

where I signed a few bills (they were later vetoed)..

Sheryl made a short speech and then we were off to see Michelle's garden

but we didn't pick anything.

                         The World War II Memorial                                                                                                           

For several years I had wanted to see this memorial.  Having written the Clem Pine book this was of great interest to me. Sheryl and I were quite taken by the sight of so many WWII vets being there that day. Most of these guys had been flown in on "Honor Flights" and were being wheeled around in wheel chairs as they reminisced with interested onlookers. It was very touching indeed and I surely wished Clem had been there with us. I was pleased that we did find one plaque honoring air crews like the one he served with.

Like everything in Washington DC the size of the place is daunting.

 

Rembrandt                         Van Gough

Vermeer                                Da Vinci

It's the National Art Gallery so of course they have all the Masters. VERY IMPRESSIVE

 Living in DC are good friends Matt and Jenny Solomon and their 2 delightful sons Owen and Elliot. We spent a wonderful evening with them.

 Matt works in cyber security at the Treasury Building, right next door to the White House.

Matt took us on a personal tour including the Marylin Monroe door in the basement  where they would sneak her into the White House... No photos down there, too close to cyber security office.

The most interesting museum for us was the News Museum, the "Newseum." It had so much to see that we spent nearly a day there.

                   Air and Space Museum

Our favorite exhibit at the Air and Space Museum was the original Wright Flyer.

                              Natural History

At the Natural History Museum we were greeted by their famous Bull Elephant, but the wonder of wonders for me was to see an actual Coelacanth.    (It's an ancient fish, that is still alive, important in the evolution of fish to land animals as its fins are attached by primitive leg bones...well sort of.)

The Coelacanth

The Spy Museum is a must for James Bond fans. Otherwise it was a hoot.

No doubt about it we ate well on this trip.

The Big Apple

 In New York we stayed at the Travel Inn.  If you ever go there you might notice that the open door in this messy garage was the actual entrance to our swanky accommodations.  

Our real goal was to see some Broadway plays as they have always amazed us by the sheer talent seen on Broadway.

Our first night we saw An American in Paris. A remake of the Gene Kelly classic.  It was good but was essentially a Broadway ballet and that's not my sweet spot.

Our second night we saw Something Rotten. Highly recommend it. It's about some guys who invent the first musical in Shakespeare's England. What a riot. What talent. Very funny, great music.

Our last night we went to Hand to God. Laughed so hard I had tears running down my face. But...it has a dark side too. Quite a show with some VERY funny gals. Had a fine evening.

Being very modern Old People we managed to navigate our way around the Big Apple using Uber. It really was easy and made us feel like we are not hopelessly old after all.  

                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ground Zero

In April of 2001 Sheryl and I were in New York and decided to join 30,000 other bike riders and do Bike New York. It was a tough 42 miles through all 5 boroughs and was the inspiration for us to do the cross country ride the next year.  The ride began right under the twin towers that were to be destroyed just five months later.  That ride though New York City had inspired us, and we felt a special connection to those towers, so when we returned to New York to begin our long ride, it was April of 2002 just 8 months after that horrific event.  There was still this enormous raw wound in lower Manhattan that was dusty, messy, and still fenced off. What an ugly scar.  Consequently we both felt that we should return to Ground Zero where the city has healed and tour the basement museum and to ride to the top of the new Freedom Tower and take in the view. It was a good thing to do on our last day in New York. We both really enjoy our time in New York even though it is not a place I would ever want to live. It has a beautiful mix of humanity from all over our planet which can sometimes be challenging, sometimes exhilarating, loaded with talent, money and culture. It's The Big Apple and for all its faults it made me feel complete to see that no matter how evil those guys were who flew those planes into the towers, this city has shown a wonderful strength and the will to patch an ugly scar and be the stronger for it. I seldom feel patriotic but Ground Zero moved me.