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| Vic, Lynn, Carolyn and Hank at Erickson's Home |
Our 10 day stay in the Washington, DC, area was most
enjoyable. We stayed with Vic and Lynn
Erickson at their home in Oakton, VA.
Vic and Hank were fraternity brothers at Boston University and we
frequently partied with Vic and Lynn during our college days. We arrived on Friday and spent Friday night
and Saturday catching up on each other’s families.
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| Charlotte, Jennifer and Ben |
On Sunday we drove down to Huntingtown, Maryland to visit
another friend from our college days, Charlotte. Hank was the best man at Charlotte’s wedding to
Kevin Quinlan. Charlotte’s daughter and
grandson were at a nearby baseball field where the grandson was playing
baseball. We went to visit with all three of them and watch some baseball.
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| Jeannie, Carolyn and Norm by Jeannie's Garden |
On Tuesday we drove out to Leesburg, VA to visit Norm and
Jeannie Sandstrom, friends from a Pennywise tandem cycling trip in Provence.
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| FDR Memorial |
Thursday we took a bus and the metro into DC and toured the
memorials that had been built since we left the DC area in 1972. Much has changed in the intervening
years. The Franklin D Roosevelt
Memorial captures a number of his famous quotes and images of the nation’s only
four term president, including FDR in a wheel chair, a man listening to the fire
side chats on a 1930’s radio, and a bread line from the depression.
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| FDR in Wheelchair |
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| Listening to Fireside Chat |
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| Depression Era Bread Line |
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| Martin Luther King Memorial |
The Martin Luther King Memorial includes a large relief
statute of the Dr. King with a number of his famous quotes along a wall.
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| Korean War Veterans Memorial |
The Korean War Veterans Memorial includes an array of larger
than life figures in ponchos moving through a field and a wall with facial
images of soldiers.
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| Vietnam Memorial |
The Vietnam War Memorial, most noted for the list of the
lost and killed in action, also includes a statues of three soldiers and a
statue of two female nurses and a wounded soldier looking upward as if wait for an incoming MASH
unit.
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| Vietnam Memorial |
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| World War II Memorial |
The World War II Memorial has a large pool with fountains in
the center with memorable battles from Europe listed on one end and the South
Pacific on the other end. Along the
outer edge of the memorial are columns, one for each state.
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| World War II Memorial |
After touring the memorials, we visited the Holocaust
Museum. It was a very well done and the
visit was a very sobering experience. It
causes one to reflect on how such a horrible thing could happen and what each
of us can do to insure that it never happens again. Although the exhibits emphasized the events
after the end of World War I and the actions of Hitler and the Nazis, I feel
the distrust and hate between religious groups going back centuries were the
real roots of the Holocaust and the parallels to the hate and distrust in
todays world need to be addressed if we are to achieve the stated goal of Never
Again.
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| Don and Kathy Brumbaugh, Dave and Julie Harper |
Saturday we did a tandem ride with two couples we met on
Pennywise tours, Dave and Julie Harper and Don and Kathie Brumbaugh. We started the ride started at a winery and
toured through some beautiful horse country, stopping for lunch in Middleburg. Saturday evening we had dinner at an Italian
restaurant and were joined by Jeff and Alice, another Pennywise couple.
Sunday we spent a quiet day with the Ericksons as we
prepared to leave Monday morning.
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