The White House Garden Tour

The White House opens its gardens to the public twice a year and we were lucky enough to be around for the Fall Garden Tour which was on Sunday October 17. We all headed off early to get our tickets - the tour is free but we have to collect a ticket first and then get in line to enter the grounds.

We were able to get in on the 9am tour and once inside the gardens you are free to take your time to look around.

This is part of the main building of the White House. I had originally though the Oval Office was in here but it is, of course, over in the West Wing!

These are photos are of the cloisters and the rose garden that are part of the West Wing and lead around to the Oval Office.

James outside the Oval Office, his favourite part of the gardens!

The swing set

The girls loved Sasha and Malia's swing and slide set. It is in the garden quite close to the Oval Office, so they must have to play quietly during important meetings! One little boy tried to cross the roped off area to play on the equipment but he was sternly ordered off by security!

The First Lady's Kitchen garden

Michelle Obama planted her kitchen garden last year with local school kids to promote healthy eating and living. The chefs from the White House use the produce in their menus. There is everything from herbs to tomatoes, okra, cabbage, peppers and eggplant.


The Children's Garden is quite secluded and has a cute little fish pond in it. There are also the hand and foot prints of all the grand children of former Presidents.

The view from the White House looking out towards the Mall, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.

As we left the grounds of the White House, Pia and Ella spotted the one and only white squirrel they have seen so far. There was much excitement as you can imagine. A white squirrel for the White House!

Civil War Battlefields

In the second week of Mum and Dad's visit, we did a 3 day trip of the civil war battlefields. The civil war is a fascinating time in American History - it was basically a war over whether slavery, already entrenched in the Southern states, should be extended into the West. President Abraham Lincoln was against extending slavery and this angered the Southern states. In the end the Southern states broke away from the Union and fought against them. The South wanted to rule themselves and believed themselves to be an independent nation. They fought under their own flag as the Confederate States of America against the Federals, or the United States of America.

We spent the first day on the battlefields of Gettysburg. This battle took place over 3 days in July 1863 and by the end of that time about 51,000 soldiers were dead. Today, as it would have then, the countryside looks so beautiful and it is hard to imagine it as a place of such terrible fighting. We toured the battlefields in our car, following an audio tour, and saw the many monuments to the different regiments that fought in the war as well as many of the battlefield sites such as McPherson Ridge, Cemetery Hill, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard.

The North Carolina Monument

Ella takes a run down "Pickett's Charge" - the site of a huge defeat to the Confederate Army. Almost 5,000 Confederate soldiers died in one hour and after this battle the South retreated and thus ended the Battle of Gettysburg.


We saw the site of the Little Round Top battle. The statue is of General Warren from the Union army who was integral in allowing the Union soldiers to win the battle here.

Finally that day we visited the National Soldier's Cemetery, where many of the Union dead from the civil war are buried. This is also where Lincoln gave his 'Gettysburg Address'.

James in front of the memorial where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address.

The next day we drove to Antietam, the site of a battle that took place in September 1862. Antietam was a lot quieter than Gettysburg, which had been very busy the day we visited. It was also a very beautiful and peaceful place - like in Gettysburg it is hard to imagine that so much fighting took place here. We saw many of the major battle sites here such as the Dunker Church, the Cornfield and the Sunken Road.

The Dunker Church

The Cornfield - it was said that every stalk of corn was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife after the battle here.

The Sunken Road

One of the most beautiful sites was the Burnside Bridge, an old stone bridge over Antietam Creek, which was the site of much fighting when the Union Army tried to fight their way over the strongly defended bridge. They were ultimately successful in taking the bridge but with much loss of life on both sides. The Unionists were led by General Ambrose Burnside and the bridge was renamed after him. His other claim to fame were his facial hair - he had such huge whiskers and that is where the word 'sideburns' came from - as a play on his name!

The Burnside bridge

On our final day of the trip we stopped in two towns that are also important in civil war history. The first was Harper's Ferry. This is a gorgeous little town that changed hands 8 times during the Civil War. Because it was in such a strategic position on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad it was the site of much fighting and the town suffered much devastation as factories, railroads and bridges were blown up. In April 1861 the Union troops set fire to the Armory and Arsenal here in order to keep them out of Confederate hands.

The town centre of Harper's Ferry

The beautiful view over the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River

Our final stop was Manassas where 2 battles were held at different times during the war. The first battle of Manassas was held in July 1861. This was actually the first time the armies had fought and many of the soldiers had never fought in war before. I found it almost funny, but sad too, to read how so many of them were enthusiastic to fight and many private citizens and congressman from Washington followed them to the battlefields with picnics and wine to watch the 'spectacle' of fighting. They soon found out war was not fun or a spectator sport and by the end of the day nearly 900 soldiers were dead and the Union troops withdrew in panic.

The second Battle of Manassas took place in August 1962 and lasted 3 days. By now the soldiers knew what war was really about and another 3,300 troops were killed. It all seems very fruitless given that neither side really gained much ground at all during this battle. Below are some of the battle sites were visited in Manassas.

The Stone bridge was where the first shots of the battle were fired.

The Old Stone House was where the wounded were sheltered and it was the site of a Union Field Hospital

So thanks to this tour of the battlefields and Dad's expert guidance, I am now feeling a little more knowledgeable about Civil War history! Pia and Ella took the tour in their stride and amused themselves at many of the tour stops killing spiders, which they named 'Confederate spiders'! They also enjoyed running around spotting birds (Pia is loving the cardinals, blue jays and mockingbirds) and they even saw a wild rabbit and a glimpse of a groundhog who scampered quickly back into his hole.

This past week we were lucky enough to go to the Fall Open Gardens tour of the White House and then we did a 5 day trip in Virginia while Mum and Dad have been in New York. I will save all those details for the next post.

Nonna and Dad-Dad arrive

We have had Nonna and Dad-Dad here for the past week and a half, and we have all very much enjoyed seeing them again. The girls were so excited when they arrived and rushed out the front of our house to greet them in the street.

We spent the first week seeing some of the sights of Washington. Some places we had been to before, such as the Natural History Museum and Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. Others, however, we had not seen. On the Tuesday (October 5) we visited the Supreme Court, the highest court in the US. This is just opposite the Capitol and we can walk there from our house in about 15 minutes. There are 2 lines out the front, one is a queue to watch an entire case (a case usually lasts 40 minutes), the other is the 3 minute queue, where you get to watch 3 minutes of whatever case is going on. We joined the 3 minute line and waited in it for almost one hour! The girls have learned to be quite patient with queues, although an hour did test them! Luckily, they could run around a bit while we waited. When we finally did enter and passed through quite a bit of security we entered the packed courtroom to see the end of a case called Michigan v. Bryant. In each case, each side has 20 minutes to put forward their arguments and they are questioned by the judges. As our case was nearly over, we got to stay in the room longer than 3 minutes, about 10 all together. Basically the lawyer and the judges were debating whether the statement made by a shooting victim describing his assailant was able to be considered 'testimonial', given the circumstances in which he gave these statements (he was in shock, bleeding, in distress and responding to a police officer's questions). It was a bit hard to follow coming in right at the end but it was certainly impressive to see the judges and the courtroom in general. Ella was a bit put our because she could hardly see anything, but Pia seemed to find it interesting and stood up several times to get a better look at the female judges!

The following day we went to the waterfront area of Georgetown and did a cruise on the Potomac River. It was actually really cold that day and quite windy but it was nice to get a view of Washington from the river.

The Washington Memorial and the Lincoln Monument

The Pentagon

The canal that runs through Georgetown

On the Thursday we caught the metro out to Arlington National Cemetery. Finally we had a beautiful day, weather wise, which was good as the cemetery is very large and there are many sections to see.

Firstly we stopped at the grave of President Kennedy, which is very simple yet moving. He is buried next to Jacqui, as well as two of their children who died at birth, or just after. Nearby are his brothers Robert and Edward, also in very simple graves.

The grave of JFK and the eternal flame

We then moved on to the Tomb of the Unknowns. Mum and dad saw the impressive changing of the guard there (I was around the back feeding the girls!)

The tomb of the Unknowns

The house of Robert E. Lee, a famous general in the Civil War, is also at Arlington at the very top of a hill. There are great views over Washington from there. Lee has now had his reputation restored in America, but for a long time he was seen as a traitor because in the Civil War he chose to leave the US Army, which he had served for over 30 years, and side with his native state Virginia and so fight with the Confederate States. His home was taken off him and he was ultimately stripped of his citizenship (this was restored much later by President Ford). Today, his impressive home is being restored inside to how it looked when he lived in it and it is surrounded by the graves of civil war soldiers.

The home of Robert E. Lee

The view from Virginia back to Washington

Arlington is obviously a very sad and reflective place - we saw part of a funeral procession there just as we were leaving, which was very moving, but it is also very beautiful and peaceful.


We finished off the week with a visit to Mount Vernon, which is George Washington's family home. We had visited there before in the summer so this time we got to explore it a little closer and see the gardens and the farm in the autumn, complete with pumpkin patch.



We have just returned from a three day trip exploring some of the civil war battlefields. I will write about this in my next post. Thanks for reading!

Portland, Bennington and Princeton

After Boston, we headed up to Maine and stayed in Portland for 2 days, in a B&B called 'The Elms'! (My maiden name for those of you who didn't know me then)

On the Saturday, we left the shores of Portland behind and headed out for a whale watching cruise. We did get great views of the Atlantic, a few seals and a dolphin, but sadly no whales! So instead of whales, you just get to look at a few photos of us at sea, a light house (we saw many of these) and a fort. Here they are below!







So no whales, but it was a beautiful day all the same. Back on land we wandered some of the cute little streets of the Old Port and ate lobster, a Portland speciality.


Our next stop in our trip was the town of Bennington in Vermont. We had wanted to travel a bit further north in Vermont and see some of the Fall colours but we were just running out of time. However, we were lucky enough to see some of the leaves just starting to change colour and we could certainly feel the signs of Fall in the crispness of the air. We visited the Bennington Battle Monument and took the lift to the top, from where you get a beautiful view of the town and surrounding countryside. The monument commemorates the Battle of Bennington in 1777, in which British troops were defeated during the American Revolution.

The Bennington Monument as seen through some Fall leaves

Bennington is also well know for its covered bridges and we did a scenic drive which took us through some lovely winding roads and through 3 covered bridges. They are all made of wood, (built around 1840) can only fit one car at a time and are certainly very charming.



The moose is also a very popular symbol in Vermont and there are moose statues everywhere, all very brightly painted.


Our final full day of travelling took us out of Vermont heading to Princeton, New Jersey, our final university stop for the trip. On the way, we stopped for a few hours at Hancock Shaker Village, which was another fascinating open-air museum. The Shakers no longer live in this community, and most Shakers have died out in the US (there is a community left in Maine, apparently). But in this village, all their houses, workshops, barns and gardens are left as they were and there are guides dressed as Shakers who show you how they lived and worked. The Shakers believed that work was prayer and so they worked hard from early morning until evening, men separate from women, making their own furniture, furnishings and clothes, as well as tending to their animals and vegetable gardens.

Our 'Shaker' family

We posed as our own Shaker family (Pia thought we looked too silly and refused to dress up too - perhaps she was wise!).

Ella, as a Shaker girl, weaving fabric

Ella 'milking' the cow

Pia tries her hand at woodwork, 'Shaker-style'

The barns, buildings and farm land were beautiful and the girls loved walking around and visiting all the animals that were kept in the barn.




Then it was time to push on and head to Princeton, but on the way we made one more quick stop in New York State, at the magnificent Olana home. This beautiful home was built by the artist Frederick Church in Persian style, with detailed, colourful tiles and decorations, and also boasts breathtaking views over the Hudson River. Church designed the landscape and home on the same hilltop where he used to paint as an 18 year old.

Olana

The beautiful view from Olana

We finally arrived in Princeton early evening. We were staying at the historic Nassau Inn, the oldest inn in Princeton, which was just opposite the university. We had a bit of a walk around that evening and then visited the bar in the hotel, which has the original painting of the song Yankee Doodle hanging in it.

The next morning, we visited the Princeton University campus, which we decided was the prettiest of the Ivy League campuses we had seen on this trip. We were there at 9 in the morning and it was so quiet - hardly any students to be seen. When we asked someone about this, we were told classes didn't start until at least 10 so the students were all still asleep. Very civilised!! Here are some photos of the Princeton campus, including the Princeton Chapel and the Princeton black squirrels!

a Princeton squirrel

So that is the end of our trip. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting out of the big cities and seeing some of the smaller towns and beautiful countryside. This week, the girls have been back into their art classes and ballet classes and are looking forward to seeing Nonna and Dad-Dad who arrive tomorrow.