Our internet has been a bit spotty lately, and I’m pretty sure last week’s post did not upload in its entirety. It’s fixed now.
We enjoyed a lovely week in Colonial Beach, VA, far away from anything meaningful to see or do. It was great to just relax, get caught up on some work, and even hang out with a fellow traveling family over s’mores.
Here’s Amy and Nat catching up on some schoolwork:
There was a constant layer of pollen everywhere:
On Friday, we relocated to Greenbelt Park to be closer to DC for one more sight-seeing weekend. We had some fun neighbors in the spot next to us:
As planned, we spent the majority of the day at the Holocaust museum. It’s difficult to comprehend that something so awful as the holocaust happened, and that it wasn’t even that long ago. Sad and frightening. (I don’t have any photos; photography was not allowed.)
Today was our final mission: Ford’s theater:
To my surprise, photography IS allowed here. We listened to a park ranger give a talk on the history of Ford’s Theater and the night Lincoln was shot.
The museum in the basement of Ford’s Theater had some really, really amazing stuff related to the conspirators and their plot to assassinate Lincoln:
The .44 Derringer pistol used by John Wilkes Booth to shoot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head at 10:15pm on April 14th, 1865:
A blood-stained pillow used in the care of Lincoln after he was shot:
We walked across the street to visit the Petersen boarding house where Lincoln was carried after being shot:
This bedroom at the back of the boarding house is where Lincoln died the next morning:
It was a bit crowded today due to a few school or youth groups that were also visiting. But the crowds in DC are noticeably less compared to a couple weekends ago when the Cherry Blossom Festival was going on.
To finish off the day, we intended to watch The Conspirator, the story of Mary Surratt, one of the Lincoln conspirators and the first female to be executed by the federal government. All the local Redboxes were out and Blockbusters seem to have all closed, so I resorted to trying to stream it via Netflix.
Alas, t’was not to be. Netflix over a crappy cellular internet connection is a cruel joke:
It took us three very full weekends, and a few side trips in between, but we feel like we saw Washington DC. Truly, one could spend a lifetime here and still not give everything the study and attention it deserves. But for us, it’s time to move on.
Next stop: Baltimore?