A walk around the Rosslyn area

Last week Ada was out of town, so I decided to make my way to Theodore Roosevelt Island. I didn't spend enough time looking at a map to see how to get there, so I ended up taking a REALLY out of the way route to get there. I ended up going past the Marine War Memorial. I eventually made my way to the Mount Vernon Trail which leads to a bridge that takes you to TR Island. The trail is popular for joggers and cyclists. It's very pretty. For a sense of perspective, here is a picture I took from the trail. This is the back side of the Lincoln Memorial. I finally made it to the bridge to the island and this is the view from the bridge. Once on the island I made my way to see the man himself. Theodore Roosevelt. Naturalist, writer, hunter,...

Read more »

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Manassas

Ada and I got up at 5:30 to begin our short trip to Manassas, Virginia to attend the 150th anniversary reenactment of the First Battle of Manassas. The Battles of Manassas are often known as First and Second Bull Run. The reason for this is because most southern soldiers named battles after the nearest city, while northern soldiers tended to name battles after the nearest river or stream.  Although not the first battle of the Civil War, nor the biggest of the war, it was a game changer. Both sides were sure a quick victory could be achieved by an overwhelming show of force. They were wrong. The soldiers as well as their commanding officers were inexperienced, which led to mistakes on the battlefield. During this battle the standard...

Read more »

Truckeroo

On Friday, Mike and I went into DC to the Navy Yard to attend Truckeroo. Truckeroo is a gathering of 20-25 food trucks that normally drive around DC each day. The food trucks gather once a month so people can sample and try new food while listening to live music.We started out at the BBQ Bus and made our way to the TaKorean truck, and we ended our evening at the Big Cheese Truck which serves only grilled cheese sandwiches.At the BBQ Mike ordered a BBQ chicken and jalapeno sandwich...yum.Next stop was the TaKorean food truck (a Korean taco truck) where we ordered steak and pork tacos with chili sauce, cilantro, kimchi slaw and a lime sour cream sauce.After the tacos we adventured over to the grilled cheese truck and had a grilled cheese sandwich...

Read more »

Happy Independence Day from Mike & Ada!

...

Read more »

National Portraits Gallery and Ray's Hell Burger

Ada and I got up this gorgeous morning and headed into the city. We hopped on the Yellow Line and went to Chinatown. Our destination was the National Portraits Gallery, which is located in the Old Patent Office Building. We wandered around the gallery for hours and saw some truly amazing works of art. Ada and I quickly realized that in observing and reading about the subjects of the portraits that we were getting a refresher course in U.S. History. (or at least Ada was when I'd start rambling on about Civil War generals.)Robert E. LeeP.G.T. BeauregardUlysses S. GrantWilliam Tecumseh ShermanNaval Battle during War of 1812There was a very interesting exhibit about the death of Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth is remembered as the first conspicuous...

Read more »