Philadelphia PA and Mystic CT

June 3 - June 14 2026 

The history tour continues in Philly. But first, we went in to see the art museum and the Rocky steps. Did a museum highlights tour with a docent and learned a lot. The Museum has a very eclectic collection including a bunch of very nice impressionist pieces. I especially liked the monastery atrium and fountain they had brought in with frescoes and a neat view of a triptych from the center. I like these tours as you get some depth on the pieces.

Of course we had to get a cheesesteak at Geno's and Pat's King of Steaks for a taste off. Natch we got em"whiz wit". Actually, could not tell the difference. Would be funny if they were owned by the same people but they were super good. I think the only time i eat cheez whiz.

The next day I went into the city alone to check out Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, And the US Constitution center. 

Independence Hall was sold out so I just got to take pics from the outside. No Biggie as I had seen it before. 

I did not get to the Constitution Center before. Wow. I was impressed. Very cool to see all the negotiations and back room deals that had to be made to get it to pass. I especially liked the room with al the life sized bronze statues of the delegation to the continental congress.

The Bell is always strangely inspiring. I mean, its just a cracked bell but there is something powerful about it.

That was pretty much it for Philly. The next stop was Mystic CT. This was a rather long stop for a small place with nothing much going on. A time to rest and recuperate a bit. Mystic is a sleepy riverfront town that is known for an 80s movie. It is super pretty though. We did discover that Connecticut is known for pizza (even though I never heard of Connecticut style). We had to go to Mystic Pizza and I must say, It is very good Pizza, Thin very crispy crust with teh ingredients under the cheese.

I went into Newport Rhode Island to get a haircut and see the sailing museum and sailing hall of fame. Mostly devoted to racing which makes sense as they are the start of the Newport to Bermuda regatta each year. Interesting museum with a lot of interactive exhibits.

It was my birthday so my Mom took me out for lobster. Found a little place right on the water and got a no frills lobster. How can you go wrong! Not a bad way to ring in 61.

We went to new London and the Coast Guard Academy Museum and learned about the history of the Coast Guard. honestly, I did not know anything about it. It was started by merging five different services. The first was the Revenue Cutters. I knew about them from my time with the San Diego Maritime Museum as the California is a replica of a Revenue Cutter. It was also merged with the lighthouse service, the rescue service and a few others to form the Coast Guard. Don't have any pictures of this though so heres one of the riverfront.

Went into Providence and went to the Rhode Island School of Design museum. Another unexpected gem. This was on Benefit Street, a street with a bunch of historically significant buildings. The museum had this great exhibit on Surimono. These were commissioned by Poets in the early 1800s and often were slightly irreverent and mocking of the higher poetry of the time. They would commission a wood blick print from the artist and then write their poem on it and give it to friends. Very cool stuff. 

We also went to the Mystic Seaport Museum which was so much bigger than we expected. It is a whole 1800s seaport re-created with shops as well as boats. They had the last original whaling ship. A bit gruesome but history isn't always pretty. 

I found the navigation instrument shop to be super interesting. A good sextant was the equivalent of $3,000 to $6,000. They also had clocks, compasses, and other navigation equipment.

The cordage house was also very cool. This picture does not fully capture the size of this building and this was only half of the original. It was over 1000 feet long. So much artistry along with the automation. They had to know how to pay out the hemp fibers while it was spinning and how fast to run the twisting carts down the length of the factory to get it even and strong.

 

They were restoring a very old large wooden fishing ship and that looked like a huge job. I think there were more holes than solid wood. Apparently these were built to be very fast and carry a hugh amout of sail as when they were laden, they had enough ballast to really fly canvas and the fish needed to be brought back fast so it did not spoil.

They also had a lego shipwreck (brickwreck) exhibit that was really neat. I really liked the front half of the Titanic sinking. Very imaginative.

I also just rode the bike around the harborfront town and enjoyed the new england scenery. The Mystic River drawBridge is really old and is fun to watch go up. Everything is so green here I don't know what to think. I know it gets a lot of snow in the winter but it looks really nice to me.

Next it is off the the Boston Area to pick up Sue and continue into Maine and Canada. Next post will have a co-editor.

Willliamsburg VA and Washington DC

 May 22 - June 3 2026

We are starting the hard core history section of the trip. Colonial Williamsburg. In this area, there are three major colonial sites; Jamestown, Yorktown, and colonial Williamsburg. 

Jamestown was the first permanent settlement for English in America. It gives us the story of Pocahontas, not the Disney version but the version where a young woman is captured and held ransom and taken to England where she contracts some horrible disease and dies at 21. 

Anyways, the exhibits at Jamestown included a model of the original fort and some re-enactment characters. Interesting to see how they lived at the time. 

They also had replica ships or the period and I always love a sailboat!

Skipping ahead a century and a half or so, we went to Yorktown, The battle that pretty much sealed the Revolutionary War where General George W defeated Cornwallis and a large portion of the British Army.

The site is super cool. you drive on a path stopping at significant points on the way and hear about what happened and the significance. It was cool to walk the fortifications and see the terrain which is largely the same. When you hear the stories of the revolutionary war and what they were dealing with, it is really amazing that things worked out the way they did. I mean it was really the ultimate underdog story. And the fact that the people fighting for freedom knew that they would be killed if things went against them and they still decided to fight... mad respect for their courage and conviction.

Williamsburg was a bustling town in the revolutionary times and the town of the second University in America, William and Mary. Apparently, John Rockefeller was the one who started buying up the town to preserve as a historical park. There are many original buildings from the time period and you see lots of actors in costume wandering around. 

I did a Murder pub crawl, basically a few drinks and stories of murders that occurred in the area. There was a serial killer here who was never caught but they found the culprit with recent DNA evidence( Jan 2026 recent). Anyway, got to walk the town and hear about some old murders and whatnot. Pretty fun. unfortunately, I did not take any pictures so here is one of the roads there. So lush!

Next was the DC area. The RV park was in a place called Lothian which was between DC and Annapolis, MD. 

I went in to see the Air and Space museum, because duh. Always amazed at this museum. Saw the original Wright flyer as well as the moon lander. Such a great collection. Unfortunately, about half was closed including the WWII parts. I guess I got enough at the other museums cause i wasn't too bummed. Got to read a lot more of the exhibits cause i wasn't rushing to look at the cool fighters.

Mom and I met cousin Juliet and her partner Tim in Annapolis for lunch. They are both involved in the ALS community and had a function to go to so could only do the one lunch. I Had not seen Juliet since I was in Jr. high and they came to our house in the Valley. It was really nice to meet them and we had a great lunch on the waterfront. 

Mom and I went in to the mall again and went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Wow. This is a powerful and sobering experience. You start in the 1400s and walk through the history of slavery and the black experience in America. The only positive I could take away, is that this country has been even more polarized than it is now and we eventually came out of it. Depressing that it took so long sometimes though. One hundred years from the end of the civil war to the civil rights movement. Hopefully we can be better now.

After that, we went to the Natural History Museum. Alway like seeing some skeletons of extinct critters. Once again, I was amazed at the quality of the exhibits. I could spend a month going to all the Smithsonian museums!

On Monday, We went on a sunset sail on the Chesapeake on the Schooner Woodwind. Such a great cruise. 25 knots of wind and that 75 foot schooner was heeled over and cruising along with only two sails up. It was a history cruise so there was an author that wrote a historical fiction novel explaining the history of the area during the Revolutionary times. I got to help jump the halyard and raise the main. 

A perfect sunset! Nancy said it was the best cruise she had ever done, and with 85 years behind her, I think that says something.

We spent a day at GW's crib, Mt Vernon. It is always hard to square the ideals they fought for with the fact that they bought and sold other people. He did come to believe slavery was wrong and freed all his slaves when he died, but still. 

Always find it interesting to see these vast mansions and all the stuff needed to keep them going. Also, had a very good museum going over George's adventures in the war, before and after as well. I really did not know that much about him besides the basics.

The last day before we left, we went in and saw the chaos of the white house construction and went to the spy museum. This was an unexpected treat. I had never heard of it but saw it on google maps cause it was near the metro entrance. 

You get an identity and learn some spycraft along the way. I got my disguise, which i guess consisted of a scarf and a stern look. Watch out 007. 

Looked for references to James Jesus Angleton, who was a bigwig in early CIA counter espionage and the person Matt Damon's character in The Good Shepherd was based on. Did not find any references but we were rushed out and did not get to see several sections cause of time. Favorite spy gadget, fake scrotum concealment. I'll let you imagine that one.

Off to Philadelphia next for more revolutionary sites...

Charleston SC and Manteo NC via Myrtle Beach

 May 15 - 22 2026

Rooftop Bar

I guess we are starting the Colonial History portion of the trip. Charleston South Carolina is a coastal town similar to Savannah in that it has a lot of very old houses in similar styles. We went to a nice rooftop restaurant for dinner before wandering the little downtown area. Beautiful day with a great view of the waterfront and the town. 

The big guns

We went to the Fort Sumter and Moultrie National Park. I was aware of Fort Sumter's role as the first battle of the civil war but had no idea about Fort Moultrie during the Revolutionary War. Apparently, It was a big deal and held out against the British Naval and Marine forces giving the Revolutionary Army an early win in 1776, even though it would fall later in 1780. 

15 stars and stripes on this flag.

I learned that the original plan for the flag was to add a star and a stripe for each new state. Luckily this was abandoned in favor of just adding stars. Could you imagine 50 stripes on the flag. It would look like a pinstripe suit!

The Beach

A cool tour of the fort and my first walk on an Atlantic beach. Did not go to the water but there were a lot of people doing beachy stuff. 

Beautiful grounds a the winery!

We only were there for a few nights and I was working mostly so did not really explore the city too much. Seemed nice though. We decided to just do an overnight to break up the driving at a Harvest Hosts at the Silver Coast Winery near Myrtle Beach. It was a very nice location on the grounds. They had a small amount of vines, mostly for decoration as their wine grapes were from north west North Carolina.

Tasting

They had a very reasonable tasing. $10 for four wines, and the bottle prices were mostly around $20. I am by no means a wine dude, but these were very good drinking wines. Harvest Hosts offer free overnights with the expectation that you will patronize the business. Easy peasey! I even bought one of the wines that I had never heard of a Red Calabash. apparently a local wine, that was particularly yummy.

Woodworking Demo.

The next day we continues to Manteo (pronounced Man EE O) North Carolina, otherwise known as Roanoke Island. Mom's good friend Georgia lived here at some point and they came through here on a trip a few years ago. It is a quaint little village with a super cute downtown and docks. We toured Roanoke, the site of the first English colony in the Americas, often referred to as the Lost Colony because all the inhabitants disappeared at some point when supplies from England were delayed for a few years. The most likely explanation is that they basically moved in with the native tribes although there is no definitive answer.

Elizabeth II

They had a replica of a time appropriate ship and re-creation of the village as well as re-enactments of skills from the time period. Was a basic lathe and a spokeshave bench which was pretty cool.

No ailerons, they actually warped the entire wing!

Also in the area was Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first achieved powered flight. Maybe the theme of the trip is Aviation and History. Anyway, as an aviation nerd, I was fascinated. We all know the basics of the story, bicycle makers blah blah, first flight blah blah... but the details were very interesting.

You can see the first three landing sites
clumped together and the last one way
off in the distance.

They realized that the equations for lift and drag that were accepted at the time were wrong. So they went about calculating the correct values and, through experimentation in a wind tunnel, which they built, calculated optimal wing shape. On the day they finally flew, they and hundreds of flights in a glider in which they mastered the art of controlled flight. The first flight was just 12 seconds but by the fourth, they were able to stay aloft and in control for almost a minute. Very inspiring.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

We also went to see an old lighthouse on the outer banks that was very lighthousey. A striped spire and a keepers house. The site was well maintained. I am always amazed at how structures like this were built without modern equipment. It did take them three tries, The first fell down, the second burned down, but this one, the third sayed up. The strongest lighthouse in the swamp. (Monty python ref)

I was finally able to dip my feet in the Atlantic for the first time. The water was cool but swimmable and very clear.

Yum!

Not much else to report from this little portion of the trip. Had some more shrimp. I really like the gulf shrimp, they are very mild compared to the pacific shrimp we get at home and they generally peel easier. Anyway, we make a lovely shrimp and goat cheese salad.

Next is Williamsburg and then off to DC, so more American History coming up.

Gulf Coast AL to Savannah GA via Tallahassee FL

 May 6 - May 15 2026

Sunset is not over the ocean here.

A relatively short hop from New Orleans got us through Mississippi to Gulf Shores Alabama. Gulf Shores is, as the name suggests, on the Gulf of America Mexico.The sand was so white and fine it was like being in the Caribbean. After setting up at the RV park, we went to a little place on the water for some peel and eat shrimp. My Uncle Dave introduced me to peel and eat shrimp at his place in La Porte Indiana. he used to bring up loads of Shrimp from The gulf and do a big shrimp boil that was life changing. I Have had the same dish many times on the west coast and have never re-created that feeling of perfection that i first had at Uncle Dave's. I think I finally found the secret. Gulf Shrimp. These seemed like they would have been overcooked and rubbery by the way the thin shell peeled off but they were perfectly cooked. Just a hint of Old Bay seasoning. 

Dipping my toes.

After dinner, I went down to put my feet in the Gulf. I expected a bit warmer since I saw some kids playing in the water a few minutes earlier. Still comfortable enough. I kinda forget that kids will go into water at almost any temperature. 

The next two days were rainy so we did not get to go back to the beach. Bummer!

Houston TX, Lafayette, and New Orleans LA

 April 23 - May 6, 2026

The Canoga Park krewe!

This is a big one! almost two weeks. In Houston, my high school crew either lived there or flew in for the weekend. We try to get together every so often and hang out for a bit. THe last was in Las Vegas where Andrea lives and since Tom lives in Houston and I was passing through, We decided to check out this city. I rented an AirBnB for the weekend in Montrose which is the groovy area of Houston. 

While we waited for Andrea to arrive, Tom took me an Jeffery to a banh mi place in the Vietnamese area where he lives. It was several miles long. I don't think I have seen a bigger area outside of Santa Ana. The banh mi was good. After picking up Andrea and going to the condo, we had a nice dinner and went to Tom's regular bar where we played pool and had a few drinks. Then back to the condo where we stayed up way too late catching up.

The next day, we went to Meow Wolf. This was my third one and I really dig it. The Santa Fe one is still my favorite but this one is pretty cool. If you haven't heard of Meow Wolf, it is an immersive art experience where there is a story or a mystery that you can try to figure out, or just enjoy the visuals. 

You are supposed to explore the entire environment; pull books off shelves, look at notes on refrigerators, touch stuff and see what happens. I started trying to investigate the mystery but soon just went for the expe rience.

Cowboy Heaven bar inside Meow Wolf.

Auditory room where all the
stuff made sounds when you touched