Harry Truman said "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."  I'm happy to report we had a much better experience than Harry.  We were well treated in our nation's Capitol and had a great time mostly viewing the impressive collections at the National Gallery, the Smithsonian (Freer, Sackler, Hirshhorn and Ripkin Galleries) and the Corcoran.  We strolled along the mall and stopped a the World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials.  We arrived shortly after Memorial Day and were moved to find the memorials covered with tributes, flags and bouquets of red paper poppies.  We also took time out to celebrate BJ's birthday at Brasserie Beck which we highly recommend to anyone visiting the Capital.

Marty in an interactive art exhibit at the Hirshhorn

Detail of Whistler's Peacock Room at the Freer Art Gallery

Girl in a Red Hat, one of four Vermeer's at the National Gallery

Calder mobile in the lobby of the National Art Gallery's East Wing

Detail of the Korean War Memorial

Michelle's and Barack's pad

BJ at 39+

We are now at the half way point of our road trip having reached the furthest Eastern point in the USA.  We are on the Outer Banks, a very long (approx 200 miles), very narrow string of barrier islands that run along the North Carolina Coast.  The width of the islands vary from approximately 5 miles to about 50 yards depending upon whether there has been a recent hurricane.  The coast is particularly prone to storms,  and a series of lighthouses was built along the coast in the 1800s, three of which we're showing below.  There's a lot of history here.  We are staying with an old friend in Kill Devil Hills, about a quarter mile from Kitty Hawk where the Wright brothers flew the first motorized air plane and within a few miles from Blackbeard's home base and where the first person of English descent, Virginia Dare, was born.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse (1875)

Ocracoke Lighthouse (1823)

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (1870)

BJ and our hostess, Ann Pierce, on the Beach at Hatteras Island

Other less well behaved tourists

Howdy ya'll.  We've hardly stopped to catch our breath since leaving New Orleans. We are still having a great time and finding Southerners to be welcoming although we wish they didn't fry all of their food (we have had fried chicken 3 times in 3 days).  Besides eating too much fried chicken -we made a quick stop in Meridian, Mississippi, drove across Alabama and Georgia in one day and visited Savannah and Charleston in South Carolina.

 In Meridian, we toured the Merrehope and Williams Houses, two of the only houses left standing in that city after General William T. Sherman's Savannah ("March to the Sea") Campaign.

We had only one day in Savannah and took three separate walking tours that highlighted the city's historic houses, gates and gardens and ghost sites.

Savannah was full of beautiful architectural details

This is a 3-D modern garden gate

The Hamilton-Turner Inn had the first electric light in Savannah

 In Charleston we strolled through the  oldest neighborhoods and toured the Nathaniel Russell House, a grand "London Style" townhouse completed in 1808.  

It sure is hot here, and the plants that grow as shrubs in California are trees here. 

The gardenias are in bloom

Laissez les bon temps roulez.  It's the mantra in New Orleans and who are we to argue?  We have taken full advantage of the good music and exotic food and walked miles taking in the varied and unique architectural styles of the French Quarter and the Garden District.  Spent a few evenings at the Three Muses in the French Quarter listening to pianist Tom McDermott one evening and a wonderful jazz trio on our second evening.  We also joined in a "pub crawl" where almost everyone was made up as a zombie.  We weren't expecting it - just went out one evening for a nightcap and ran into hordes of zombies.  We love New Orleans!  Also want to mention that New Orleans has a wonderful museum, NOMA, and one of the best sculpture gardens we've ever visited.  The Sidney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden - don't miss it if you visit New Orleans.  Food is exotic and our fare included alligator sausage and bacon pecan sticky buns.

We Stand Together from George Rodrigue's Blue Dog Series - NOMA Sculpture Garden

Typical homes in French Quarter

Home in the upscale Garden District

BJ enjoying a beignet at the Cafe du Monde

They serve  25 cent martinis at Commander's Palace!!

Spent today just south of Baton Rouge which has some of Louisiana's best preserved plantations.  We toured two very different styles of plantation both supported by sugar cane; luxurious Nottoway, the South's largest remaining antebellum mansion, and the more modest but still impressive, Laura, a Creole plantation.  When we weren't on tour, we were sampling authentic Louisiana cuisine, poboys for lunch washed down with Dixie beer (we passed on gator burgers, the lunch special) and red beans and rice for dinner. 

The modest and unassuming 53,000 sq ft Nottoway Plantation

Detail of the "White Ballroom" at Nottoway

Laura, a Creole plantation on the The Great River Road

On the menu at the B&C Cajun Cafe

BJ's new favorite, Dixie beer. .

San Antonio was our last stop in Texas and did not disappoint.  There is a fabulous river walk that runs for miles through the center of the city and allows for easy walking access to most of the historic sites.  It also provides a lot of "rest stops", i.e., there are a lot of great bars and restaurants with outdoor seating where you can stop whenever you're hungry or thirsty for an ice cold Lone Star beer (the best!!) or one of the local favorites, a Salty Chihuahua.  Even with frequent "rest" stops, we were able to fit in visits to the Alamo, the Governor's Palace, the Cathedral and the Navarro House.

Welcome to the Texas History Museum, Pardners.

 We are now in Louisiana and spent our first night in bayou country camping along a crocodile infested swamp.  Actually, we never saw a crocodile but there were a lot of signs cautioning us that they were a danger in the area.

 Our second day in Louisana, we drove to Baton Rouge which we entered via approximately 20 miles of raised highway that was built over the swamp and provided impressive views of this beautiful country.  Yesterday, we took a small boat tour through the swamp.

endangered swamp cypress being sold as mulch at Walmart

Can you find the catfish in this picture?

 It was fabulous - we saw our first crocodile, egrets, ibises, great blue herons, swallow kites - lots of wild life. The local environmentalists are doing a valiant job trying to preserve the area but it appears to be a constant battle with few victories.  If you want to see the bayous of Louisiana, we suggest you plan a trip within the next few years before the loggers and oil companies destroy the rest.

Two thumbs up for Fort Worth, TX.  We were in Fort Worth less than a day but would have stayed longer if we had known what a great town it is.  We made it to the Kimbell and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.  We were in luck - the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA is undergoing renovations and lent their impressionist exhibits to the Kimbell and their John Singer Sargent's to the Amon Carter. Together with their own excellent collections, it made for a really great museum day.  A quick peek at some of the our favorite paintings are shown below.

We are now in Austin, a mecca for anyone interested in live music.  We went to a rock and roll club on our first night, found a good Tejano (Tex-Mex) band on night two and tonight, we will try to find a blues venue.  It's monsoon season in Austin but the rains stopped long enough for us to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  Life is good.

Cattle Drive - Frederic Remington

Woman Standing Holding a Fan - Mary Cassatt

Amy Vanderbilt Sheppard (detail) - John Singer Sargent

Tejano Band at Guero's Taco Bar - Fabulous music, good food and a great people watching spot

Field of Black-eyed Susans, Indian Blankets, etc. at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

International UFO Museum Parking Lot - we were allowed to park, no questions asked.

Marty startled by an Alien

Natural entrance to Carlsbad Cavern

The Whale's Mouth, one of the  more dramatic formations in the caverns

Stalagmites and Stalacites in the King's Palace Cavern

The caverns were enormous

 

 

We have had an exciting few days.  We spotted aliens in Roswell, NM, home of the fabled UFO crash in 1947; found a rattlesnake at our campsite which was killed by one of the camp employees (we're still feeling bad about that); survived a violent rainstorm complete with thunder and lighting, and visited the fabulous Carlsbad Caverns and hiked down to a depth the equivalent of a 75 story building (we took the elevator back up!).  We're off to Texas tomorrow, y'all.

Don't know that there is more beautiful country anywhere in the USA.  The mountains, mesas and buttes of New Mexico are majestic and seem to go on forever.  Early Native Americans called Santa Fe the Dancing Ground of the Sun and it has certainly lived up to it's name during our visit.  We had great fun viewing INCREDIBLE art being created by living artists in Santa Fe, and wandering around town enjoying the store windows, galleries, plazas, museums, restaurants and bars.  Highlights included the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the New Mexico Museum of Art.  We visited Taos, 90 miles north of Santa Fe, where we saw the La Hacienda de los Martinez, established 1804, the church of San Francisco of Asis (you will recognize images of the church from Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and Ansel Adams photographs - we've given Ansel a run for his money, don't you think?) and the Taos Pueblo including the famous San Geronimo Church.

BJ and friend in Santa Fe

A cart in the courtyard at the Martinez Hacienda in Taos

Early condominium complex (aka Taos Pueblo)

The Rebuilt Taos Pueblo Church, San Geronimo

Very Georgia O'Keeffe

The famous back view of San Francisco de Asis in Taos

Back on the road again

After a short hiatus, we're back on the road again. Not a lot to report today as we spent the whole day - 12 hours - driving from San Bernardino to Santa Fe, NM. We were so anxious to resume our road trip that we drove a little too fast. The photo is of the highway patrolman who pulled us over just outside of Kingman, AZ. We won't say who was driving but only that we were able to charm the driver with our engaging retired person's smiles. We drove the rest of the way at the speed limit which is why it took us so long.

(Hint, the driver had dark hair.)