Hello Y'all!
As you may guess from my greeting, I've been down South for a while. :) :) :)
A good friend of ours, Miss Dawn, recently moved down to North Carolina and asked Mama and I to drive down with her. We left Friday, the 18th of this month. The trip was about 24 hours long and we went through the mountains on our second day (Saturday). They were gorgeous!!!!! We thought we would stop more often to take pictures, and then stay at another hotel, but instead, we went all of the way through Saturday night. I can't tell you how good it was to arrive! :)
We were kindly and hospitably received by Miss Dawn's sister and mother. We stayed for three days, leaving Wednesday afternoon for the Renfro family's home.
Sunday through Tuesday were full days of going to the beach, visiting historical sites, going back to the beach, playing Frisbee, body surfing the waves, getting sunburned :), playing Risk, eating wonderful food, going to the beach again :), and much, much more.
Our dear friends, the Renfros live about three hours from where we were staying, so Miss Dawn drove us there. It was a bittersweet goodbye with her. She has really blessed me and been a large part of my life these past seven months.
We spent a sweet day of fellowship, fun and encouragement with the Renfro family on Wednesday.
My Grandpa had generously given us some money for our trip, so we planned an overnight trip to Mount Vernon and Washington DC for Thursday and Friday. This part of our trip was packed with new and exciting experiences!
We drove to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, on Thursday and spent many, many hours walking the grounds there. We were able to walk through his beautiful home as well. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed inside the mansion. We saw the room in which he received the letter announcing his election to the presidency, the room where the Washingtons dined and entertained company, the bedroom where Lafayette slept during his visit to Mount Vernon, and the room in which Washington died. Other interesting artifacts related to the Washingtons both at Mr Vernon and the Smithsonian included:
Washington's dentures, his mother's chair, much of the Washington family's china, the key from the Bastille, some scraps of letters in Washington's own handwriting, his uniform, many of his swords, his eyeglasses, Martha Washington's cookbook which was already 100 years old when she received it, and much, much more.
After Mount Vernon, we drove to DC and viewed some of the monuments by moonlight - the Washington monument, the WWII monument, and the Lincoln memorial. What an experience! I also got to ride on a sub way for the first time.
That was quite enough walking for one day, so we checked in at our hotel and crashed (or some of us did!). :) We were up bright and early the next morning, excited for what was in store. First on our list was Arlington House and Cemetery. It was sobering to walk through the cemetery and see so many headstones, a memorial to men who valiantly died in service of their country.
Arlington House was beautiful, but due to the earthquake, all furniture and decor had been removed to repair the home. It was still a neat experience to see the place where Robert E. Lee lived and was married, and the grounds which he walked.
Next up - the Smithsonian museum of American History! What an overwhelming store of information is contained there! We viewed the actual Star-Spangled-Banner, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen our National Anthem! It wasn't a small to medium-sized flag like I had thought - it was HUGE! After spending a considerable amount of time in that section of the museum, we walked slowly through the area on American wars, trying to take everything in. By WWI I was so overwhelmed that it was hard to take any more in!!!!!
After this, our party split up. Mrs. Renfro and Bri stayed at the American History Museum, Josh took Mama to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, while Jenna, Daniel, and I walked quickly down to the National Archives. We were blessed with a spot in line just before a large group of school children got in line. The wait was from 30-40 minutes, but well worth it once we were inside. It was truly an incredible experience to see one of the four original Magna Charta documents remaining, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The documents have aged so that it is hard to distinguish many of the signatures, but what an experience to see the papers that our founding fathers handled, signed their names to, and, in some cases, risked their life for the principles contained within. We had to whiz through the rest of the museum due to a time constraint, but another highlight was hearing a recording of Teddy Roosevelt's voice. Our visit to the National Archives was definitely a high point for me!
We arrived home that night, or rather, early Saturday morning. The Brown family is having a Memorial celebration on their property, so Daniel went over mid-morning to help set up the huge tent. Bri drove Jenna and I over later and we waded in the pond and played a super fun game of ultimate Frisbee.
Sunday we went to church and then a study that night of the Second London Baptist Confession.
On Monday, all of us girls went to the farmer's market in Raleigh. It was a joy to see some of the Valentis and Katie Bradrick again. What a sweet family they are!
Monday evening brought a fun and exhausting game of ultimate Frisbee on the Renfro's property. We played 5 different games in the space of about 3 hours. My legs are still sore from all of that running!!!!! :) Ultimate Frisbee is definitely my favorite sport to play and I had a BLAST Monday night!
Tuesday was also very blessed with our last hours of fellowship with the Renfro family. It was a bittersweet goodbye - the hardest one for me yet. We flew from Raleigh to Charlotte, changed planes, and flew into Minneapolis airport in the late afternoon. What a joy it was to see my precious family once again! What a gracious Lord we serve to keep us safe through our many travels and adventures. I am grateful to be back home again with my wonderful family. Home is a beautiful and joyful place to be!
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| Mundy is me (Jeremiah's nickname for me), if anyone wants to know... :) |
There should be lots and lots of photos in my next few posts. :)
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1 comment:
Hannah - it sounds like you and Mrs. Armour had such a sweet time! Thank you so much for sharing with us how your time went and what you did. How neat to be able to see those historical places! And considering your love for history, I'm sure it was especially neat for you! I really enjoyed reading about your trip, and I can't wait to see your pictures! :)
Love,
Brookie
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