The odds were 1 in a 100, and.............

This is my final posting for our "Great Americana Adventure" blog. I hadn't posted in a while because we've been at Diana and Emil's place in Hernando, FL for an extended period and had nothing of noteworthy interest to my blog followers. Emil and I spent some time on projects he wanted to get done. We laid a new floor in one of their rooms, removed a 7" sliding glass connecting doorway and replaced it with a newly constructed "Spanish Arched" passageway, and moved a wood stove to the other side of the home which required cutting and bracing roof rafters and trusses that were in the way of the thru-the-ceiling stovepipe.
During our final week there and just a few days before we headed north for home, we rented a pontoon party boat and took a cruise of about 7 miles (and 81 channel buoys) down the Homossa River and then another 3 miles of so out into the Gulf of Mexico. We dropped anchor out in the Gulf and enjoyed the antics of a half dozen or so porpoises frolicking around our boat.

Once we departed Florida, we moseyed on up to Washington, DC with plans to camp out in our tent at Greenbelt National Park for a full week ($8/night for us seniors) and visit all the touristy things we could fit in during our week's stay.

On day 1 we toured the Capitol building and were also able to sit in the senate gallery while the senate was actually in session. The title of this blog posting "The odds were 1 in a 100" refers to the fact that the senate is composed of 100 members (2 from each state) and during our visit there, our own senator from Maine, Olympia Snow, was debating a bill on the senate floor. Pretty cool.

On day 2 we returned to the Capitol and attended a live session in the House of Representatives that afternoon. In the forenoon, we visited and toured the U.S. Supreme Court. We actually sat within spitting distance of the 9 Justice Supreme Court bench (they were not in session this day but the lecture on the Courts operations was very interesting).

On day 3 we began visiting some of the Smithsonian's museums. Or first stop was the American Indian Museum. That was followed in the afternoon by a visit to the Air and Space Museum.

On day 4 we spent the entire day at the Museum of Natural History.

On day 5 we toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and observed our paper currency being printed. I learned that a stack of $100 bills reaching my height would have a value of 1 3/4 million dollars (and I have pictures to prove it). Next on our list for the day was our visit to the Holocaust Museum. Needless to say, a very moving experience.

On day 6 we hit 2 more museums, the International Spy Museum and Madame Tussard's Wax Museum. The wax museum actually had figures of each and every one of our 44 presidents (as well as persons famous in sports, music, and other fields of vocation). Below is a photo of Betty with Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Betty posing with her friends Hillary and Bill

On day 7 we toured the White House visitor information center and followed that up with a stroll around the Tidal Basin/Jefferson Memorial to admire the 3 thousand cherry trees which were in full bloom (albeit during a brief hail storm).

The Cherry Blossoms, Tidal Basin, & Jefferson Memorial

There were of course, many things we did not have time to see, i.e., American History Museum, the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, Mt. Vernon, etcs. I'm sure one would need 3 or 4 weeks to see most of what Washington has to offer. Hopefully we shall return for another week of sightseeing in the not to distant future.
So now we leave Washington and head for Maine. Not more than 5 miles across the Maine state line, we saw our first snow (excluding the Grand Canyon - see earlier blog) and by the time we arrived at Cedar Lake the snow depths were still 2 to 3 feet. Welcome home, hey!
Oh well, our 5 months away were filled with wonderful visits with friends and family and many memorable visits to our nations natural landmarks and attractions. We traveled a total of 12,278 miles, passed thru 26 states, and returned home $14,533 poorer (but I only lost $8 in Vegas).

As the saying goes.......
"And a good time was had by all"