Museums & History

Museums, historic sites, monuments, and family history.

Susquehannah, PA and Palmyra, NY - Church History Tour

We drove up to Susquehannah, PA to the Priesthood Restoration Site in Oakland Township, PA. We walked down from the visitor's center to some restored homes to look inside. A sister missionary showed us inside both Isaac Hale's (Emma's parents) home, and the house

Fairfax History Day - 2018

Each year, Fairfax hosts Fairfax History Day, focused on local 19th century life.  With all of the rain we've been having recently, we were fortunate to have a beautiful, sunny spring day. It is held at 'Historic Blenheim', a former plantation near the site of the

Monticello

Out in front of the house. There are thousands of tulips in bloom in front of the house. a little frog we saw by a little pond by the front of the house. garden areas on the side of the house the other side of the house, considered the front

University of Virginia

We drove to Charlottesville to walk around the University of Virginia, the school that Thomas Jefferson built. This area is called 'The Range'. Both sides are rooms for graduate students. Because it's all original buildings from the 1800s, there's no air conditioning. For winter,

Mount Saint Helens - Volcano in Washington

When Keith was young, he and his family went to Mt St Helens, not too many years after it has erupted.  So on our way to visit Angela's sister, we wanted to see it. We stopped at the visits center near the base of the National Park.  They

Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada

We have been wanting to visit Angela's sister and one of her friends in the Washington state for quite a while. Fortunately, we had enough frequent flier miles for round trip tickets for our family. We flew into Seattle, where Angela stayed for a few days while the

Visit to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum

Melvin and Nan just finished their Church History Mission in Salt Lake City. They started a trip in Ohio, then drove over to Pennsylvania, then to visit us on Friday and stayed with us through the weekend. We went to some places we've been before but they hadn&

Ford's Theater

This man in period dress played the part of a constable from the night of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He was really good, he set the scene and told us how Washington DC looked back then and how things were, then went through the timeline of the night and

International Spy Museum

We have been wanting to go to the International Spy Museum for a while now, so we finally went yesterday. We didn't realize there would be such a James Bond emphasis on all the exhibits, but that IS the epitome and glorification of spying, so..... There was a

Air and Space Museum

We try to go to one of the Smithsonian Museums every week; we went to the Air and Space on Tuesday this week. Above, we were looking at the planet/space exhibit and Carson is using a device to zoom in on the various planets. Part of the aircraft carrier

carson

Anderson House, Washington, DC - HQ of the Society of the Cincinnati

The Society of the Cincinnati held a free session for the American Culture merit badge last weekend.  Keith went to drop Carson off and after seeing the amazing place and agenda, he couldn't leave. The building is a 1920's mansion -- the winter home of the Andersons,

Smithsonian Postal Museum

We went to the Smithsonian Postal Museum last week. It was in a building that used to be solely a post office, but recently they turned part of it into a museum. Old postal train car Mail transportation. Owney was the USPS mascot in the early 1900s, and he would

National Museum of the American Indian

We went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I thought it would be about Native American history and culture in North America only, but there are exhibitions on the indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America. I couldn't take any good pictures of the exhibits,

Historic Alexandria, VA Waterfront

We wanted to go for a walk this weekend, so we drove five miles to the Historic Alexandria Waterfront.  Generally, it was a beautiful and relaxing walk.  The restaurants and shops looked delicious and inviting.   While standing by the pier, we saw a group of about 20 huge catfish and

Lexington, VA and Virginia Military Institute

On our way home, after the Natural Bridge, we stopped in Lexington for lunch. Keith wanted to see how close the Virginia Military Institute was, and it was just a few minutes away, so we drove over. Luckily, we had perfect timing, because we walked up right when the cadets

Natural Bridge, VA

On our way home, we stopped at Natural Bridge. This is a little display right before we got on the trail down to the bridge. After the picture was taken, I heard a couple of girls laughing about 'blah blah slaveowners!' That's all it's

Roanoke and Salem, VA

We have been wanting to check out Roanoke for a while now, so we finally went there this last weekend. This was a farmer's market they have downtown. We bought some raw honey from a man who lives in Catawba, VA. This is some honeycomb we tried eating;

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Although we have been here for over a year, we still hadn't seen the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.  The rain subsided today, leaving nice cool weather, so we decided to go.  It was pretty impressive.

Peirce Mill at Rock Creek Park

Peirce Mill is a water powered gristmill built in 1829 in the middle of what is now Rock Creek Park.  It operated continuously until 1897 when the wooden turbine shaft broke. Several years ago, they completed the restoration and now operate it briefly on Saturdays at 11:00am.  We were

Rock Creek Park Nature Center and Planetarium

We have wanted to visit the Rock Creek Park Nature Center and the associated planetarium for quite a while.  Now that we are just a few minutes from it, we decided to try it out.  Overall, it didn't live up to the hype.  Fairfax has a lot of

Going to Utah

Here are our pictures from our trip to Utah! They will be out of order, yay! I can't figure out how to put them in order in the file folder, and there are about 200 of them, so I am just going to load them on the blog

Utah 2

Savannah in a kid's play area in the Family History Museum Campfire with family Looking out at Salt Lake from the capitol building Above: at Eyring Science Center at BYU holding bunnies at Phil and Nicole's house Above: Salt Lake Temple Visitor's Center viewing

Utah 3

Savannah holding her cousin at the anniversary dinner Church History Museum Inside the capitol building all the grandkids at the capitol building, you could act like you were speaking from a podium Hogle Zoo Connor, Cameron and Carson inside the capitol building Jace, Jaren, Ryan, Carson and Tucker Lori, Nicole,

Visiting Italian, Danish and British Embassies

We decided to spend the day touring Europe, without leaving the area.  We visited three foreign territories: Italy, Denmark, and the UK. To celebrate Europe Day, each of the embassies in Washington DC representing countries in the EU hold an Open House.  The city fills with people, excited to share

Smithsonians, Natural and American History

We went to a 'Special Collection' exhibit at the Museum of Natural History; they have lots of cool stuff and they can't display all of it I guess, so this exhibit allows them to display some of the cool things that are in their storage room.