Hello Dear Readers. I do hope you all enjoyed a pleasant Easter Holiday week. Whether you celebrated with your church, the Easter Bunny, or just friends and neighbors, I hope you made the most of it.
We spent our time finishing our visit to the Mid-Atlantic Region – or at least that’s what the area is labeled in my National Park Passport book. (D.C. has its own section, of course).
We set up home at Cherry Hill Park, located in College Park, MD, an extensive RV Resort located very close to University of Maryland and an obvious favorite of visitors to D.C. They offer tours into D.C., a metro bus that takes you to the nearest Metro Station, they sell the metro passes preloaded for two round trips into D.C., and information galore. We had rented a car, and our first reaction was perhaps we didn’t need to. But we had other things on our to-do list and the car came in handy.
Our D.C. plans were focused on a White House Tour and a Capital Building Tour, neither of which we had done on previous visits to our nation’s capital. In order to tour the WH, you need to request passes through your state’s senate or congressional rep. We figured Mark Kelly’s office was likely most commonly approached, so we chose our Goodyear district congressman Paul Gosar. We had our tour scheduled for Tuesday, but we needed to visit Paul’s office to pick up the passes on Monday. So our first trip on Metro was on Monday morning. It was very straightforward, very uncrowded, and we enjoyed our first walk around town. Paul’s office is located across the street from the Capital Building, which we found without issue, went through TSA-like security, walked down a very long hallway past small clusters of people in suits always in deep conversation, and found his office. I had been so excited to meet and speak with Paul, only to find out that he was back in AZ for Easter week. Humph. But his office staff were very kind, and very…..young. With our WH tour passes in hand, we were off, knowing we’d be back on Thursday for our Capital Building Tour. We had talked about whether we wanted to tour all the monuments or any of the Smithsonian. We have been to them before, and granted they may have changed, but not enough to entice us to stand in long lines, so we enjoyed lunch from a food truck on the mall, then jumped back on Metro to College Park, and headed to check off our Maryland golfing.
Our WH tour was at 8am and they suggest arriving up to 45 minutes early. So we were on that Metro at 6:30 and arrived with PLENTY of time to kill. We weren’t sure what to expect, but the line of a hundred people threw us off a bit. All those people went through their representatives for a tour pass? Turns out the answer is yes! And they were the 7:30 tour! We found out they let em in 200 at a time. Somehow all the hoopla of getting passes through your reps indicated a much more private event. I wonder how many others were disappointed their rep was not around for a brief convo……probably not as many as should be.
We had a minor glitch at the first security check when they wouldn’t accept our passes because they were labeled December 2025, rather than April 2025. My look of frustration and dissatisfaction must have been very apparent, because they relented fairly quickly when I showed the email with the confirmed tour time, and they realized it wasn’t our fault we had the wrong pass in hand. After four separate security screenings, one that included a dog that seriously needed a bath, we were finally at the entry to the East Wing. All-in-all, it was a good tour. There is so much interesting history in just the areas we got to see it really leaves you with a sense of the weight and seriousness of what it was like running this country. I so enjoyed seeing the portraits of our presidents, most impressed with the iconic JFK, but I am sorry, when we found Trump’s, all the sense of respect went out the window, and a new comic vibe settled in. I don’t know what bothered me more, that THIS is the portrait he wanted to hang there, or all the teenage boys getting selfies in front of it mimicking the pose. And with that as our final view of the WH, the tour was over.
But it was still early! So we went to breakfast at Old Ebbitt Grill, the place those in D.C. go “to be seen”. It was a good breakfast, but unfortunately the only people we saw were tourists like us. Then it was off to the Ford’s Theater, which was so full of teenagers on vacation that any tour that included seeing the famed balcony of Lincoln’s assassination was sold out for hours. So a quick pic of the sign, and off to the Archives. We have never seen the founding documents. Now, after a $60 donation to skip the lines of teenagers on a school trip, we have seen them. If you can call looking at pages so faded you can’t read a word “seeing them”. Goodness, it won’t be too much longer and all you’ll see is blank paper under 2 inches of glass. Its a wonder how any of those teenagers find meaning in that visit….unless there is meaning in taking a selfie over the glass. It was very interesting to really THINK about what these words mean when put into context of when it was written.
The day was still early, and it was time to find things a little less visited by the school groups. I had read about the Hall of Fake Presidents – which we found inside a movie theater just north of metro center. I was hoping for a bit more than a few pictures on one wall, but it was still a kick to try and name the movie and the actor. Can you do it?
From there we Ubered to Hillwood Mansion. Definitely more my speed than Dale’s. This is Marjorie Post’s (heiress of the Post Cereal fortune) mansion that is now a museum holding many of her very expensive collections, including those she acquired while her husband was US Ambassador to Russia in the 1930s. The house was full of beautiful things. I had just recently read the The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, so it was a real kick for me to see all her collectibles and orchid garden. Dale thought it looked like a very expensive antique store, which, I suppose, is not that far off. From there we walked back to the Metro, and headed back home. It had been a nice long day!
Thursday was Capital Building tour. This time we were expecting to be sent to the long public line with passes in hand, so we were MOST pleasantly surprised when we were getting a private tour instead! Henry, an intern at Paul’s office, was our host and guide. We got to walk the tunnels from the office building over to the Capital, and then Henry was very patient with my MANY questions as he toured us around, which included how these young people choose this career path, and how you choose to work for an AZ congress member when you are from another state. It was an insightful visit into how our government operates, shaded with my experience of working at Boeing for so many years, it did not leave me with a sense that these folks operate with a greater sense of dignity our history books would like us to believe they do. And with that tour, we felt we had thoroughly visited Washington D.C.
We ended our stay in the area with a a hike in the Greenbelt Park, and a visit with Dale’s nephew Joel and his family, Hilary and Lincoln. It was nice to hook up with some family!
Then it was time for a short diversion to Chincoteaque Island, Virginia to fulfill a childhood wish of mine. Written in 1947, I read Misty of Chincoteaque in the early 1970’s and have never forgotten it. I loved that book so much, I took it from our local library and never returned it. I even wrote to the author Marguerite Henry, who was kind enough to reply with a hand written letter and a copy of the true story of Misty! I cherished all of it and hoped that one day I would make it to the Island and see the ponies for myself. And finally I did!
Chincoteaque is primarily a seafood industry town. But 100 years ago, a couple of fires seriously impacted them and they needed funds to start a fire department. Turns out there was a herd of wild ponies living across the channel on Assateaque Island, ponies whose origins are still a mystery, but the town took ownership of the herd, and started an annual event called the Pony Penning. They would round up the herd, swim them across to Chincoteaque, and auction the foals before returning the herd back to Assateaque for another year. It was a success, and they do it every year in July. Marguerite Henry came in 1945, learned about the event, heard about a new foal at the Bebee Ranch, went to meet the family and Misty, and a book was written. We had to make do with a visit in April, not exactly high season on the island. Unfortunately, the museum where they still have Misty (in taxidermy) was closed, so she’ll just have to live on in my imagination. Likely a good thing. But we did see ponies! We ended up on a private boat tour with a born and raised Chincoteaqean who was absolutely tickled that we saw them this close! Maybe one day I’ll be able to plan a trip back in July for the annual event, but my heart is full that another bucket list item is fulfilled. And as a special bonus, Assateaque Island is a National Seashore, so I have an extra stamp in my passport!
And now dear readers, it is time for us to head north. I know, I know, we aren’t going at the right time of year for fall colors, but that’s ok. We are hoping we’ll be there in time for the bears and moose to start waking up for the summer! We are hoping to get the chance to compare east coast versions to west coast ones! And add a few more adventures to our list. So until next time, my thoughts are with you.
Lady Wanderingwise
Weise's Wanderings 
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