Hi Everyone, well the last week of August has certainly snuck up on us. Summer is usually such a busy time for me, and this year it just wasn’t so it seems to have flown by. This week brought some very good news from the local side of Washington D.C: a new baby panda was born at the National Zoo. The pandas are very near and dear to our heart here in Washington and have been since Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing first arrived in 1972. I grew up alongside those two, and the city mourned their loss when they died. The two never had any babies which survived more than a few weeks. Thankfully we were able to bring two young pandas to Washington after they passed, and Tian Tian and Mei Xiang have had five babies, two of which lived to adulthood and have gone back to China. This new baby, as yet unnamed, is a bit of a surprise at their age, but we welcome it with open arms and pray for its survival. The next few weeks will be critical, so we’re keeping it in our prayers and in our hearts.
I’ve been spending more time with my two year old buddy, Mason, and we’ve been having a lot of fun together. His dad has pointed me to one of their favorite spots in Glover Archibald Park where we can sit by the stream and throw rocks in the water. It’s a peaceful place where we can hang out outside but in the cool creekside shade and listen to the cicadas. On the way there and the way back we look at all the different colored flowers in peoples’ yards and keep an eye out for bumblebees and butterflies – two of his, and my, favorites. Sometimes he rides his bike while I run alongside. Our days are full of singing and laughter and it’s been really wonderful to hang out with him. He’s been keeping me busy though and wears me out, so I haven’t been up to too much else this week (which is just fine with me).
Last Friday night we paid tribute to another lost rite of summer: the county fair. We gathered outside for some fried cheese and corn on the cob and shared a six pack of assorted beers with fair-like themes (many from Clown Shoes Brewing Company). Then we moved inside where we had a dime-toss, played some dice games, enjoyed some grilled sausages and chocolate eclairs and had a couple more beers. It definitely wasn’t as much fun as the real thing, and we missed the lights and sounds of the carnival rides and games, the animals, crafts and produce, but we had a pretty good time all things considered.
Maryland’s Old Main Streets Scenic Byway is a wonderful trip through some of the state’s most charming and historic towns. The byway begins in Emmitsburg where Maryland’s Catholic roots are on display at the incredible National Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes and the Minor Basilica Shrine to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Both are beautiful places worth spending some time and it was definitely interesting to learn about Elizabeth Seton, the first person born in what would become the United States to be canonized by the Catholic church.
From there, the byway travels through historic Taneytown and on to Westminster, although since we were a bit pressed for time we headed straight to New Windsor. New Windsor is such a cute little town with beautiful Victorian homes and pleasant small-town feel. We stopped to pick up lunch at Uncle Matty’s Eatery and enjoyed it in the town’s small park.
After lunch we traveled on to Union Bridge where the beautiful old railway station has been converted into a museum. It was another quiet and pleasant town for a wander. The byway finishes in Thurmont with it’s beautiful old Main Street. log cabins and the Roddy Road Covered Bridge.
The Old Main Streets Scenic Byway is a pleasant way to while away a day and enjoy some small-town Americana. There are wonderful historic homes and businesses along the way, and it seemed like there would be some interesting museums under normal circumstances. I hope you enjoy these photos from the Old Main Streets of Northern Maryland…
Hello Everyone, another week has come and gone here in Washington. Rains have brought cooler temperatures and I’ve been out taking lots of photos and hanging out with my favorite two year old. It’s been a fast week – they just seem to be speeding up on me. I guess routine will do that to a person. I’ve been very spoiled in my life to usually be doing so much over the course of a week that they often stretch out and feel longer than they are. Now the opposite seems true. I’m still happy to be healthy and safe and home with my people. It’s not a bad place to be or a bad group to be with, I just wish I knew there was an end date to all of this so I could make some concrete plans. Sometimes I find myself making travel plans just to be making travel plans because it’s something I’m used to doing. I guess that’s not a bad thing and it keeps me in practice. I’ve been reading Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing this week and have been enjoying it. It came recommended by two of my friends so I thought I’d give it a go. I don’t usually read a lot of fiction because there’s so much great non-fiction in the world, but this book is pretty quiet and reminds me of some of the beautiful places I’ve visited in coastal Carolina. It’s been a nice break. A few nice walks in the park as well have made it a pretty good week.
I’ve had a couple of nice days enjoying some time with Mason, my friends’ two year old son who I wrote about last week. I’m watching him a couple of times a week and really having fun with it. He’s a really sweet little boy and I love to see him laugh and smile and make connections in his head. We play with his trucks and read books together and when the sun is out we can go for a walk or a bike ride. He’s brought me a lot of joy over the last few weeks and reminds me that while the past is past, the future is yet to be written. I hope his will be a bright one in a healthy world and a country which celebrates its differences instead of destroys itself over them. At one point last week, the sun was shining in the back room where we play and he looked up and started catching things. I thought he was just playing, but soon realized that he was going after tiny strands of the dog’s hair which were floating in the afternoon sun. I couldn’t help but think what a magical world this is through his eyes. Spending time with him is special and will probably end up being the best part of this pandemic.
Friday we did our usual rounds to the grocery store and whatever other errands we needed to run for the week. That night we gathered to celebrate some wonderful Washington D.C. traditions. We had some half-smokes (traditional D.C. half pork – half beef sausages) with a chili sauce I tried to copy from Ben’s Chili Bowl, a local institution. We had some mambo wings – using sweet and tangy mambo sauce, another D.C. tradition. We listened to the sounds of Chuck Brown and Experience Unlimited and others who made our local gogo style of music, which never spread too far outside the beltway. We listened to others too, from Duke Ellington to Marvin Gaye to Fugazi and back again, which have brought our local musical talent to the masses. Friends have been sending me some things to help enhance our parties from all over the country, and it was fun to incorporate some into our weekly celebration…
The Maples was originally built for Captain William Mayne Duncanson between 1795 and 1796 on property he purchased for $960. The Late Georgian style mansion is the oldest building still standing on Capitol Hill. The two story main house and detached outbuilding which served as slave quarters and a carriage house was designed by architect William Lovering who designed several of the properties I’ve features in this series. During the house’s construction, the captain lived in the Duncanson-Cranch House on N St. SW which was the last property we looked at. George Washington was a dinner guest at The Maples while Duncanson lived there and the president was said to have called it “a fine house in the woods”.
Duncanson’s real estate investments in the city eventually led him into bankruptcy, and he lost this house in the process. It served as a hospital after the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812 and soon thereafter was purchased by recent Star Spangled Banner author and future D.C. District Attorney Francis Scott Key. Interestingly, at the time he purchased The Maples, Key was living at 3518 M St. in Georgetown, a block or so away from the Forrest-Marbury House featured earlier in this series. The Key family likely never lived in The Maples though, except perhaps briefly after selling their Georgetown home in the 1830s.
In 1838 The Maples was purchased by Major Augustus A Nicholson, the Quartermaster of the United States Marine Corps, and became the center of military entertainment in the Capital City. Sadly, Major Nicholson’ wife committed suicide in the house and is said to still haunt the property with her tormented cries…
As many of you remember, we spent much of the spring and early summer tracing the battles of the Eastern Theater of the Civil War from Manassas to Appomattox. As we got to the end of the war though, we came to realize that there was one more casualty we needed to consider and one more route to follow to gain some closure to our tour. That was the trail taken by John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14th, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. Booth and his accomplice David Herold led the authorities on a nearly two week manhunt which ended on April 26th when Booth was cornered and killed on the Garrett Farm in Virginia. This route is now one of Maryland’s scenic byways and one of the country’s more historic ones.
Our day began at historic Ford’s Theater. Ford’s Theater is a wonderful place managed by the National Park Service and just blocks from the White House which still functions as an active theater. My folks and I try and get there every December to watch their wonderful rendition of A Christmas Carol. The box where President Lincoln was shot is preserved and well cared for and there is a small museum in the basement dedicated to the assassination. After Lincoln was shot, he was taken across the street to The Peterson House, where he would die of his injury soon thereafter. The Peterson House is also managed by the National Park Service and is open for tours.
Booth, on the other hand, leapt to the stage, catching his boot spur and breaking his leg in the process, but still managed to escape out the back door of the theater. There he mounted his horse and sped off into the night, crossing the Potomac on the Navy Yard Bridge and then rendezvousing with his accomplice David Herold. The two quickly made their way to the tavern of Mary Surratt in Surrattsville near Clinton where they retrieved rifles, field glasses and other supplies they had stashed there…
Hello Everyone, it’s hard for me to even fathom that this is week 20 of this post series. I was hoping when I arrived home in the beginning of April that I would only be here for a few weeks and then I would be back out on the road, but here I am 20 weeks later. I’m still enormously grateful to have a place to weather this storm, especially knowing that things could be much worse if I didn’t. I just wish I knew what the end date to all of this was so I could make some plans. It’s been a quietly busy week here in Washington and I’ve actually done quite a bit which has been really nice. I’ve also had some good news in my feed this week which also helps. One of my best friends welcomed a new baby boy to the world this week in New Orleans, so welcome Theodore. Another friend of mine from grade school has announced his wife’s pregnancy this week as well. These are both reminders to me that the world has continued to turn even if my wheels have stopped doing so.
Last Thursday I began a new role which I’ve really enjoyed, even though I’ve only done it a couple of times. My friend James was called back to work after a few months of furlough, but his two year old son’s daycare is still closed. So I’m going to be spending some time with young Mason over the next few weeks or months so they can work and we can play. Mason is a sweet kid, and it’s been a real treat to watch him. His smiles and laughter are such a counterbalance to the challenges we are facing in this country and in the world, and it’s a welcome change. I’ve always loved working with kids, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to spend some time watching him grow up. It’s been great to experience the world through his eyes and I’ll be gladly helping out with this for a while until things change. That could happen tomorrow or a year from now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Last weekend was also a lot of fun here. After celebrating the “holidays” the last few weeks, we settled in on Friday for a quiet “pub night” of wings, nachos and beers. It was nice to have a relaxing night, listen to some good music and enjoy our time together. Saturday my mom and I headed out to check out some of Washington D.C.’s oldest firehouses for an upcoming photo essay I’m putting together
This post shares photos and a brief history of the Thomas Law House in Southwest Washington D.C.
The Thomas Law House was built between 1794 and 1796. It was designed by architect William Lovering who is credited with the design of several other properties which will be featured later in this series including The Octagon House, Wheat Row and the Duncannon-Cranch House. Thomas Law, formerly of the British East India Company, had recently immigrated to the United States with two of his three illegitimate sons born from his Indian mistress. He met and married Elizabeth Parke Custis, who was twenty years his junior, in 1796 and the couple moved into this newly built home which was then dubbed “Honeymoon House”. Elizabeth Parke Custis was the eldest granddaughter of Martha Washington from her first marriage. Elizabeth’s brother was George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington House (the Custis-Lee Mansion) and the father of Mary Anne Randolph Custis who would marry Robert E. Lee. Thomas and Elizabeth would live in this beautiful Federal Style home for only about five months before moving to a new home which was then under construction. They would divorce in 1811.
From 1814-1827, this house was occupied by Richard Bland Lee, brother of Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee and uncle of Robert E. Lee. Richard was the second cousin of Thomas Sim Lee, whose winter house in Georgetown was featured earlier in this series. Richard had served as a U.S. Representative from Virginia in the very first session of congress and had helped negotiate the Compromise of 1890 which established the Capital City of Washington D.C. He served three terms in congress and then returned to his family’s tobacco plantation – Sully – in Chantilly, Virginia. Financial hardships in the family eventually forced the sale of Sully after which Richard and his wife moved to the Thomas Law House. Richard would serve under President James Madison as a commissioner charged with helping rebuild the city after the War of 1812 and would later be appointed as a judge by James Monroe. He lived in this home until his death in 1827.
This post shares photos and a brief history of the Thomas Sim Lee Corner in Georgetown in Washington D.C.
At the end of the block where the Old Stone House has stood since 1765, you can find the historic winter home of Thomas Sim Lee, an associate of George Washington who had served as a colonel during the Revolution. He went on to become the 2nd and 7th Governor of the state of Maryland. During his first term, Lee consulted with then lieutenant colonel Uriah Forrest who would later live down M Street from Lee in what’s now known as the Forrest-Marbury House (read about it HERE). After his second gubernatorial term ended in 1794, Lee moved to Georgetown and built this lovely corner house. In July of that year, Washington offered Lee a role on the Board of Commissioners which was overseeing construction of the new capital city, but Lee turned him down. After the death of his wife, Mary, in 1805, Lee moved permanently to his country estate in Frederick County.
The Thomas Sim Lee house would go through several owners over the next century and a half, but it eventually fell into a dilapidated state and was slated for demolition in 1950. This was right about the time that congress had authorized the purchase of the Old Stone House a block away, and a Georgetown resident named Dorothea de Schweinitz quickly mobilized her friends to save the Lee Corner from the wrecking ball. The Architectural Review Board of the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed the property and recommended against demolition. Miss de Shweinitz organized her neighbors and helped found Historic Georgetown Inc. which sold shares at a dollar apiece and purchased the property outright. They then began renovations of the building and found renters to occupy it. The simultaneous preservation of the Old Stone House and the Thomas Sim Lee Corner was the beginning of a movement to save historic Georgetown, a move I’m sure area residents are grateful for today…
Hello Everyone, well August is upon us and I’ve personally passed the 4 month mark of being sheltered- in-place here in Washington. It’s been a quiet week for the most part which is a very good thing sometimes. I’ve been enjoying baseball games on the radio, long morning walks in Rock Creek Park and working on my book. Hurricane Isaias passed by us yesterday dousing us with some much needed rain and the heat and humidity seem to have backed off for a minute. Despite the fact that the pandemic is still in full effect, I feel pretty calm and balanced this week, and for that I am grateful. Perhaps it’s the break in the heat and the beginning of August – both of which signal that summer is winding down. There are many things I love about summer, but the heat is not one of them. Whatever it is, I’m happy to be feeling more like myself this week.
I was thrilled to see the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act this week by a bipartisan effort with the support of the president. This bill will give much needed funding to our National Parks in this country to try and relieve some of the backlog of maintenance needs which has piled up for decades. I love the American National Park System and have been on a lifelong quest to visit all four hundred and some units. This year I made a turn into the final hundred. These truly are our greatest treasures and they are even more special because as public lands they belong to all of us. Never listen to anyone if they tell you these are “government owned land”. They are not – they are yours and mine to enjoy and need to be maintained and preserved for future generations as well. Kudos to congress and the president for coming together to do something great. Beyond that, though, I’ve been trying to avoid the news as best I can.
This past Friday, as a follow-up to last week’s Christmas in July celebration, we had a Mid-Year New Year Party complete with some wonderful hors d’oeuvres and (a tad too much) champagne. Since the first half of 2020 hasn’t turned out very well, we were looking ahead at the second half with high hopes of a vaccine and a quick return to a more normal life.
Saturday I spent behind the computer writing about some of Washington DC’s oldest homes – a project which was supposed to be a single post but got too complicated so I decided to look at each property individually. It’s a project I will continue working on for the next couple of weeks.
Last week I decided I wanted to check out a little bit of history and a little bit of seascape as well. It’s the middle of summer and I miss the beach but I’m not heading to the crowded Atlantic beaches right now. So I settled on a Chesapeake Bay view from the western shore towns of North Beach and Chesapeake Beach, only about an hour from Washington D.C. at a straight shot. I also wanted to take some photos at the beautiful Maryland State Capitol Building and wander around Annapolis’ Historic District as well. Connecting these two is Maryland’s Roots and Tides Scenic Byway.
Obviously, some of the key highlights of the journey were closed due to the pandemic, but I still enjoyed a little meander through the countryside, and the beach communities I ended up at sated my need for a little bit of time on the water. It’s definitely good to be out exploring, and I really enjoyed the Roots and Tides Scenic Byway. I hope you enjoy the photos I took along the way…
This post shares photos and a brief history of the The Forrest-Marbury House in Georgetown in Washington D.C.
The Forrest-Marbury House was built in 1788 by John Stoddert and soon became the city home of Georgetown’s 3rd Mayor and Stoddert’s business partner, General Uriah Forrest. Forrest had lost a leg during the Battle of Brandywine in the Revolution, and would go on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. On March 29th, 1791 General Forrest hosted his old friend and former commander, George Washington, and other prominent local landowners for dinner before their historic meeting at Suter’s Inn which I discussed briefly in my last post in this series on The Old Stone House (read it HERE). In 1794, Forrest moved out of this house and to his country estate across town which he called Rosedale where he lived out his days. Rosedale will be featured next in this series.
From 1800-1835 this house was owned and occupied by William Marbury, a successful local banker. On the last day of John Adams’ presidency, Adams nominated Marbury to be a Justice of the Peace in Washington D.C. This nomination was blocked by incoming president Thomas Jefferson and his secretary of state James Madison. Marbury filed a lawsuit asking for a writ of mandamus which would force the Jefferson administration to complete his commission and in 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Marbury v Madison. This case would deny Marbury his commission not on the grounds that he didn’t deserve it, but on the grounds that to do so was outside the constitutional power of the Supreme Court. This famous early case established the principle of judicial review. Marbury’s adversary in the case, James Madison would later live in the Octagon House which will be featured in a later post in this series…
Hello Everyone, well another week has come and gone and here I sit and wait. I can’t believe it’s been 18 weeks since I got home and started writing these particular weekly posts to temporarily replace my This Week on the Road column. When I got home I was still hoping to be back to work guiding tours by the end of the summer and to be starting to think about what states I would spend the fall and winter in. Eighteen weeks later and my company has closed for good, my industry is basically dead and I don’t feel safe getting too far from home because the response to this pandemic has been horribly botched across the country. Cases and deaths continue to rise at ever increasing rates as states push ahead with reopening plans despite all evidence that we are making things worse instead of better. Meanwhile those who are complaining the loudest about reopening businesses are the ones who seem least likely to wear a mask which will let these same businesses stay open. I find myself frustrated because week in and week out I’m trying to keep from slithering into a pit of despair, and every week it’s nothing but more bad news with no end in sight. I find it more frustrating because my Facebook friends list stretches to all 7 continents (yes I have friends working in Antarctica), and everywhere seems to have done a better job of containing this pandemic than we have. While other countries are reopening safely and managing outbreaks properly, we push forward boldly and stupidly in a time when brashness and ignorance are costing lives. My patriotism lives strongest in my love of my countrymen and I wish everyone would think about others instead of only themselves. I’ve never seen America as a selfish place and have found kindness and generosity at every turn in my travels around the country and I hate to see the ugliness that plays out every day across the nation. I know in my heart that the people we are seeing on the news are outliers and most people are doing the best they can, but it’s still sad to watch.
Meanwhile I’m trying, as I have from the start, to keep going and keep looking towards that distant light on the horizon which will eventually come. I continue to treasure being able to spend this time with my family. I continue to work on my projects and myself with the hopes of coming out on the other side healthy, organized and ready to face the world again with an open heart and mind. In that new world I will set aside more time for reading, for international travel, for making music and for friends and family. If nothing else, I am coming to a better understanding of what matters most to me and remembering that time is precious.
I’ve continued to work on my book this week which is great, and it’s starting to gain some momentum. I’ve continued to play my violin and guitar and I’m actually playing full songs on my violin now which is pretty cool (it still sounds terrible, but it’s coming along). I’ve decided to try and double up on some of my walks each week despite the heat. I got up at 6:30 this morning and, with my Camelback loaded with water, set off on a two hour walk around the neighborhood. I miss the gym terribly, especially in the middle of summer, but I can’t keep carrying around this extra weight and I can’t wait until fall to get working on it. Waiting to go back to the gym is now officially over and I am moving ahead in my own direction for the sake of my fitness. And also this week I’ve continued to explore the area with my mom and continued to keep my folks somewhat entertained as we go. So on that front it’s been a good week.
Last week I wrote about a Gullah meal I was going to cook that night and it came out smashingly. A delicious shrimp gumbo…
