White House

You need a ticket to tour the White House and you get those by contacting your local Representative or Senator.  In 1973, when I came to visit John who was attending the F.B.I. National Academy, a training program for local police officers, I got a ticket and was able to go on a White House tour.  John had never been inside the presidential home but we weren't able to take a tour this trip because I forgot how to get a ticket.  I am sure many other people are in the same boat because now there is a White House Visitor Center with lots of very good information about this iconic building. 

There is this model of the White House and it's grounds.

This is Hiawatha's boat, a center piece. First Lady Julia Grant acquired this item at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

The center shows lots of pictures of presidential families really living in the White House and discusses the changes and improvements made over the years.

We have been to D.C. twice before and you were able to walk up to the iron fence that surrounds the White House.  It is a real shame that the threats of terrorism since 9/11 and resulted in these barricades keeping the public away from the building.   But it is so sad to see these barriers.

This is the view from the other side of the building.  At least you can see the White House and the grounds.

The crowd standing to get a look at the facility was impressive.

Over the weekend 394 names were added to the Fallen Police Officer Memorial and many police officers from the departments of the officers that had died in the line of duty were there.  These two motorcycle officers from the San Diego Police Department wanted to have a photo with the White House in the background.  They pulled into place then walked over to the people in the crowd shown above and asked them to take a picture with the officer's cell phone.  Cool!

Fredericksburg

On our tour of Texas Hill Country we are spending 5 days in Fredericksburg. We first visited the town in 2003 on our first long RV trip after retirement. It was a lot warmer when we came here in early October than this week when most of the country is in a deep freeze. This morning the low was 22 and the high today is supposed to be 33!

First we checked out Marktplatz, the location of the Vereins Kirche, Maibaum and Christmas Pyramid. The hexagonal Vereins Kirche was the first church built by the German immigrant settlers. It also served as a fort, storehouse and meeting hall. Demolished in 1896, locals rebuilt it in 1935.

The Maibaum or Maypole tells the story of the history of Fredericksburg, including negotiations with the local Comanche Indian tribes, cowboys, dancers, grapes and peaches, hunting, transportation and Sunday houses. These houses were built by farmers who came to town to shop on Saturday and stayed overnight to attend church on Sunday morning.

The Christmas Pyramid was made in Germany. It reminds me of small Christmas centerpieces that include candles. The heat from the burning candles makes that centerpiece rotate.

Would you believe they have an outdoor ice skating rink in Marktplatz? The temperature was 79 and it seemed out of place. Today I'll bet not many young people are skating because of the cold and wind.

We roamed through lots of the shops, along with crowds of others. This is a great place to do you Christmas shopping. Thankfully, we completed ours before we left Arizona. We noticed these ceramic flowers in one of the shops. It turns out they are holders for tea lights.

In addition to all the shoppers and their vehicles, main street in Fredericksburg is a through highway with lots of truck traffic. We saw at least 5 of these long wind turbine blades being hauled through town.

In past visits, I don't remember there being as many wine tasting rooms in town and vineyards  in the surrounding area.  Here are just a few of the signs that we saw for wine tasting rooms.

It was a fun excursion but we were glad to get away from the crowds when we were done.