Our Trip to Maryland, Virginia, & North Carolina in 2005

We took a red-eye to Dullas Airport so that George would be close to the Smithsonian Annex Museum that has their big exhibits. Here Marguerite is next to the Enola Gay, the plane used to drop the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. Many planes, space capsules, and other significant aerospace items on display here including the Corporal Missile system which is the system George worked on in 1961. It was obsolete even then since it was first deployed in 1952.

Also the first day of our trip had as an objective to visit all the new monuments. The first new monument we visited was the FDR monument which is really a large display of many things. Here you see a statue of FDR and his dog.

Here you see Marguerite with her water bottle at the new WW II Memorial. It was very warm that day and we were tired from the red-eye flight and all the walking we have done so far. This monument is near the Washington Monument which had a lot of landscaping going on which subtracted from the feeling. George contributed to the monument in the name of his Uncle Nuchie who served in Europe during WWII.

Marguerite is going through the Korean War Monument which consists mostly of statues of soldiers going through the countryside in bad weather. Basically the monument says this was a miserable war. By this time we were getting hot and tired and decided to ride around Washington in our air conditioned rent a car and then go to Baltimore.

Dr. Tony Catanzaro, Marguerite's colleague and director of the TB project she works on now, was in Baltimore at the conference for the purpose of giving a lecture on a TB product. Marguerite was primarily at the conference because she is a member of the Board of Directors for an APIC Research Foundation. But since she was there anyway, she joined Dr. Catanzaro at this presentation.

Next year will be in Tampa, Florida. George will not go but Marguerite's sister will join her since it is only a few miles from Orlando where Marguerite's sister lives.

An exhibit at the Baltimore waterfront is the USS Constellation. The last all wood ship built for the US Navy. It was used by the north during the Civil War. Our hotel, the Hyatt, is in the background. This waterfront was recently upgraded and is wonderful. Very nice restaurants and shops and exhibits.

Marguerite is in the Us Naval Academy Museum. Here next to the Freedom 7 capsule used by Allan Sheppard for the first sub-orbital flight. Sheppard was a Naval Academy graduate. We also toured the grounds where nobody confused George with a midshipman, or active duty sailor, or even an active human being. Lotsa fit dudes and dudettes running around campus.

This is Marguerite at the tip of Baltimore. Fort McHenry guarded the entrance to Baltimore during the War of 1812. In 1814 the British were attaching Baltimore after burning Washington D.C. During this event, Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

On our way to North Carolina we stopped by three President's homes. Madison, Monroe, and Jefferson's home. All these presidents lived within 50 miles of each other and were friends. Madison's home was under renovation since the du Ponts owned it and modified it greatly. Jefferson's home, Monticello, was visited by Marguerite because George did not want to pay $14 to see it for the 4th time. This is a photo of Monroe's home, the most simple home of the three.

This cabin is near Mars Hill, North Carolina. It is in a private resort area with many trees and very cool for the east coast.

This is Marguerite and her sister in the Cabin's kitchen. The cabin is three stories with many bedrooms for Betsy's sons. A little dark and rural for the Georgie but Marguerite loves it as does Betsy.

Betsy's cabin is near Asheville, NC. This is where George Vanderbilt built his "me too" mansion in 1895. We have been to many of the mansion of the grandkids of the Commodore in Newport, New York, and Asheville. This is the biggest but I like the Breakers in Newport the best.

While in Asheville area we went to visit Dr. Jim Tyson and his wife Carol in Brevard, NC. Jim is Kathy's close cousin (Kathy was my second wife who died of a brain tumor). Kathy and George were married in Brevard.