Touring Around

I am heading out for a bit of hiking this next week, so I decided to update my blog on a few subjects.

Over the past few months I have hit a few tourist spots here in the DC area. The first one was the Civil War battlefield at Manassas, VA. This was the scene of two major battles in the Civil War. It was the scene of the first major battle of the Civil War where green Union and Confederate armies met here and slugged it out for the first time. Most everyone on both sides felt the other side would crumble, and the war would be quick. The second battle was the culmination of Lee's first invasion of the north.

http://www.nps.gov/mana/historyculture/first-manassas.htm

The park has two hiking trails (one for each battle), both are about 5 miles long, which is about right for a day trip. The hikes wind through the park to where memorials have been built and key points on the battlefield. The first hike covers the first battle, the second hike covers the second battle.

We hiked the first hike, it took about 3 hours and I enjoyed it a great deal. It is always interesting to walk the ground that a battle happened on. When you read about a battle in a book you can't really understand why someone didn't notice 5,000 soldiers moving up on them until the last minute. When you walk on the ground you see the fold in the ground and the small hills that block your vision, or the stand of woods that shield a movement. The first battle gave rise to the legend of Stonewall Jackson, his brigade was credited with stopping a serious Union advance, he and the brigade were known for the rest of the war as Stonewall because of their defense.

The battle, like most initial battles of wars, showed that the war was going to be longer than everyone expected and that both sides had a lot of work to do. There are quite a few more battlefields in this area, so I will have plenty of hiking to do.

My second tourist trip was to MT Vernon. I was kind of expecting a smaller, national park sort of experience at MT Vernon, but it is a major tourist destination. I think that most folks see it as something they have to see when they come to DC, one of the things on their list. I was more in the mood to go see where the first president, and the primary figure in the founding of our country, grew up and lived. MT Vernon is very well maintained, and you could probably spend an entire day wandering around. Washington's house was laid out very well, and beautifully designed. He was the primary designer and architect of the house and grounds of MT Vernon, going as far as to design the tomb that he and Martha are buried in. I was pleasantly surprised that so many folks were there to see Washington's house and learn more about him.

To me, Washington was the greatest of the founding fathers. Not only did he manage to maintain the Colonial Army throughout a 6 year campaign against a more powerful, better resourced foe; but he controlled the direction of the development of the early government of our nation. I truly wish we could bring some of the leaders of other nations to MT Vernon and show them how gracefully Washington peacefully passed the immense power that he was offered to other branches of the government and other presidents. Malaki and Karzai could learn a great deal from Washington: Despite having a new, fractious democracy that had a wide variety of interests and competing power structures, Washington demanded that democracy and republican principles become the foundation of our nation, not personal power. Sigh.

Movie News:

If you are a comedy fan, go see the bio-pic about Joan Rivers, I thought it was an amazing movie. It documents her discovery, rise and how she became one of the leading ladies in comedy and how she is working hard to keep herself relevant in society. Very well made. I haven't seen too many other movies this year, nothing really jumps out at me, I will check out the theater when I get back from the hike.