All posts by paula

66-Washington D.C.

Iwo Jima Monument

We took a day and visited the Arlington Cemetery and also the Iwo Jima monument which is right next door.  Here are pictures of the Iwo Jima monument:

66-Washington D.C.

The Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C. – we got here just in time!!

We arrived in Washington D.C. on a Friday and discovered that we were just in time for the Cherry Blossom festival!  We drove into the city on Sunday but because of the Cherry Blossom timing the traffic was HORRIBLE!  It took us several hours to get through the downtown area as traffic was truly bumper-to-bumper and moving at about 1mph with pedestrians everywhere!

We did get a few pictures of cherry blossoms though – here they are:

64-Quantico, VA

The Marine Corp Museum at Quantico

We stopped for a few days in Quantico, VA as Jeff was interested in seeing the Marine Corp Museum there.  It was very interesting – they had the museum separated into sections by major war periods starting with the formation of the Marine Corp in 1775, through the Civil War, WWI and WWII, Korea, Vietnam and current time.  They are continuing to add to the museum; at this time a little more than half is viewable.

The museum is very visible from the freeway as it has a large stylized roof that is symbolic of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.

Here are pictures we took at the museum:

65-Luray Caverns

Endless Caverns – another cavern near Luray in western VA

We found that there are several caverns in the area of Luray, VA that are open for tours to the public.  We went to two of them, Luray itself which is the best-known, and Endless Caverns which is on the site of the RV Park where we stayed.  This is a cavern and we were the only two people on the tour we took.  That is actually a good thing, we were able to progress at our pace and not stop and wait for slow-pokes like you have to do on a tour with 20+ people!

We were impressed with this cavern; the formations were wonderful here as well!

Here are pictures we took:

65-Luray Caverns

Luray Cavern – a beautiful fairyland place!

We visited two caverns located in western Virginia.  The larger was Luray Cavern.  The part we toured is approx 160 feet below the surface and was a bit warmer than other caverns we’ve been in.  The tour guide explained that it’s a bit warmer because of the higher level of humidity.

This was a beautiful cavern!  The colors are more pronounced in this cavern than in other caverns we’ve visited…even Carlsbad!  And, the beautiful formations are everywhere!  In other caverns you would walk down blasted out pathways to get to the next “room” where the formations were; at Luray they were non-stop!

There is a stalacpipe organ in Luray which was very different.  In the 1950s someone was commissioned to install a pipe organ and wire it to various stalactites around one of the larger rooms.  The resulting sound from the organ was like small bells with different tones, quieter than I imagined it would be.  They couldn’t make the sounds louder without damaging the stalactites.  The room where the pipe organ was installed has hosted over 500 weddings over the years!  Can you imagine getting dressed to go to a wedding and having to walk down into a cavern in order to participate?

Here are pictures we took of the Luray caverns:

64-Quantico, VA, RV Park Reviews

We were delighted to find the RV Park here at Quantico, VA makes us feel we’re in the woods

I was pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the Aquia Pines RV Park at Quantico and found it a wooded, rustic park that has a feel of being out in the woods even though we’re right next door to I-95.  We’re just over a small hill from the freeway but can’t hear it at all.   The sites are shaded and large and very nice.

Here are a couple of pictures: