Washington D.C. (Tues.10/16)

Old Post Office Building/Clock Tower

Great place to get a birds eye view of DC – equivalent to 12th story view and building restrictions put most everything under you. Probably the best spot to start your tour.

National Archives - Washington D.C. (Tue.10/16)

The National Archives has the "Boeing learning center" where the boys all committed high treason and signed the Declaration of Independence – this doesn't exactly square with our instructions in Romans 13 but...

They have some good kid activities where you search old maps and get clues to answer some questions – it's not bad

The National Archives is most notable for containing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They have an excellent video on the maintaining of the Declaration of Independence.

Still relating everything to the National Treasure movie the boys liked seeing THE document. Unfortunately, they colored on the Declaration of Independence with a Sharpie marker closing the exhibit for a while.

Washington D.C. (Sun.10/14)

Getting up fairly early to catch the train, we made it to the 10:00 service at Capital Hill Baptist Church. Dr. Mark Dever preached an incredible sermon on Luke 20, it lasted about an hour (the whole service almost 2). This was the “old time gospel hour” to be sure, the boys thought it was a bit long however.
After church we went to the US botanic garden. I'm not a super flower guy, but this was more than that and quite amazing. The boys really liked the catwalk in the rain forest room – lot's to see from all over the world, I highly recommend it!

Notable changes since I was last in D.C.:

Little people running around on their gyro scooters (the people are actually the same size I think, but the gyro scooters are new)

Roads blocked off, Large potted plants keeping people from driving into buildings, tickets to get into the Washington monument, 6 month wait with background checks for getting into the white house, etc – signs of the times I suppose.

Women's conference with Noel Piper (Fri.10/12-Sat.10/13)

While entering the DC area – (using our new Air Card so we are no longer driving around to get Internet looking like we're stalking home and business) Kim found that Noel Piper was the key speaker for a Women's Conference at Capital Hill Baptist Church. Sooo, after we setup camp – Kim ventured downtown DC for the conference: Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. Kim was one of 5 winners of a book for coming the farthest to the conference. Dad and boys ate Ramon noodles and played disc golf.

Gifford Pinchot State Park, PA (Thur.10/11)

We've seen 3 of the 4 major cities on our list in the North East: Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, with D.C. yet to come. I don't know if that's what inspired the boys to design their own country with several cities or not. They were a little disappointed when they asked where I wanted to live and I responded - "in the country", but I was quickly made a cottage in the country and we were all good. They had a capital city, several sports stadiums, row housing - the works!

Gifford Pinchot State Park, PA (Wed.10/3,10/10)

Both Wednesdays we were at Gifford Pinchot State Park, we went to radio controlled car races. We met a father and son who did it together, and the son was only 7 years old. They have several classes in 2 wheel drive and 4wd. The good racers go up to 30 mph. Some people are really into it and pull a trailer, keeping all their stuff setup.

-Levi

Francis Slocum State Park, PA (Fri.10/5- Mon.10/8)

Well, again, here we go again, the Bollacke family again. We met up with the Bollacke crew – now supersized adding 2 cousins in Francis Slocum State Park, PA.

Amanda and Rachel

Truly a case of Too much is never enough. It was great to see them again. The cousins were an excellent addition to our crew (and going from 8 to 10 kids is only a 25% add-on). The kids played in the small woods by the campground for hours and would have pretty much continuously had we let them.

If anyone was counting that makes 10 kids

The Root beer by Christian was quite good – and in Seltzer bottles too – must make dad proud. This was served in our kid-made diner in the woods.

Fine dining in the woods

Nothing comes between these two– literally. A blessing to everyone they encounter.

The tight nucleus of the family (God not shown)

Made a treck to Hickory Run State Park to a boulder field. A huge field full of boulders. I “picked rock” in fields as a kid but this one is the granddaddy!... Apparently geologists come from all around to see this field (I saw plenty of rocks but not a single geologist). These rocks made for a fun, challenging hike and much more entertaining than Plymouth rock – have I mentioned how disappointing Plymouth rock was? A glacier came through here - melted and froze, melted and froze turning a big sheet of granite into a bunch of boulders – pretty cool! (that's the simplified version in case any of those so called geologists are reading this blog)

And we ended the trip with a good dump – how can you beat that?

P.S. For our records the Mike / Graham Rodeo Golf life-time series is at 8 to 4

Grandparents in Pennsylvania! (Tue.9/25-Fri.10/5)

We were 10 weeks without the grandparents, Bo-bo and Grandpa – last seen in Spicer MN. And now, 11 days with them wasn't nearly enough. We did many attractions and sites with the grandparents and we did plenty of “nothing” with them too (biking around the campground, laundry, hanging out). In generous grandparent fashion, we hardly paid for a thing. Kim and I even got out for a date night – 3:00 until midnight just us! And the boys couldn't have been happier to have us out and have grandparents all to themselves.

They came bearing gifts (their own and the Jaramillo's) – it was our own mini-Christmas. The Minnesota support group came through big again! Driving 3250 miles to see us, thanks so much!

PS We found another counterfeit $10 bill. I didn't accept this one.

Hershey, PA (Wed.10/3)

Our own little touch of Disney Land here in Pennsylvania. A huge parking lot with trolleys to take you close to the main door. An informative ride with dancing, singing cows – the whole works! Yes, free samples.

Every type of clothing and gadget you can never want. It was a good tour and experience but I don't think it would have been so during the summer packed full of kids.

Bird-In-Hand, PA (Wed.10/3)

In the Midwest we put Welcome mats on our door step – here in the East... Go Away – nice touch. To mix my metaphors, this wasn't the most “Kosher” Amish store.

One ad in a local paper reads:

The Amish Experience F/X Theater

Become part of the Amish story in this one-of-a-kind 5-screen experiential theater, newly re-mastered... www.AmishExperience.com

That's good stuff – of course there's a variety of “strictness” of Amish and plenty of others looking to make a buck.

The Amish say No to electricity, but yes to some propane and pneumatic items. No to bicycles, but yes to push scooters. No to tractors in the field, but yes to tractors and some diesel engines.

Normally photos can't capture smells but this one does catch the smell of Authentic manure being spread on the field.

While I believe they make some real misunderstandings of scripture, and there seem to be some strange and arbitrary rules that are self enforced to simplify their way of life, I do not mean to make fun of the Amish / Mennonite community. We are just past the one year anniversary of all the Amish children that were slain. We have a lot to learn from them regarding forgiving others and real trust in Jesus for loving in this world and true hope beyond it.