Fall 2001 Trip to Maryland and Washington DC

Tony and Teddy took a weekend to themselves leaving on Friday to go to Maryland to visit with Teddy's mom (Gramma-Gramma is Simon's name for her). While there we stayed with Bob and Pat at their home. This shot is the dock behind their home that is located on an inlet that is part of the Chesapeake Bay.
	We took a trip on Saturday to Washington DC. Teddy has always wanted to visit the Vietnam Memorial there because of the hole that the war made in her life. She lost Tim but it was also a time when she lost his family and her own father. There is much unrest that remains because that war in Vietnam represented the polarization of the American people into two camps who agreed with and opposed our involvement in the war. We have visited the Traveling Wall on several occasions when it came to areas where we were. We had a hard time finding a place to park but finally wound up on Virginia Avenue about 3 blocks from the park area along Constitution Avenue that holds the Washington Monument as well and the Lincoln Memorial. The Squirrels are very friendly seeking handouts from passers by. This one actually followed us down the street hoping for some kind of a treat.
Because of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Washington DC is very bound up with security. 23rd street was not open to vehicles unless they had business in the buildings along that street. There were cement barricades like those used for highway construction that blocked off the ends of the street. Security guards in vans blocked the openings in the barricades and did not let people through unless they had proper identification for admittance to the buildings on the street. Once on the street, each of the buildings had protection at the entrance to the building that consisted of a couple of security guards as well as a metal barrier that blocked the entrance into the driveway of the building. This photo is of the entrance to the Federal Reserve building which was closed so there are no guards present.
	As you walk to the Wall you get an incredible view of the Washington Monument through the trees that line the walkways in the park. The Lincoln memorial was hosting some type of rally and we could hear the speakers from there and see some people as well as chairs setup on the lawn. It was hard to see the monument as a stand alone structure. The Washington Monument is farther away and the trees block the base area so the view of it is unencumbered by any activity going on around it. I pointed my camera toward it and got this wonderful shot with the trees in the foreground forming a natural frame for the photo.
We had come to see the Wall but because the trip into Washington took time we needed to find bath rooms before we could start enjoying the tour. This put us in the middle of the park so we had to come back to where the Vietnam Memorial was located. Part of the memorial is a bronze statue of three soldiers that look over the Wall. The three soldiers are one each of a representative type for white, black and hispanic. Our approach was from a direction where we saw the soldiers first and they stand looking over the Wall. I have seen pictures of the Wall and have always been amazed by its height and size but I did not realize that the ground where the Wall is is level and that the Wall drops down under the ground level.
	There is a real power that exists as you walk with people who are still visiting and still remembering and still asking questions. Teddy thought about leaving her bracelet for Charles Austin, a missing pilot, at the Wall but she said it is not time yet to walk away from what happened and the bracelet is still on her wrist. In the light of the present conflict with terror and a terrorist organization that started as allies to the CIA, it frustrates me that we still don't understand that you win more friends with sugar than with bullets. It takes so little to allow people to have the means to live and we as a nation who proclaim our roll as defenders of freedom and justice have let a great many poor people suffer from our way of doing business. Teddy walks along the wall looking for Tim and Charles Austin and she takes rubbings of their names when she finds them. There are directories at either end of the wall with a listing of the names and the panels where they can be found. The panels are arranged by the dates when the soldiers died or were lost.
In Willimantic this year as in most of the areas of the east the fall colors have been intense. The photos that I was able to collect are different from previous years because of the way I am seeing and seeking things. I think that it is hard to convey the feeling of walking down a shady street in the fall when the air is cool enough to be very refreshing and warm enough to be comfortable. It is even harder when the picture is a small space on a large white page. Standing on this spot in Walnut Street you are surrounded by the trees and the brilliance of the tree out in the open at the end of the street is like a blazing flame of color that dazzles your eyes. I larger image helps.
	Teddy and I went to Vermont on the weekend before as well as the weekend after the trip to Maryland and Washington. We visited Wendy for Fall Foliage Festival which is a major event at the Putney School. We also went to classes and had our first meetings with her teachers. She is going through a period of adjustment that all people who move into a new environment have to go through. On the parents weekend we went with her along a hiking trail where she runs and walks as part of her athletic program. We sat in the woods and talked for a while and then wandered back in the later part of the afternoon. Along that path I noted these trees that are simply standing and being there. I sometimes ponder what it must be like for older trees who have stood in the same place for longer than any human being has been alive. On my better days I can recognize the trees as a part of the earth and their branches reach out and enfold us protecting us from harm in a spiritual manner.

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