Hagley Museum We planned a trip to Washington DC area in order to attend the retirement party of Remy's nephew, Leonardo Martinez. It is not normal for us to vacation in the month of July since that is when the figs ripen and if I'm not there, the birds take my share. Ray Gritte told me about the E.I. Dupont museum in the Wilmington Delaware vicinity, and it sounded interesting so we planned our first stop there. July 17th and July 18th morning With our flight and drive from Philadelphia airport to Wilmington, we arrived in time for a late lunch at harbor area, found our hotel and then thought we'd hit the DuPont museum. We got there about an hour before closing time, but were informed our admittance would still be good the next morning. So we visited an hour or so by riding the bus up to view the home then visited the museum. We came back the next morning to complete the tour. See the Hagley Museum Slideshow of all the interesting items on display. There are several very intersting displays here. We didn't exactly follow the normal order of stops. I caught site of a steam engine the day before and some dude was in starting a talk and demonstration of it, so we got off there first. Then we headed to the gunpowder manufacturing area. The Dupont's made their initial mark by making a high quality gunpowder. They used a slip stream from the Brandywine river to provide the power to run the grinders and the machine shop tools. The grinders were located within some impressive blast barriers that didn't prevent the early safety records from being pitiful by today's standards. The machine shop was quite interesting in the way the river power was converted to power the lathes, drills, fans, etc. There was an interesting talk on how they made and repaired gears. July 18th continued We then headed north to Valley Forge, the scene of Washington's encampment during the start of the revolutionary war. Interesting reconstruction of the cabin's the men built to hold the area during the winter. George's accomodations were a tad more comfortable than the men's, but it turns out he had no salary as a general. He was able to submit a bill for his expenses at the conclusion of the war. The rifle demonstration was appropriate in that it took him two attempts to get the rifle to fire. See the Slideshow Valley Forge July 19th Our next adventure was a drive to DC, but on the way we stopped at Longwood Gardens. What is different about this garden from the others I've seen is the abundance of fountains. See the Slideshow of Longwood Gardens July 20th The next day we attended Leonardo's retirement party. They had a nice gathering at the hospital area. See the Slideshow of Leonardo's Retirement Party July 21th We spent all day in the Cathedral of the Imaculate Conception in Washington DC. It is a beutiful church. The bell tower was donated by the Knights of Columbus. I took a lot of pictures so I divided them up in three slideshows with separate themes: See the Building See icons of Mary See the Saints and Popes July 22th Our final day in Washington area was spent visiting George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. The house was getting some repairs so the front face was blocked with scaffolding and paper. The back yard was nice with a view to the Potomac River. Inside there was full model of the house. See the Slideshow of Mount Vernon There is a working black smith shop with various articles laying about. You could view his family tomb and a area where the slaves were buried.