First things first, off to the highest court in the land. It would not have been my first stop, but was great. A wonderful building, history of the court and a good lecture in the court itself. It's also and interesting time, only 8 chairs due to the untimely death of Antonin Scalia . The nomination process of the democratic president Barack Obama is blocked by the republican held house. The next president gets to nominate a judge. We went across the (very grand...

First day in Washington D.C. - did all the main sights, except the Whitehouse. Started with a walking tour from near the Washington monument, past the Whitehouse (we averted our eyes, its not a political thing, more of that later) and onto the Washington Monument. The guide was great, very knowledgeable, a trained architect. We walked down to the World War II memorial, I didn't remember it from my last trip to Washington in the 1990's and was relieved when the g...

Summer in the USA means Road Trip! Our pick this year , a quick 8 hour drive of 425 miles from Boston to Washington, to address a parental failing: our kids have not (yet) seen the Capital city of the country to which they were born. The picture is not DC, it's a small town diner somewhere in southern New Jersey. The waitress said she recognized us by the way Evelyn ordered lasagna, we politely told her that we really were not there last week. A good American d...

How to round out a wonderful trip around Europe? A good Olde English pub. The Rose & Crown on Clay Hill just outside Enfield, near the wonderfully named Hilly Fields Park and Beggars Hollow. This pub dates back to the early 1700's and is linked to the Highway Robber d*** Turpin. He originally worked as a butcher but then found it easier as a horse thief, burglar and highway robber. Some accounts have Sick or his grandparents as landlords of this Inn. d*** Tur...

The Ironbridge is an amazing early example of Social Media. In the 1770's Abraham Darby figured out how to mass produce cast iron much cheaper than anyone else. To advertise his process he built a huge bridge across the River Severn in a deep gorge. The bridge was opened January 1st 1779 and has spanned the River since. Many bridges upstream and downstream were distroyed by floods, the Ironbridge is still standing. It became such an important crossing that a town...