Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic is located in southwestern Europe whose territory is located in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and islands in the Atlantic North. There are two major cities – Lisbon in the south and Porto in the north.
Gloria had it her mission to buy a new leather purse specifically made in Portugal. Along the way we saw a lot of interesting people, places and shops.
beer along the way, looked for shoes, watched street artists and had dinner.
The last two weeks have flown by! Here we are getting ready for our next leap in the adventure – this time to Europe! Over the last 2 weeks, we have had a wonderful time visiting with family,
eating way to much and had the joy of our friends Jessie and Phil from Pasadena come to DC to help me turn the page on the next decade spending all of my birthday with us as we did a pub crawl
through old town Alexandria, a boat ride on the Potomac
to Georgetown for a wonderful dinner at an Italian Restaurant (Filomena’s).
Tuesday we head to the airport for our flight to Lisbon Portugal and the start of the next leg in our journey – 4 months in Europe. So, continue to follow along – provide comments as you feel the urge – and we will try and entertain you with comments, photos (not all of food) and highlights as we discover new parts of the World we all live in.
It doesn’t matter if you voted for the current occupant a tour of the White House isn’t about politics it is about HISTORY. This past Tuesday Jason arranged a tour time, then was able joined us for the “self-guided” wander through the 8 of 10 rooms on the first floor.
The White House is the oldest public building in the District of Columbia, and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most famous address in the United States. Every president except George Washington has conducted the government of the nation here but it wasn’t until T. Roosevelt was this building officially became known as The White House. In the early 1900’s, the Presidential offices, the West Wing and Oval Office replaced the glass conservatory enjoyed by 19th century Presidents families. The East Room, largest of White House spaces, includes the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. The painting was saved from fire, during the war of 1812, by Dolly Madison who smiles at him through a corridor of the Red Room.
Our walking tour was through several of the more well know rooms (on the first floor) including the Vermeil Room, the China Room, the Diplomatic Reception Room, State Dining room and the East Room. It was interesting to note the roll up the edge of the carpet to allow the visitors to walk through the rooms but not on the carpet. On display were a number of artifacts, portraits and lovely furniture.
Most rooms had a Secret Service person who could explain the features of the room and what kinds of events the room has had. Janeen chose the Grant China in the corridor as a favorite, but the China room and the Visitor Center display much more glassware and china purchased for the standing Presidents.
All in all an interesting tour and really glad we made time in our schedule to visit this place.
After bidding Jason goodbye, so he could go back to work, we walked back towards the metro stopping at Old Ebbitt Grill for lunch.
Old Ebbitt Grill is a historic bar and restaurant and is Washington’s oldest bar and restaurant. It opened as an unnamed restaurant in the Ebbitt House Hotel. The Hotel distinguished itself as the first hotel in Washington to remain open all summer instead of closing when Congress adjourned.
Since 1970, because of its popularity Old Ebbitt Grill has been frequented by numerous politicians, some known for scandals and maneuvering.
Known for its oysters and seafood it was a wonderful spot to stop and have a bit and a bottle of wine.
After our lunch we continued on to the Metro for our ride back to Springfield.
The route from Illinois, through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, and Maryland into D.C. and Virginia often followed the National Highway (US 40. sometimes U S 22) and one could envision frontier families, Civil War Companies, Appalachian hikers, through the decades, even from the four lane Tarmac.
Mills Run, PA is the location of the Western PA Nature Conservancy, which administers entrance to Fallingwaters. Kaufman, Jr. deeded the family retreat and surrounding acreage to the Conservancy in the mid 1960s with the conditions that his family home would be viewed, not as a museum, but as it was imagined by FLW and. used by the family; an island of calm and a retreat into nature.
Monday – our last day on the Road across the USA – found us heading to Fallingwater.
Fallingwater, or the Kaufmann Residence. Frank Lloyd Wright designed “Fallingwaters ” the weekend retreat cabin of the Philadelphia Kaufman family that was built in 1938-39 at a cost of 150,000 dollars; the cliffs and boulders of Bear Run Creek and its falls envelop the cantilevered house. Asked to describe the house in one word, the Kaufman’s son, said,” Romance”. Liliane and Edgar Kaufmann owned the Kaufmanns department Store in Pittsburg and had a small “cabin” near the location and wanted something nicer for weekends and summer vacations. Fallingwater was the family’s weekend home from 1937 until 1963 when Kaufmann Jr donated the property to the Western Pennsylvania conservancy. In 1964 it was opened to the public as a museum.
The design, by Wright, was intended to bring the outdoors inside with the use of windows and outdoor seating areas. In the seating area, or living room, there is a large stone fireplace – the stone around the fireplace is bedrock and incorporated into the structure. On the left side of the fireplace, hangs a red round globe – this could be filled will mulled wine and the entire globe swings into the fireplace for heating and out again for distribution of the warmed wine!
Our tour included most of the rooms and areas of the building – quite interesting. While I could certainly “live” in Fallingwaters I think the MAINTENANCE required to keep the house up might be a bit difficult! We are glad we visited this special spot.
After finishing our tour we completed our trek across country by arriving at our son’s home in Springfield Virginia. While here we will visit with friends, tour the White House, celebrate my 70th birthday and do packing for our next adventure – ACROSS the Atlantic to Portugal, Germany, Italy and any other place we find ourselves.
Early this morning we left Macomb and continued our journey towards Virginia. After several hours of driving on the freeways we dropped down to US 40 and cruised along through a number of small towns – Greenfield, Knightstown, Dunreith, Lewisville, Straughn, Dublin, Cambridge City, Centerville – until we reached Richmond. US 40 is an east-west route running the entire width of the US starting in New Jersey and ending in Utah (OK, not the entire width of the country). It seemed like every one of these small towns was having a garage sale or yard sale everywhere. We didn’t stop. Our Best Western was near the eastern side of town and really almost on the state line between Indiana and Ohio.
For dinner we went to the number one Trip Advisor restaurant in Richmond – Galo’s Italian Grill.
Expecting a nice Italian place, I said “Buonasera” – which we all know is an Italian phrase meaning “Good Evening”. Well, they thought I meant “I want Sara to wait on us “and put us in the bar…not liking that spot I moved us elsewhere. When Sara came over and asked if we had requested her station…we said, no, just honoring the restaurant theme, seems Italian isn’t something they hear much in the restaurant.
We started with a Prosecco which was OK and an appetizer of bruschetta which was OK but not as great as it could have been had they used heirloom tomatoes.
Janeen ordered the grilled eggplant lasagna with spinach, ricotta and mozzarella cheese while
I had the Bolognese sauce with pasta and an added meatball .
To accompany this we had a Banfi Chianti Classico.
Maybe we have higher expectations then we should be overall the meal was OK – not what I would have expected for the number one restaurant for the area. Each of our food dishes was pleasant but had no special ingredient to have it stand out from something you might pick up at the frozen section of the supermarket and the wine list, well, it left a lot to be desired.
So, we are back in our room with the rest (half) of the bottle of Chianti some ice and sprite to make some coolers to enjoy for the rest of the evening.
THE LINCOLN PRESIDENTIAL MUSEUM
On Wednesday we headed out to Springfield, a little under a two-hour drive from Macomb to visit The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. 
This Museum is considered to be the first major Experience Museum where it combines priceless historical artifacts with innovative, contemporary storytelling technologies. Visitors are offered an engaging, emotional and educational experience through immersive, “you-are-there” exhibits. There are two different sections – one depicting the early years growing up and the second reflecting his political career more specifically his presidency.
The first section shows young Lincoln presented in a frontier, log cabin and a country store walk through with a number of interesting depictions from his history being represented.
The second area reflects the political history portion of his life.
The second section is represented by the White House South entrance. As you walk through the doors, you first see various dresses worn by Mary Todd Lincoln and her contemporaries during her time in the White House. 
Turning to the hallway, you walk through what might be called The Hall of Political History covering Lincoln’s entry into the Republican fray. This is an unsettling hallway with various voices quoting from newspapers regarding the Lincolns’ appearance, manners and policies – many unpleasant for sure. On the walls are actual political cartoons of the period as well as genuine quotes from the newspapers regarding the Lincolns’ – not very pleasant stuff. The commentaries presented convey the opinions and beliefs he had to contend with, and the criticism his family endured, that was unprecedented in previous White House families
From here the walk through experience presents his cabinet personalities,
the divisions of the Civil War and the faces of the combatants and ends with his assassination and funeral procession. Two theater experiences include holographic 3D multiscreen immersion into the Civil War, and the Historic research and artifact Library.
After touring the Museum we headed across the street to plaza and Union Station.
Union Station is a former train station and now part of the complex of buildings that together form the Library and Museum complex. One of the more prominent features of Springfield Union Station was a three-story (110 ft) clock tower. The tower made a striking addition to the Springfield skyline, helping the station become an immediately recognizable landmark.
After passenger train service ended, Union Station housed several private businesses before being used for Illinois state offices until September, 2004. The building was extensively restored as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library visitor center, which reopened in March 2007.
Today Union Station houses a display of movie items related to Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln that came out in 2012 staring Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln (won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role). On display are movie sets, props and costumes worn during the movie.
All in all it was a nice day and an interesting spot to visit.
Friday night in Macomb took us to the Wine Shop that has entertainment from 5:30 to 7:30. This very small place has wine and beer – most, if not all of the wines, are under $20 a bottle. I asked about wines from Illinois but, alas, nothing in stock. Looking over the inventory I didn’t recognize ANY of the producers…and with everything basically really cheap I’m not surprised.
. 
Dickie Bent played a variety of folk tunes many of which we recognized. It is clear the place is not on the “tourist” trek as everyone was a local (except us of course) and seemed to know each other. Nice evening…wine (a red blend mostly Zin) a bit heavy for my taste but for $20 how can you really complain?
Interstate 80 across Nebraska, Iowa and into The Land of Lincoln intersected with IL92/67/34 to allow us to drop south and arrive at Dad’s House by late afternoon on the same day we left Boyers in York, NB.
Thanks, President Ike, for the interstate Highway System.
David has camped out at Sullivan’s coffee house to use Internet, found us a global gym (Snap Fitness Maxima machines) and had the Prius serviced.
Janeen has met Dad’s Home Health nurse, his O.T. Nurse, conferred with his LPN friend and watched Harold gain strength daily. He isn’t getting his weekly daughter – update letter, but David and I eat meals with him, join in conversation with his visitors (cousin Larry & Alice, Kathy Turner, cousin Leta) and get an occasional candy bar or some melon to add to supper.
Grandsons Jason & Ryan have spoken with him and sent well wishes, with a photo of great-grand little Miss, of course.
Midwestern weather has generally been kind to us, only defaulting to high humidity and heat for eclipse weekend.
So, we are staying in Macomb for a while with Janeen’s dad, Harold. As many of you know, he celebrated his 100th birthday this past March and he is still doing OK. During our visit, most of our time is spent relaxing and visiting with Harold and reading so not much to really update. However, I thought it might be interesting to listing the major highways we have traveled since leaving So Cal. Since leaving we have crossed state lines and visited California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
6-21: 134 to 101
101 to 154 to Foxon Canyon Rd to 101 to 1 and Morro Bay
6-23: 1 to 41 to 101 to 85 to Cupertino
6-29: 280 to 680 to 24 to Lafayette
7-1: 24 to 580 to 101 to 37 to 12 to Sonoma
7-7: 12 to 101 to 128 to Fortuna, CA
7-9: 101 to Coos Bay, Oregon
7-10: 101 to 38 to 5 to 105 to Eugene.
7-11: 126 to 99w to King Estates
7-11: 99 to OR 200 to OR 36 to OR 34 to OR 20 to 101 to Gleneden Beach
7-16: 101 to OR 18e to 99W to 5S 205N to OR 212 to Portland
7-18 OR 212 to 205 S to 5N to 99W to Dayton
7-30: 99W to 5S 205N to OR 212 to Portland
8-1: or 212 to 205 to 5N to Seattle, Washington
8-4: 5S to 90E to Spokane
8-5: 90E to 191 to Bozeman, Montana
8-7: 181 to 90E to 25S to Casper, Wyoming
8-8: I25S to 18E to 20E to 71S to 2E to 61 S to 92 to 97 to 83 to North Platte, Nebraska
8-9: 80 East to 93 E to York
8-10 34 to 80 East 280 east IL 92 west to US 67 to US 34 Macomb, Illinois
We have a few more states to pass before we get to Springfield Virginia and a whole lot of foreign Country’s yet to visit. So Stay tuned!
After an easy drive we arrived in York Nebraska to reconnect with some friends we made while living in East Lansing Michigan. Lora and Jon Boyer were part of a church group we met during our graduate school work in the early ‘70’s. 
. After we left, in 1973, we have not reconnected with both of them since. Of course we stayed in touch particularly with the annual Christmas Card updates and periodically other times over the last 40 plus years. Recently they have relocated from Manhattan Kansas to live in Jon’s family’s farmhouse in York Nebraska.
Jon has taken the role of farmer seriously as they have 200 
or so acres that is planted in corn and soy beans working with someone who actually farms the land in a 50/50 arrangement (he doesn’t have to do any of the heavy lifting mostly writing of checks it seems).
After visiting for a while, we got a tour of the farm and of course a lesion on corn ripeness.
The following day, Janeen and Lora went to Grand Island – a community about 45 minutes away – for an various things. While there they went by Fred’s Flying Circus.
Created by Fred Schritt, a local auto body repair shop owner, he has created a display of whimsical sculptures mostly on poles inside his yard. Mostly using cartoon characters as “auto art” he has created a number of these including Shrek, snoopy, Tweety Bird and others.
Our last evening we went to
PK’s for a lovely dinner.
It was really great to catch up with old friends!