Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What, more Lincoln Stories? (Well, it IS his 200th birthday, after all!)

Oh puleeeese! Really? Another Lincoln posting? How many Lincoln stories are we going to tell? Well, sorry about that ... if you aren't interested, close your browser or move on to something else?

On the day we ate at Ben's Chili Bowl, we went looking for "Lincoln's Cottage" that we had heard about. We learned that Lincoln lived away from the White House about 3-4 four months per year. It was once the summer home of one of DC's most wealthy bankers, later bought by the government and used as an old soldiers' home. Lincoln moved his family and staff there each spring to get away from the White House. It is about 2-3 miles away from the White House, a 45 minute commute for Lincoln, which was not entirely safe during the Civil War. At one point the Confederate Army advanced within a mile or so, even while he lived there. Isn't it something that he lived through all that and was assassinated after the war was over?




The historical society gave a very interesting tour and we learned alot about the man, the war, the politics behind the great Emancipation Proclamation.

After that, we walked through the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic Cathedral in North America, on the campus of Catholic University in DC. The sanctuary was beautiful but we couldn't take photos because there was a mass in progress.



We finished the evening off with a casual dinner at the Capitol City Brewing Company and took a short walk to see the capitol building at night.

Some night we will have to take the camera pod to take a better night photo.

All for now....

2 comments:

Tara Severson said...

I love getting little history stories from you. I might remember them better than school since I am not busy passing notes to Callie during class. :)

Kev&Rob said...

I expect the occasional history lesson from my one and only DC friends. It's 'required reading.' Bring it on!