Tag Archives: History

The Washington Monument

I’m trying to finish posting my Washington D.C. photos. These are the shots I got of the Washington Monument.

The Washington Monument is the most prominent structure in Washington, D.C. and one of the city’s early attractions. It was built in honor of George Washington, who led the country to independence and then became its first President. The Monument is shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, stands 555’ 5 1/8” tall, and offers views in excess of thirty miles. It was finished on December 6, 1884.

In an elaborate Fourth of July ceremony in 1848, the cornerstone was laid. The outbreak of Civil War of 1861 delayed the completion of the monument. When Lt.Col.Thomas L.Casey, Mills’ successor, resumed work on the project in 1876, he heavily altered the original design for the monument so that it resembled an unadorned Egyptian obelisk with a pointed pyramidion. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of the War Department was charged with completing the construction, and the monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885, and officially opened to the public on October 9, 1888.

They were cleaning the reflecting pond while we were in D.C. so we didn’t get the best shots from the Lincoln Memorial.

Weighing 81,120 tons, the Washington Monument stands 555′ 5-1/8″ tall. The walls of the monument range in thickness from 15′ at the base to 18” at the upper shaft. They are composed primarily of white marble blocks from Maryland with a few from Massachusetts, underlain by Maryland blue gneiss and Maine granite. A slight color change is perceptible at the 150′ level near where construction slowed in 1854.

Hope your Wednesday is going well. Only one more day of June left. Are you going to stick around for the long July 4th weekend or Canada Day Weekend or are you headed out? We are staying close to home.

Today I have a recipe posted on Mennonite Girls Can Cook for Chicken Perlo, a Southern dish.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and photobucket stamped versions. They are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Mosaic Monday ~ Rhododendron Bushes

 

These are photos of our two large rhododendron bushes in our back yard. I think they really need to be pruned but I need to call someone over to show me how to do that without killing them off!

Coast Rhododendron
Rhododendron macrophyllum

In 1892, before they had the right to vote, Washington women selected the coast rhododendron as the state flower. They wanted an official flower to enter in a floral exhibit at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Six flowers were considered, but the final decision was narrowed to clover and the “rhodie,” and voting booths were set up for ladies throughout the state. When the ballots were counted, the rhododendron had been chosen as the Washington state flower.

For more Mosaics please visit Mary at Little Red House.

By Gum by Golly…

*** If you are looking for my cookbook GIVEAWAY click here.

 

We are on the letter G! It’s time to share your choices and link up with our hostess and teacher Jenny for Alphabe-Thursday.

My choice for G is a Guinness in Georgetown.

A really good bartender is hard to find. I think we discovered the best bartender East of the Cascades on our recent trip to Washington D.C. There are plenty that will mix up a drink for you or pour you a beer and plop it in front of you with hardly a smile but then there’s the rare one who has panache. Someone who adds style and good conversation to his art.

 

We were on the Tour Trolley going through Georgetown when our guide directed our attention to Martin’s Tavern. We knew we’d be jumping off the trolley and strolling back to the Tavern because of it’s historical significance or because we really wanted a beer, you decide. We sat at the bar instead of a table and we were so pleased we did.

 

As luck would have it we got to meet Damon the bartender this afternoon.

 

Not only was he a great bartender but he was a good sport and posed for a photo for my blog.

 

I ordered a Guinness and look what I got…A Guinness, but not just any Guinness on draught. Take a closer look y’all and check out the head on my Guinness. Do you see what I see? Do you see the genuine Irish Shamrock?

 

I was so thirsty I almost missed it but Dear pointed it out to me and then I didn’t want to drink it but I just wanted to enjoy it. Did I tell you I’m very visual? This was the very first time a Guinness was served to me with the bartender taking the added time to design a Shamrock on it’s head.

Thank you Damon! We are sincere in saying you are one of the best bartenders we have ever chatted with. You made our Georgetown experience at Billy Martin’s very memorable! You really impressed Dear because of your classic knowledge of spirits and beer and especially the fact that you know what a Martini isn’t.

Now for you history buffs who might not enjoy booze, here’s some interesting history associated with Billy Martin’s!

There are several tables at Martin’s that boast being a president’s favorite, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush.

Booth #1 “The Rumble Seat”;

After mass at Holy Trinity in the 1950’s JFK sat in this booth reading the paper and having brunch on Sundays.

Booth #3 – The Kennedy Booth – a.k.a. The Proposal Booth

JFK and Jackie frequently dined in Booth #3. On Wednesday, June 24, 1953, having returned from covering the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth for the Washington Times Herald, Jacqueline Bouvier accepted John Kennedy’s proposal of marriage. The next day customers and staff excitedly talked about “that nice young Kennedy senator” proposing to his girlfriend the night before in their booth. Since that day, Booth #3 is known as “the proposal booth”.

Booth #6 – The Truman Booth

Harry Truman, his wife Bess and daughter Margaret sat here for many dinners when Margaret was a student at George Washington University in 1942 and he was a senator from Missouri. Margaret Truman wrote 14 mystery novels set in Washington D.C. and many of her novels included Martin’s Tavern. Murder in Georgetown, pg. 58 -“She seemed anxious to comply and they arranged to meet at seven at Martin’s Tavern.”

 

If you find yourself in Georgetown make sure and visit Billy Martin’s Tavern and say hi to Damon for us!

Here’s another G you shouldn’t miss…I’m having a Giveaway on my blog. Enter to win our MGCC cookbook with all the girls signatures!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Fountains and Ford’s Theater

Jenny our faithful teacher is the hostess for Alpahbe-Thursday.

Here’s another A-Z stamp from the Postal Museum in Washington D.C. F is for Firsts!

Also from D.C. are my other choices for the letter F, fountains and the Ford Theater.

This is the fountain at Dupont Circle. In 1871 the Corps of Engineers began construction of Dupont Circle itself which at the time was called Pacific Circle. In 1882 Congress authorized a memorial statue of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis duPont in recognition of his Civil War service. The bronze statue was erected in 1884. In 1921 the statue of Dupont was replaced by a double-tiered white marble fountain. It was designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon. Three classical figures, symbolizing the Sea, the Stars and the Wind are carved on the fountain’s central shaft.

Ford’s Theater where President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

 

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Abraham and Mary Todd were attending the play Our American Cousin. He died at 7:22 a.m. the following day, April 15th, at the Peterson Boarding House across the street from Ford’s Theatre.

Buh buh buh buh B!

It’s time to present something for the letter B at Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday. I was scratching my head wondering what to post and then I thought why not bore all of you with some brief bullet points about ellen b. I hope by now you’ve noticed the letter b‘s in this post are highlighted in blue!

 

I’ve always been ellen b. My maiden name and married name begin with the letter B. Here I am in my predominately blue apron doing a cooking demonstration with some of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook at Lepp Farm Market in British Columbia.

I’m not Mennonite but the Mennonite Girls adopted me because many of our recipes are similar since my heritage is 100% Russian. We started with a blog together and now we have our very own cookbook!

 

This is one of my recipes in the book from my mother Nadia Bagdanov for Blintzes! You can order the book at Amazon! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have some recipes in a published cookbook but blogging has a way of taking you to places you never dreamed of.

Speaking of being published, another brief story I wrote was published in this book…

It’s the story of my father coming to Christ at the Billy Graham Crusades in Los Angeles in 1963 and the impact that had on the Bagdanov family. You can read my post about that here.

 

After my father came to Christ we stayed in a church he was raised in until he decided to be baptized. At that point the group we were part of ostracized him and we joined the Russian Baptist Church where my Babushka attended. Babushka is the name for grandmother in Russian. My maternal grandmother was a wonderful lady who raised 3 children and was an amazing embroiderer even though she only had one hand. She lost one of her arms from the elbow down when she was a little girl in Russia. My mother had been raised Baptist but left the church when she married my dad and then we all ended up rejoining the Baptist church. Here’s a photo of my little maternal Babushka. We all really loved her!

 

Funny side note: There was a rumor in the Persian Village where my parents were married that my father could not have children. Well that rumor was put to rest when my parents ended up having 9 children. You might be wondering how my parents ended up in Persia since they are Russian. Both of their families fled Russia separately in the early 1930’s because of religious persecution. They traveled on foot into Iran and settled in villages outside of Tehran.

Russian Baptists can sometimes be quite legalistic. No dancing, drinking, smoking, playing cards, or going to movies. Thankfully my parents weren’t strict Legalists. They even took us to the drive-in theater to see all the great Walt Disney Movies growing up. But they’d still be surprised to know their daughter enjoys one of these every now and then.

 

A Bloody Mary. Maybe I’m on the carefree, wild side because of my birth order. I was #4. I have 2 older sisters and an older brother. The fact that I was the baby of the family for 7 years before 3 more brothers and a sister were born into our family might have something to do with my “who cares” attitude!

Before I stop my babbling I wanted to share that we are planning a wedding for our daughter and her Marine husband Andrew in January of 2012, after Andrew returns from his first deployment. We booked the wedding venue today. We chose Blue Ribbon on Lake Union in Seattle because of their total package weddings and the fact that they have a military clause that will allow us to change the date if we have to. Andrew and Katie got married in a civil ceremony on March 11th of this year in North Carolina. Our friends and family will come together to celebrate that union at a wedding ceremony to offer belated witness to their vows. One of my younger brothers who is a pastor will perform the ceremony next January.

 

Hope you made it to the end of my bullet point post. I’ll be coming around before you know it to see what you’ve been up to with the letter B! Thank you Jenny for hosting this meme!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

In Retrospect…

…2010 was a very eventful year for our family!

 

January~

A job interview for Dear in Seattle.

Dan completes the first stage of his training and flies home to Seattle for a week before he leaves again for a 10 month training period in Yuma, Arizona.

 

February ~

Dear and I fly to Seattle to spend some time with Dan before he leaves again.

Katie’s boyfriend Andrew flies to Seattle for us to meet him and spends a week with us.

Dear receives a job offer and gives notice at his current job.

We put our condo in California on the market.

Sad goodbyes to good friends and family in Southern California.

 

Dear’s last day at his California job and we pack up and leave on a 3 day roadtrip with our vehicles packed to the gills.

 

March ~

Arrive home in Seattle for good for now…

Seattle Sounders opening game for the season.

Celebrate my birthday in LaConner and get the amazing experience of seeing Snow Geese.

 

April ~

Easter Sunday meal at our house with Kulich that Lana and I made for the 2nd year in a row.

 

La Conner to meet up with 5 of the Mennonite girls for the first time!

 

Return to California to supervise the condo being packed up and our stuff moved to Seattle.

Katie joins me in California and we enjoy 2 days packed with family gatherings.

 

May ~

Andrew comes for another visit with Katie.

 

June ~

CONDO SELLS and escrow closes!

 

Andrew arrives for another visit before his Bootcamp begins.

 

World Cup begins

Family kayaking trip

 

Katie walks in her graduation from the University of Washington.

 

July ~

Uncle Ray dies ~ we attend funeral in Yuba City, Ca.

Lavender Festival

 

Family visits

 

 

August ~

Trip to Eastern Washington

Mennonite Girls Can Cook Summit in British Columbia to sign contract for our new cookbook.

 

September ~

2 days of nonstop fun with the Mennonite Girls in Abbotsford and Chiliwack.

 

South Carolina with Katie to attend Andrew’s graduation from Marine boot camp Parris Island.

 

Andrew asks Katie to marry him.

October ~

Tendonitis

Wedding Dress Shopping

 

Trip to Dallas with Dear to visit Leonard, Mandy and Miss Hope.

 

November ~

Dan is back in Washington after completing all his hands on training.

 

Early Thanksgiving celebration before Dan heads to his new home and work in North Eastern Washington.

 

Tim and Letty are here for Thanksgiving and the girls continue our Tea tradition.

 

Katie flies to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew and part of his family.

December ~

We celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary on Whidbey Island.

 

Dan arrives for a couple days for our Christmas celebration.

 

Andrew arrives for 10 day leave from the Marines for Christmas.

Wonderful Christmas with all our kids and future kid Andrew…

 

Celebrations continue with Katie’s birthday and New Years Eve…

 

God is faithful and his goodness to us is always good to consider and reflect on. That’s what I’m doing with this post.

The Lord knows what 2011 holds for us and we trust Him to get us through…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ Reminiscing…

…to think, talk, or write about remembered events or experiences.

 

These are all images from my early days in Montebello, California. One of my high school friends posted them on Facebook. It was so much fun to see them and remember the times I spent at each of these spots so many years ago. Some of these buildings do not exist anymore.

1. 31 Flavors on Beverly Blvd. in Montebello ~ My family would stop here growing up. It was always a very exciting time for us kids. We didn’t eat out as a family and to stop and get a treat like this was special. We would get one or two scoops. When we got to have 2 scoops I’d always choose orange sherbet and chocolate chip.

2. Curries Ice Cream Parlor was across the street from my junior high school. At lunch you could get a hot dog, chips, and cherry coke for about 35 cents. I think I only had money for lunch maybe once or twice during my time in junior high. I always had a sack lunch made by my mother. The cherry coke was the kind where they pumped in the cherry flavoring into the coke.

3. The Garmar Theater was the only theater in town. I went a few times with my friends in junior high and high school.

4. Gardunos was a fast food stand a block from my high school. We had an open campus for junior high and high school so we could walk the 1/2 block to Whittier Blvd. and enjoy the food here.

 

5. In the background of this 2nd photo of Curries Ice Cream you can see the wonderful brick building that was my junior high. It is long gone and has a modern building that looks more like a prison on the property now. I really loved the great old brick building but it didn’t withstand earthquakes well and had to be replaced for the safety of the children going there.

Thank you to Susanne at Living to tell the Story for hosting Friday’s Fave Five. A time to join together and remember our favorites from the past week. Click on the image to join in.

My posts will be getting a bit spotty for the rest of the year. I’ll be concentrating on some holiday baking next week and getting things ready for house guests. Our middle son will hopefully get time off to come from Eastern Washington to spend Christmas here. Our daughter Katie’s fiance Andrew will get leave to come for Christmas. He arrives on Christmas Eve. Katie is very happy about that. Are you staying home or traveling for Christmas? Enjoy!
Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Memorial Day Tribute ~ Home on the Range ~ Dickenson

Memorial Day Greetings to you.  God bless our Troops and Veterans!

For Memorial Day weekend I’m posting this quote from Home On the Range ~ A Century On The High Plains by James R. Dickenson.

Home on the Range chronicles the epic drama of the settling and development of the High Plains, as viewed through the saga of journalist James Dickenson’s family and the wheat-farming community of McDonald, Kansas.

He speaks of Dear’s mother, my MIL Verna who’s father and brothers served in civilian and military duties in World War II. Verna was a school teacher in a one room schoolhouse in Kansas before she married Rex (Dear’s father), who also served in World War II.

“The father of my fifth-grade teacher, Verna Moline, a pretty young woman whom I adored, was a civilian construction worker on Midway Island at the time. His family obviously had many anxious moments about him until the naval battle of Midway, a turning point in the war in the Pacific, ended the threat that Midway would suffer Wake Island’s fate of invasion and occupation by the Japanese. He returned safely shortly thereafter. On days when the news was particularly dire, we kids would crowd around her desk before class to ask anxiously about him and voice our sympathies – probably seeking reassurance ourselves in those dark early days of defeat at the hands of the Japanese. However, as my mother, who was teaching English in the high school at the time, finally pointed out, our constant solicitude was something Miss Moline probably could have done without, although she was too gracious to show it.”

Remember our troops and pray. If you know someone who served our country give them a hug and a thank you. Blessings on this Memorial Day Weekend!

http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/dichom.html

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

This & That…

These are all school photos from my Elementary years and Junior high years. The last shot is my graduation from junior high photo. Don’t you just love how they would airbrush the photos and make your skin look perfect with no blemishes!! They even removed a prominent beauty mark mole from my left upper lip. I have since had it removed as it got quite prominent as I got older and since I was having some other minor face surgery done.

The minor surgery I had was to remove road gravel from my chin that got embedded when I crashed and landed on my face while riding downhill on my road bike. I hit a patch of gravel going around a curve and that’s all I remember. I was riding with Dear and a few friends near Leavenworth, Washington. They all made it down the hill with no incident and began to wonder where I was. Two guys in a truck found me convulsing on the side of the road. One of the guys stayed with me and the other one went down the hill and found my deserters companions and brought Dear and my doctor back to the sight of the accident in the truck. Yes, we always ride our bikes with our Doctor. I had an ambulance ride to the local medicine man hospital and they didn’t clean out my wounds well at all. So I still have road pebbles embedded in my knee and I had the gravel from my chin removed by a butcher plastic surgeon. Boy, I had a horrible experience with that Butcher Plastic Surgeon and I wouldn’t recommend him to anyone.

Today I’m headed to the miracle lady hairdresser who will remove all signs of my gray roots. Let’s just call this my crossing out words post. The weather looks like it will be wonderful so I’m wondering what mischief me and my camera can get into today.

The ducks are regulars in our yard now but they’ve decided the deck is the place to leave their unsightly squishy deposits. I gave them a talking to and instructed them to do their business on the grass please!!

Hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and you find joy wherever you are…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ There’s Light…

…at the end of my box tunnel!

 

I’m escaping the organizing and sorting and repacking long enough to throw this post together while I drink my coffee and hope it has some great reviving of energy effects on me! Boy, that was a long sentence! Here are my favorites in no particular order.

1. Seeing all the beautiful spring blooms around the Seattle area. Dogwood is so bright and pink this year. The wisteria is just getting nice. The lilacs are growing in everyone’s yards but mine.

 

2. Hearing that my daughter and her boyfriend are having a good time with my family in California. They were able to spend some time with the cousins and go to lunch with my folks and that makes me happy. They’ll arrive back here tonight sometime.

3. Reading this post about Nezzy and Nina’s hats at Jill’s World of Research blog. Nezzy and Nina were sisters and spinsters and friends of our family. Here I am sporting one of the hats at a Mad Hatter Tea Shower I attended where hats were mandatory!

 

4. Enjoying the birds singing in the wee hours of the morning.

5. There are only about 5 more boxes to go through in the garage!! The end is in sight and my house is getting more organized in the midst of the chaos. Just as a note of explanation…many of the items we had in our one bedroom condo were duplicates of what we have in our home in Washington. We honestly did not need any of it to survive nicely. So I’m opening every box and re-packing all our duplicate stuff (blender, coffee maker, utensils, pots & pans, everyday dishes, glasses, etc. etc. into boxes for our son Dan to set up in his own place at the end of this year or early next year. We keep telling him he has got it “made in the shade”.  He chuckled when I asked him if he wanted a Christmas Wreath! I also told him it would be really good if he had at least 2 bedrooms!

Please visit our lovely hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun!

Well I hope to visit your blogs during my box and organizing breaks today. Thank you for visiting me.