The 2013 Civil War Sesquicentennial Begins!

The month of May, 2013 has been marked by memorable events. As described in my Previous Post, it began with me finishing a major research paper in order to complete my third semester of graduate school. I turned that paper in the night before departing for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The weekend after Chancellorsville, Alison and I escaped for a brief retreat in Cape May, NJ, which you can read about in the Previous Post mentioned above. That adventure was followed by a white water rafting trip on the Potomac River on May 18 (which you can read about in the Next Post), before I left for a ten day trip to Vicksburg, MS to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the siege of that city (which you can read about in the Post After That).

But first, a bit more about the first sesquicentennial anniversary of 2013, on the fields of Chancellorsville...

I was down at Fredericksburg in December for the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Fredericksburg, so I thought I had a pretty good idea what to expect for Chancellorsville. It turned out that the commemorative events at Chancellorsville, though similar in some respects, had their own unique character and flavor. One big difference was that my two coworkers and I stayed onsite in park housing rather than driving down to the park and back each day as we had done in December. This was much less tiring and also allowed us to be much more productive and make the most of the time that we had available. The events included everything from ranger led hikes, to a fife and drum concert, to a special program at the final bivouac site of "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee the night before the former made his famous flank march around the Union forces.

The highlight of the event was a real time program on May 3 that began just before sunrise. That program included the firing of a cannon at dawn to mark the opening of the fighting that day. Because of the early morning air the smoke hung over the battlefield much more than normal. This is the shot I captured of that cannon firing.

Another fun aspect of the event was meeting a father who had pulled his son out of school and brought him out to the commemorative events. The boy's Maternal Great Great Great Grandfather was a Union soldier captured at Chancellorsville during Jackson's flank attack on May 2 and his Paternal Great Great Great Grandfather was killed during the fighting on the morning of May 3. Talk about tangible connections to the battlefield!

It was a great way to begin the month of May and another memorable aspect of my job. I continue to be amazed that the government is paying me to go out and photograph these events. I am, indeed, blessed! It is moments like these that make living on a temporary GS-05 salary worth it!

For more pictures that I took at Chancellorsville check out this album highlighting many of my favorites!

Retreating to the Atlantic: A Weekend in Cape May

May always seems to be a busy month, marked by the end of the school year (at least in college), Mother's Day, my Dad's birthday, and my own birthday, amongst other things. This May has certainly been no exception. In addition to the usual activities I had to finish a major research paper by May 1 in order to complete my third semester of graduate school. I also began and will end this month with major sesquicentennial Civil War commemorations. I was down in Chancellorsville for the first week of May and leave for Vicksburg on Monday morning.

In the midst of all this business Alison and I decided we should take advantage of the one unoccupied weekend of the month to take a mini vacation before I set off for another Civil War commemoration. For our first wedding anniversary in January she gave me a pass for two tickets on the "Cape May Whale Watcher," a whale watching expedition out of Cape May, New Jersey. Up until that moment I didn't even know it was possible to go whale watching in the Atlantic. I thought it was a Pacific coast thing.

Since we wanted to do something special to spend time together in between the commemorations it seemed like the perfect time to cash in the whale watching voucher and explore the New Jersey coast. As an added bonus, Mother's Day weekend is still considered the off-season (the summer season begins Memorial Day weekend), so we were able to find a charming bed and breakfast at a pretty  substantially discounted price.

I started work at 6 am on Friday and worked from home so that once Alison got off work, we were able to leave the DC area and head for Jersey. We arrived with just enough daylight left for a short walk on the boardwalk and initial exploration of Cape May. It was far more charming and had a great deal more character than I had anticipated. It turns out that Cape May was the first ocean resort get-away spot in America, with people first flocking to it for that purpose in the 1700s. Much of the town still reflects the influence of the Victorian era when it really took off and beautiful Victorian homes dot the landscape.

Our Bed and Breakfast was one such home, located a stones throw from the beach. It turned out we were the only ones there the entire weekend, so we had the 9-bedroom house to ourselves. For pictures of the B & B, our room, and the trip in general, Take a Look at this Album.

Aside:
    I discovered that there is a finite limit to the number of pictures that I can include in these blog
    posts, and I am rapidly approaching that limit, so I will be shifting to linking to albums on
    facebook rather than including most pictures directly in these posts. I know it's an extra step and it
    doesn't look as exciting, but what can you do?

Saturday dawned grey and rainy so we were worried that our boat trip would be canceled, but it turned out that the three hours we were on the boat were the only clear hours of the day. We didn't see any whales (we were looking for humpbacks and finbacks), but we had a great tour of the area by boat, and enjoyed watching quite a lot of bottlenose dolphins. It was definitely well worth the trip!

Since I will be in Mississippi for my 30th birthday next week we decided we would celebrate in Cape May instead. After returning from the whale watching expedition we walked along the boardwalk and stopped to enjoy an excellent 3 course meal at a nearby restaurant. Since we were seated early in the evening and before it was busy, we got our food at the early bird price. You can't beat good food for cheap!

Directly across the street from the restaurant was an arcade which included a whole line of skee ball. It was too good an opportunity to pass up and Alison proceeded to show me how much better she is at the game than I am. Our collective efforts earned enough tickets to redeem them for a bouncy ball, a pack of mini playing cards, and two army men.

Sunday was a spectacular day and we took advantage of it to walk a couple miles down the beach from where we were staying to reach the Cape May lighthouse. This lighthouse is unique in that it has Been There Since 1859, is still in use today, and allows visitation. 

The view from the top was magnificent and it was easy to imagine how important that light was to so many mariners. Near the lighthouse we also saw a WWII bunker where two guns guarded the harbor from potential assault and lookouts kept a sharp eye for U-boats. Having gone to school on Point Loma in San Diego, the concept of harbor fortifications is nothing new, but it was quite interesting to see them on the east coast as well. 

It turns out that Cape May is a fascinating place and well worth the visit. Perhaps we'll make it a yearly occurrence!

 Again, This Album includes many more pictures from the trip as well as accompanying descriptions of what you are seeing! 

The Evidence of Spring

The weather in northern Virginia this spring has been all over the map. We had a snowstorm at the end of March, and just over a week later it was 96 degrees when I was riding my bike to school. The strange weather has made it challenging to determine how to dress in the morning, and has confused the flora as much as it has us humans.

It seems as though it is finally safe to declare that spring has showed up and we are not going to skip straight from a late winter to an early summer after all! Even our little Redbud tree finally started leafing out a couple of days ago, and our little oak tree is close behind.

The most dramatic effect of the unusual weather  was definitely the delay of the cherry blossoms. They released two different peak dates (after the first one passed they gave a second), and the second one came and went with hardly a blossom to show for it. Alison and I had decided to go out to the tidal basin to take a series of pictures before the blossoms came out, and then go back and take the same pictures again once they had peaked, and once more when they were on their way out. The irregular weather made it challenging because when they finally decided to show up, they came quickly and were only out for a couple of days.

Thankfully I was able to convince my supervisor that I needed to go and photograph the blossoms in the middle of the week when they were out. Otherwise we would have missed the peak entirely.

This Album Contains Some of the Best Pictures that came out of our cherry blossom forays.

Since I was going down to take pictures in the middle of the week, I decided to go early enough to capture the sunrise and even convinced Alison to get up early on her day off to accompany me. This
Album Highlights the Sunrise that Morning.

Speaking of sunrises, in the midst of the cherry blossom saga we attended the sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. Despite significant cloud cover we were able to enjoy a beautiful Sunrise Through the Narrow Band of Clear Sky right at the horizon line.

If those pictures don't satisfy your appetite for Easter Sunrise shots, you can also check out an

Easter Sunrise Comparison of the pictures I took in 2010 and 2012 with the ones from this year.


While on the subject of comparisons, you can also take a look at the final product of the Cherry Blossom Comparisons that resulted from six trips down to the tidal basin. There are a total of fifteen different locations, each with photographs taken on four consecutive Sundays (March 24, March 31, April 7, and April 14) and during the peak on April 11.

And, if after all of these cherry blossom and sunrise pictures, you still want more evidence of spring, this Album on the Manassas Facebook Page consists of a series of pictures I took of the bluebells blooming along Bull Run.

When you're feeling in the dumps--Don't be silly chumps--Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing!

One of the first commonalities that Alison and I discovered was a mutual appreciation for British Humor, and a particular affinity for “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” This has long been a staple of my DVD collection and I have even been known to recreate scenes from the film for comedy shows at church. 

In 2005 I heard tell of a new rendition of the story (if it even deserves to be so designated) in the form of a Broadway show called “Spamalot.” Ever since I have wanted to see this show, but have not had the opportunity to do so.

While we were in Colorado after Christmas this past year I received an email that informed me that the show was coming to Washington, DC in April and giving me the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets. It was too good an opportunity to pass up, and Alison consequently received two tickets to “Spamalot” for her birthday a week later. 

We had to wait three months, but this past Sunday, April 14, we attended what turned out to be the very last show, not only in DC, but of the entire National Tour. 

The show was just as absurd as we had anticipated, but that is a large part of the appeal. I was quite impressed by how much they were able to do with very minimal set changes. The two towers you see in the picture below were on stage the entire time and everything else occurred between them.

Many of the most memorable scenes from the film found their way into the show. Included amongst them are the French taunting (complete with a wooden rabbit), the knights who say “ni”, the black knight, the death cart in the village, Lancelot rescuing Prince Herbert, the killer rabbit and, of course, the “Knights of the Round Table” song.  Each of the elements taken from the movie had unique twists in the stage production, and the scenes that didn’t make it (the witch scene, the castle anthrax, and the bridge of death being the most notable), though missed, were replaced by scenes that helped to tie together a more cohesive story than the original.

I was not a fan of all the changes (eg. having Lancelot turn out to be gay after his successful rescue of Prince Herbert—who is also gay) but many of them were  very much in the spirit of the original while also serving to create an actual story that has a beginning middle and end.  

They did a lot of clever things to connect disparate elements like having the guy pushing the death cart turn out to be Sir Robin and the man who brings out the man who is “not dead yet” be Lancelot. Likewise Dennis the Peasant turns out to be Sir Gallahad. It is kind of funny really because the only knight that gets a backstory in the movie is Sir Bedevere, and in the show he is the only one who doesn’t.

They also incorporated additional elements of the Flying Circus into the show and, in my opinion, it is an excellent addition to the Python genre.

If you don’t find Python humor funny, you aren’t going to like this show, but if you appreciate “The Holy Grail” for what it is, you too should join Arthur’s Court at Spamalot!