2021 was a year of great transition for me. First week of January I started working in a new place with better pay and more responsibility. This new job lead to a big career opportunity that I never sought out but I am doing my best to embrace. This opportunity has involved me going to classes an hour away three nights a week on top of my normal work schedule. It has also included a considerable amount of homework and the sacrifice of time away from my family. If it pays off the money I’ll be making at the end of it will be definitely worth it for my family and myself. So needless to say this hobby of mine that I greatly enjoy visiting presidential sites and other historical sites and traveling in general has had to take a bit of a backseat but I was able to get out and take one big trip in the summer and little other things here and there. So here’s a rundown of my year in pictures.
In February my family of five headed up to Marblehead on Lake Erie to see lake Erie ice formations which is always pretty cool to see that time of year
Back in June 2003 I proposed to my wife at Marblehead lighthouse the picture above is of my wife and I moments before I popped the question. It seemed like a fun opportunity to get a picture of the kids in front of the lighthouse for a comparison
In March was the big pinewood derby. Grant’s car got fastest in the whole pack. Nick’s car got fastest in his den. My car got fastest in the open race. The boys received metals. For my trophy I received a Hershey bar, it was delicious.
On the same day as the pinewood derby afterwards the boys and I drove down to southern Ohio to meet up with Dani, Khloe and many other family members on my wives side to celebrate my father-in-law‘s 60th birthday in Hocking Hills. I took this picture by the campfire that night, it was a nice little getaway.
One Saturday night in April my boys and I decided to go to the movie theater for the first time in over a year to catch Godzilla versus Kong. Not a great movie but a fun action movie to experienceEspecially after so long away from the theater
Here’s a picture of my sisters and I at my nieces high school graduation in May
Memorial day weekend my boys and the other scouts and their pack went to local cemeteries to lay flags at the gravesites of veterans. Asa Lake here was a Revolutionary war veteran who was one of the founders of the small village in which I grew up in Mt. Blanchard, Ohio.
In spite of all the ever change in circumstances of the past year we were able to do another Williamsburg Virginia trip as our families summer vacation. Here is my mom my kids and I at the graveside of a couple of Ancestors in a cemetery near Baltimore. Corporal Barnet Hauck was a Revolutionary War Veteran and Captain William Hauck was a War of 1812.
Next we hit a couple of DC cemeteries that I’ve had saved on my Google maps since 2010. Ohio Governor Thomas Bartley here is only one of seven Governors of Ohio not buried in the state of Ohio.
Next few pictures are in DC’s Rock Creek Cemetery. Here is Teddy Roosevelt‘s daughter Alice and her daughter Pauline.
1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern
Meet the Press’s Tim Russert
Blair family. Most notably probably is Preston and Blair he served many presidents from Andrew Jackson to Andrew Johnson
Unique graveside memorial for historian Henry Brooks Adams ( grandson of John Quincy Adams) and his wife Marion. Adams had the memorial built for his wife after she took her own life. Eleanor Roosevelt would visit here often as a young woman.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Harlan Fiske Stone.
While near Baltimore we picked up some Chaps pit beef which I finally got to enjoy when we got to our Arlington Virginia hotel room.
My kids never got to experience seeing DC monuments at night. So that’s exactly what we did
Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial from WW 2
WW2
Lincoln
My Dad reading Gettysburg Address
While at the Vietnam memorial we were able to find the names of 2 of my Dad’s friends who were killed in Vietnam.
The next morning we walked around Arlington National Cemetery.
President Taft
Chief Justice William Rehnquist
President Kennedy
President Kennedy with Arlington House in the background
General Omar Bradley
My kids at the Tomb of the Unknown soilders
Astronaut and US Senator from Ohio John Glenn
Chief Justice Earl Warren
General and cabinet secretary George C. Marshall
President Fords home in Alexandria, Virginia. He was living here when Nixon resigned and he assumed the presidency
After getting my parents and the kids settled in Williamsburg my wife and I drove back up to DC the next day to take part in a DC presidential walking tour. Chris White was the one running the tour. I met Chris through a presidential site Facebook group probably over a decade ago. It was nice to meet Chris in person and I really enjoyed walking around as he showed us different places that varies president had lived. Above is a house that Theodore Roosevelt had lived in while in DC
Here’s a home that FDR lived in well serving as assistant secretary to the Navy under Woodrow Wilson
This is where Herbert Hoover lived when he served as secretary of commerce to Harding and Coolidge it is now an embassy
Here is the home that Woodrow Wilson died in at 1923 this might be the only house we saw on the tour that is available to visit and tour
President Harding lived here when he served as a United States senator from Ohio before being elected president
This is President Taft final home where he passed away
President Eisenhower lived in an apartment here before serving as president
Chris and I at the Washington Hilton near where President Reagan was shot.
Calvin Coolidge lived here while the White House went under a renovation
Many presidents have stayed at this hotel the Mayflower, but the most notable story I remember from the tour is that Lyndon Johnson stayed here his first night in Washington DC as a young man
This is the church where President Kennedy‘s funeral was held
Inside the church
The steps in which the famous picture of JFK Jr was standing when he saluted his father’s casket
After the tour I went to hit one more cemetery that had a lot of notable graves Oak Hill cemetery in Washington DC. the first notable grave I found here was that a Dean Acheson Secretary of State to President Truman
Most notably Edwin Stanton here served a secretary of war under President Lincoln and Johnson
I ran into this deer almost literally while walking around Oak Hill cemetery
Graveside of lawyer Frederick Aiken. He represented Mary Surratt for her involvement in President Lincoln’s assassination
Gravesite of John and Peggy Eaton. John served as secretary of war to Andrew Jackson when other cabinet member wives blackballed Peggy from their social gatherings it led to Andrew Jackson firing his entire cabinet with the exception of martin Van Buren Secretary of State. Peggy married John not long after the death of her first husband
Next several pictures are from the Jamestown Museum
Jamestown recreation site outside the museum
Ship replicas
Jamestown Fort replica
My Pastor Father at the pulpit of a 400 year old church replica
One of 3 days we spent at the beach throughout the week
Statue of Neptune I have Virginia Beach towers over my boys
One of the highlights of the trip was to visit the actual side of Jamestown
Pocahontas statue
John Smith statue
My son next standing near the spot of Pocahontas‘s wedding to Englishman John Rolfe
My kids think they found the tree from Disney’s version of Pocahontas
Archaeological digs at Jamestown are ongoing and this museum on Jamestown Island displays their findings. One gravesite found near the Fort is believed to be that of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, an early leader at the Settlement.
One morning I got up early to walk around Williamsburg while the rest of the family was still sleeping. On my walk I found this bust of George Washington
Governor’s Mansion at Williamsburg
Home of Signer of the Declaration of Independence George Wythe.
I saw that one of President John Tyler’s daughters were buried in the churchyard at Williamsburg. The churchyard was closed but I could see the tombstone from behind the wall.
Statue of George Washington outside the Yorktown American History museum
Yorktown Museum
Musket demonstration
We visited the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Presidential library and museum in Staunton, Virginia on the way home.
One of Wilson’s Presidential transports
Inside the room and with Woodrow Wilson was born
The kids were insure what do you think of the mannequins
In July My wife and I attended a 3 Doors Down concert in Dayton. Our first concert shortly after we started dating was seeing 3 Doors Down in Toledo. The Concert was an Anniversary gift to me from her.
It was a fun concert
Khloe and I while visiting Lake Erie in late July
Stopping by Ohio State University after Nick’s State Fair judging
In August, we visited Indian Lake for the Annual Rock the Lake Christian concert.
Big Daddy Weave
Grant’s baptism in August
The kids fall sports picture
We got a new puppy in September, we call her Perry.
Starting in September I started taking classes up in Toledo which is over an hour away from where I live. Monday Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6 to 915 on top of my normal work schedule got to be quite an adjustment for me. What’s more is the considerable amount of homework that I had on the weekends. But by the last weekend of October things started to mellow down a bit and I had a weekend that would not require much homework. It also happened to be a weekend in wjich my son Nick was invited by the older scout troop to go on a hiking trip with them down in the Hocking Hills. It all worked out really well that I got to go with him and it was a much needed get away, hiking through the beautiful Hocking Hills of southern Ohio at the peak of fall foliage with my son, I loved it!
In December we went up to the Huntington Center in Toledo to see the K-LOVE Christian concert with a bunch of our favorite Christian bands.
That’s about it I’m sure 2022 will be another year of ever-changing circumstances. I hope to get out some here and there to enjoy this hobby. Thanks for following me and I hope you all have a wonderful year!
