Sunday, December 26, 2021

2021: Year in Review

     

  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 




thanks
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!

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