Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Monument

I had to pick up some specimens from a couple of places in Philly on Thursday and had a little extra time, so we decided to go on a couple of short National Monument tours.

This is the 1st National Monument that Sarah, Jackson and I have visited and completed since we decided that we want to visit all of them.

I never heard of this National Monument (NM) or this person until I heard this story on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92035186

I'm assuming most people who read this won't have heard of him either, so there's a link in this post title and here's another one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaddeus_Kosciuszko

This is the smallest park in the National Park system (0.02 acres). It really only consists of a singe small house at the corner of Pine and 3rd Streets in downtown Philly. Actually, it's in the Society Hill area of town, which is really nice because much of it (the buildings, cobblestone roads, etc.) literally has hardly changed since colonial times when people like Betsy Ross, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin walked its streets.

Anyway, the house is tiny and very unassuming. I imagine hundreds of people walk by it every day, or live in the area all their lives, and without ever stopping by or knowing it is there.

This was the house of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who was a well trained military man from Poland who fought for the Americans in the Revolution. He became inspired by the ideals of the American cause and tried to go back to Poland to start a similar revolution, but was unsuccessful. He was captured by the Prussians and was badly wounded, but survived and came back here to this house in exile. He was a hero to Americans for his heroism in the Revolution, so was welcomed back to Philadelphia with cannons and cheering crowds.

He was good friends with Thomas Jefferson, and even made him executor of his American will, which gave all of his money to buy the freedom of slaves.

He apparently is still a big national hero the Polish. The sign in book had visitors from Poland just earlier in the week. There are numerous monuments, roads, bridges, etc. named for him all over the country.

Anyway, the place was interesting and we had fun. The house really only consists of a recreation of his room on the 2nd floor, an adjacent theater, and a small welcome area on the 1st floor. We were the only people there and by the reaction from the ranger, we may have been the 1st people he'd seen in quite a while. It was free to enter.

Few New Pictures

Jackson's always doing these funny things with his hands in his sleep.So freakin cute.
My 1st baby getting his game day jersey on.

"Stop taking my picture!!"

He turns on his side in his sleep sometimes.

Snug as a bug.

Goin' for a ride in daddy's truck.
Friends with Jackson:

Victoria
Lucio

Uncle Otto

New Schein Initiative

Sarah and I have been inspired to start a new, big project. We love to travel and see other countries, but every time I travel across this country I realize how little I really know about my own. I've always been a huge proponent of our National Park system - it is the first, largest, and best in the world (despite what certain imbecile politicians have tried to do to it), and one of the greatest ideas this country has ever given to the rest of the world. The Park Service is approaching it's 100th Anniversary.

In that vein, Sarah and I have decided that we want to try to see every National Park and National Monument in the country. It's a tall order - there are nearly 400 parks across the country. Many I've been to, many I've never even heard of. We will only cross a park off of our list if we've both seen it (and Jackson), and if we've really seen it - no drive bye's. We have to get out of the car, hike, see, hear, experience. One of the NPR stories (linked below) really made an important point - only 10% of people who go to the Grand Canyon ever hike below the rim, and only 1% ever hike to the bottom. I am embarrassed to say that I am one of those 99%. That will change. So far, Sarah and I each have only seen about 11% of the parks. That too, will change.

Here is a great set of stories on the National Park System from NPR this past summer: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91890528

I've always loved visiting these places. Anytime we went on any trip, we always spent most of our time atone of these parks, whenever possible. All of the times we spent in Washington D.C. with my grandparents, we always visited as many as we could, along with the many museums, of course.

We're lucky in that we live in a place that has so many Parks and Monuments - I have no way to back this up, but I'd be willing to bet that the Philadelphia area has the highest concentration of Parks in the country (outside of Washington D.C. of course!), with the historical importance of the region. We literally walk into Valley Forge National Military Park all the time from our house. We walk by sites every time we go downtown. It's really great. http://www.nps.gov/state/pa/

Here is a list of the National Parks, Monuments, and other NPS sites, including the ones we've been to: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=f29e748b58ea235ad2db6fb9a8902bda

The 1st NP trip that we've taken since deciding to do this was our trip to Gettysburg. Sarah wrote a bit about it a few days ago, but I've since added a little more, including several pictures. Please check it out. IN the future, we'll try to be more thorough in our description of the place, but as you'll read, our time there was short.

While the principle purpose of this blog will remain to keep our friends and family updated with the goings-on in our lives, it will also serve to document our adventures in these wonderful parks. I very much hope that it will inspire readers to explore our National Parks as well.

Catching Up - Mom's Visit

Mom came up to visit a couple of weeks ago, September 11th - 15th. It was her first time to meet Jackson. We had a great visit.

She arrives on Thursday night and she, Sarah, and Jackson came up to Trenton for a short tour of the city, the Museum, and my office, and to show off the baby to my co-workers. We had a good time, and looked for houses on our way back home.


I found out that there was a brand new exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/311.html) on quilts made by the old, African American community from Gee's Bend, Alabama, which none of us have ever heard about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee It was a great exhibit. The quilts were beautiful.

Since it was the opening day of the exhibit, several of the quilters were there for an open forum. It was nice, and it was fun to hear that old, black southern accent again. Unfortunately, they didn't talk much about the quilts, what they meant and how they made them. They spent most of their time praising god and talking about the civil rights movement.

Mom bought a book and had the ladies sign it.
Jackson liked the talk too, as you can see.

We watched the Southern Miss game that evening. Needless to say - thank god for our defense.

Sunday we drove around looking for houses, ending up in Trenton for my museum's lecture.

I think we all had a great weekend.

Football stuff

I wrote this last night but forgot to post it.

It's been a while since we've posted anything. After the last 2 games, I haven't even wanted to post any Auburn football stuff. Hopefully things will change after tomorrow. To all my friends and family going to the game - have fun! I was at the last 3 games against UT in 2003 (in the luxury box with the Irelands when Junior Rosegreen (I think) had 4 interceptions against Casey Clausen (I think). Great game, but both 2004 games were better. We destroyed them in Knoxville. I remember watching the game while I was living in Tupelo, and saying to Sarah - "I've never seen us play this well". That was the 1st time I realized how good we were that year. The 2004 Champioship Game was great too. Sarah, Josh, Jon David and I drove over to Atlanta to go to the game with the Irelands. It was awesome. Maybe next year. There are so many great AU-UT pictures and videos from that year, but this will always be one of my favorite AU plays.

Gettysburg - Updated

10-7-09 Here's a new story I heard on Gettysburg: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95460483

Sarah: Jason had to drive a couple fish mounts from his museum to a taxidermist to get refurbished out in central PA (~2 hours west of us) on Tuesday and so Jackson and I decided to go along for the ride to keep Jason company. There were severe thunderstorm warnings and we drove through some pretty heavy rain. As we approached our destination, we heard the tornado sirens going off....yikes. Luckily there was no tornado...that we saw and the weather started to clear up for us. After dropping off the fish we drove another hour or so to Gettysburg but unfortunately we didn't get there until ~ 2pm which did not leave us much time to see the museum and drive around the entire park. We quickly walked around the museam and took an "old-timey" photo with Jackson. We had an audience as they were taking our picture and Jackson got a lot of attention. It was very cute. We then bought a CD of the battlefield audio tour and drove around the park. We had a great time but wished we had more time to see everything. Next time we'll have to plan to spend the entire day there. The town looked like there were some interesting little stores and places to eat and we saw a few cute Bed-and-Breakfast places.

Jason: I just wanted to add a few things. I was very impressed with the park. I was there a few years ago, but since then they've opened a new visitors center and museum. In fact, it looked like it had just opened a few days before. The museum was fantastic. I could have spent another hour or 2 in there, but unfortunately, we didn't have much time. We saw a video, then rushed through the exhibits after taking our silly photo (below). We bought a cd to guide us through the driving tour, but we had to rush through this too - we only got ~1/3 of the way through before we decided we had to get on the road - it's about a 2&1/2 hour drive from home. I don't think we can cross this park off our list until we've gone through the museum again and completed the driving tour. I'm lokoing forward to going back. Of yeah, one of the best things about this park is that it was free.

Sarah, Jackson, and Jason 1863 Gettysburg Battlefield

Great picture, Sarah!

Jackson's Recent Doctor's Visit

Well, Jackson is almost 6 weeks now. We went to the doctor on Monday for another check up. He's growing and changing so much....it's amazing! After weighing Jackson, the nurse laid him down on the examining table and just as she put him down....he christened the entire table, the mirror and me. Boy...what a mess. I really need to get one of those Pee Pee T-Pee's for him. Anyway, he now weighs 10 lbs and 13 ounces....almost 11 pounds already!!! He's also grown 2 inches since birth (now 22 inches). He's doing well and is in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.

Auburn Picture of the Week

Ok, I know I'm very late for last Saturday's picture, but we've been busy. Here you go . . .

Game Day!

Jackson is almost 5 weeks old!!!!

I can't believe he's already more than 1 month old, and he's changed so much.

Jackson always has the awesome mohawk - way better than the one Jason tried a few months ago.

"Just chillin with my homies, yo."

Labor Day Weekend in Syracuse, NY

Jackson experienced his first road trip to Syracuse, NY this past weekend. We went to go visit our friends and for Jason to go to "The Great New York State Fair". Jackson and I did not got to the fair (Jackson is still too young....maybe next year). While Ed and Jason went to the fair, Jackson and I spent the day with Jeanette and Ed's sister, Amy. Jackson was great all weekend despite his feeding and sleeping schedule being changed quite a bit. He got a lot of attention and love.

Here's Jason, Jackson, and Uncle Otto (Ed)

Jackson also experienced his first Auburn game day and was, of course, decked out in all Auburn on Saturday. He wore is new AU outfit that his uncle JD gave him....thanks JD!! By the end of the day Jackson was pooped (you'll see what I mean in the picture below).





We also took Jackson to play his first game of "Putt-Putt" or Mini-Golf" as Jeanette calls it. It was a bit difficult to "putt" with Jackson in the Bjourn but we managed. In fact, we should have won, even though we were robbed by Ed and Jeanette's faulty math.