Honor Flight

On July 25th, I was privileged to escort three World War II veterans on a visit to Washington, DC. Honor Flight is a volunteer-staffed organization whose mission is to safely provide an escorted visit for World War II veterans to visit the memorials in our Nation's Capitol. These veterans are the reason the United States continues to be a free country. The memorials were earned by the valor and blood of these men and women and it was a moving experience to be with them on their visit.

Read about Honor Flight at: http://www.honorflight.org/.

After breakfast at the airport, we left Columbus, OH and arrived at Baltimore-Washington airport in Maryland where we were met by soldiers and volunteers who assisted us from the arrival gate to our bus.

Our bus driver, Campbell "Soup" volunteers to drive the chartered bus each time Honor Flight veterans travel to Washington. Campbell does his best to make the trip from BWI to Washington, DC a pleasant experience for veterans and volunteers.

The first stop on each visit is always the World War II National Memorial on the Mall. It was the first time I had visited the Memorial and it's every bit as impressive as I'd heard. We were met by more volunteers who are always there when the Honor Flight veterans arrive. Senator Bob Dole is always there to meet the Honor Flight veterans. However, since he was recovering from surgery and unable to be there, Elizabeth Dole came in his place. It was an unexpected pleasure to meet her and she was gracious and warm to each of the veterans, spending most of the time we were at the memorial with the veterans.

Mlore to follow...........................

Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival

Each year we make a pilgrimage to Mystic Seaport, Mystic CT. This year was no exception and we spent a great weekend (June 11-14) at the museum with friends we don't see often enough. The main event that attracts us is "sea music." What's "sea music" you rightly ask? If you Google it, here's where you go: http://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=C9BE0FCF-D86E-382C-FA65352B6393646D. We don't think that link really gives a complete picture of the event, so here's another link where you can find photos of the performers and much more about the museum: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mysticseaportseamusicfestival2008/. We were going to include some of our own photos here, but there are so many on the last link and so much better than ours, we don't need to add any of our own.

Each day there are scheduled performances and after that day's scheduled events, there is a "Pub Sing" that sometimes goes on into the early hours of the following morning with "open microphones" (figuratively speaking since real sea shantymen (and women) don't need microphones!). The formal events end on Sunday evening and the survivors end up in Groton, CT at the Griswold Inn for a "Survivor's Night" of one last round of shantying before we all depart for the eight points of the compass.

Next year we'll be back for more!