SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE FARM
Old farms hold a certain charm...and smell! I really enjoyed the cows and pigs at this farm, each animal had its own personality.  Two little piglets left the others and ran far away from the barn.  Neither one liked his picture taken and when I tried, they ran like crazy back to the barn which was no easy task -- they darted between the cow hooves, under a fence, around another dozen cow hooves and then under another fence and into a small hole in the barn.  All this took about 6 seconds!  I guess pigs are smarter than you would think. The cows were actually smarter than you would think also -- each one knew exactly which stanchion to go into at feeding time.  When the barn door was open, each marched in, looked left, right and then walked right to their proper feeding station.  It was actually very impressive.  Hope you enjoy viewing the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

TWIN ELMS FARM
Saturday morning, a bunch of us got together to go "shooting".  A friend knew of an old farm in Wassaic that has several old barns and "tons" of abandoned machinery scattered about the fields.  Oh yeah, and lots of COWS...my favorite!

Can you guess what this cow was doing?   

And this one appeared to be playing hide-n-seek...

I think this guy took a wrong turn somewhere!

WASSAIC, NY
Wassaic is a hamlet of Amenia, NY.  In the early morning hours on Saturday, April 7th, we met a friend in Wassaic as this was a good meeting place that was central to everyone.  We arrived early, about 6:50am only to find our photographer friend was already there; however, the sky was very flat...we didn't get the fog or early morning sunshine we were hoping for.  We wandered around the streets and came across this old house.  It is across the street from the old Borden's Eagle Brand Condensed Milk factory.  Wassaic is an old town which has many buildings that are in this condition.

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Our national cemetery is 624 acres and shelters the remains of over 320,000 servicemen and women, veterans from every war and major conflict in US history.  The Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers was established in 1921 and has become a memorial icon.  When we were there, the changing of the guard ceremony was held every 30 minutes.  A sentinel maintains vigil around the clock.  The sentinel paces 21 steps alongside the tomb, pauses 21 seconds, then returns.

The cemetery is meticulously maintained and contains many types of trees and vegetation.  This is the one area in DC where the Cherry Blossoms were still in full bloom.

WASHINGTON DC - WAR MEMORIALS
Sometimes a "picture is worth a thousand words"...each of the war memorials on the National Mall were unique and VERY MOVING.  The memorials below represent the Vietnam War, Korean War and WWII. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue commemorating the Vietnam War.  The statue's three men are purposely identifiable as Caucasian, African American and Hispanic. These three figures were based on three actual young men who served.

WASHINGTON DC - U.S. BOTANICAL GARDENS
The US Botanical Gardens had some amazing plants.  I don't remember the name of any of them but they were truly unique.  More than 200 years ago, George Washington had a vision for the capital city of the United States that included a botanic garden financed by Congress that would demonstrate and promote the importance of plants to our nation.  The gardens were established in 1821 and currently has about 26,000 plants.  

WASHINGTON DC - MONUMENTS

On my trip to Washington, DC this past weekend, I got the opportunity to visit many of our countries government buildings and presidential monuments. We stayed in what is called "Foggy Bottom" which was only minutes from the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.  The architecture of the buildings is awesome(!) and the history is amazing.  The sheer size of some of the government buildings was unbelievable.  Enjoy the "tour"...