President Warren G. Harding, Memorial, Home, and Library (Ohio Road Trip, Marion, Ohio...part I)

President Warren G. Harding

• Born Nov 2, 1865 Blooming Grove, Ohio
• Moved to Caledonia, Ohio
• Moved to Marion, Ohio
• Attended Village Schools
• Purchased the bankrupt Marion Star newspaper with 2 friends when 19 yrs old.
• Owened the paper he turned around for 40 years after buying out his friends.
• Married  Divorced Florence Kling DeWolfe July 8th 1891
• Became involved in politics is 1900
• Served 2 terms in the Ohio Senate
• Serveds at Lt. Governor of Ohio
• Served in The US Senate in 1914
• Won the ballot to be the Republican Presidential Candiate at the 1920 convention with Calvin Coolidge as his running mate, ran against Ohio's Democratic Governor, James Cox and FDR
• Served as President for 29 months, died in San Francisco from a heart attack
• 600,000 people came to hear him speak in his front porch campaign, which was ONLY 3 months long.
• Transistioned the country from WWI to peacetime
• Created The Veterans Bureau
• Created The Bureau of Budget, and was the first President to present a budge to congress

These 12 plagues are loaded with information about the President and is wife Florence, above are just a few of the highlights in bullet points. (I've cropped and posted each plaque separately in order so that you can read them, remember to click to enlarge the pictures to aid your efforts.)

These plagues are posted in order as you walk the circle to read them...and yes, they had raindrops on them while we were there.  The plagues are centered in the walk way down the steps from the beautiful momument.

I actually forgot to get a picture of momument while there, so this is a copy from their website.(on a non raining day, lol)

The inside of round momument.  Notice the tree to the right of the gravestones.  President Harding wanted to be buried under an open sky...thus the non inclosed memorial, and next to a tree.  When I was a child living there in Marion, there was a much larger tree that stood inside the memorial for many years.  However, it was hit by lightening and removed and replaced.

A close up of the stones.  The Memorial is located at 898 Delaware Avenue, Marion, Ohio.  There are two parking areas, and admission is free to the public.

Continuing on around the 2nd half of circle of plagues.

These words are from his March 4th, 1921 Inaugural speech, and quite interesting.  In case you can't read them from the plaque (though remember you can click any picture to enlarge):

Trump was obviously NOT the first to say American first, and Kennedy perhaps borrowed some sentiment from Hardings speech?

"In the great fulfillment, we must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation."

President Harding's Home is located at 380 Delaware Avenue and is opened for tours from 9 am til 5pm, most days.  Tours start at 10:00 am and are on the top of each hour.  Tours are limited to 10 people at a time, tickets are required.  Our senior rate would have been 15.00 each, but due to our membership in The Ohio History Connection (previousl known as Ohio Historical Society), our admission was free.  This is a map of the grounds showing the Press House, Christian Home, and The Harding House.

The Christian Home

The side of the Harding Home, showing the porch which is the front of the house.  I wasn't able to get a front view as traffic on the road was too heavy to get across the street to do so.  Picture are NOT permitted inside, as most of furnishings are originals.

The Presidential Library and museum is located at 355 E. Church Street, this property is right behind the Home, and is where you check in and park.  Entrance to the library and museum is included with your ticket and well worth the time.  There is also a gift shop inside.  This is their picture from the website, another photo I forgot to snap.

The state of Ohio ones and operates the Memorial, Home and Library.  The state has owned The Memorial and Home since 1978, and the library was built in 2021.

**This is a bit long, but there was so much to see.  Stayed tuned, there will be additional posts from my Road Trip to Marion to follow.

France, The Tour That Wasn't, Part II

To recap, if you missed my previous post...We were suppose to be on a tour in France when Covid struck.  So while we were in France,  NOT  on our tour we were in isolation in our hotel room and this was our standard fare.  Room service with wonderful baquets, french cheeses and meats with wine of course.

Once back in Paris (in order to fly out after isolation), we lucked out...finally something went our way.  Our Marriott was at the airport, but right next to the airport was Roissy-en-France.  A commune in the NE subburd of Paris with a population of 2,883.  Part of the Charles De Gaulle Airport (formerly known as Roissy Airport), is on property that was part of the commune.  This little historic village was within walking distance to the Airport Marriott.

Through out the village, you see historic pictures next to buildings showing you what it looked like back then.  This is The Church Eglise Saint - Eloi.  Then and now.

At least we were able to get outside and go for a walk staying well away from people and masked.  (Though I took my mask off for the picture, you can see me holding it).  Cobblestone walk ways, cute little houses with painted shutters, and a fair number of cafe's dotted this little commune.

As we made our way back to our hotel it was getting dusk out and all the lights in the village were coming on.

If you're on your way to or from other sights in France, do yourself a favor and stay a night at the Airport Marriott so you can spend an evening in this historic quaint little village.  Unlike us though, stop and eat in one of the cafe's, they all looked so inviting, and presumable you won't be isolating due to Covid.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

France, The Tour That Wasn't

A round about just half a block away from our hotel, Novotel Chateau de Versailles.  We didn't make it across the street to read the inscription to know what the momument is.  But it was quite large and intresting.  We took a quick snap with our phones in between car traffic.

One view of Versailles.  On day one of our arrival to Versailles after a 45 minute car ride from the airport (Charles De Gaulle) in Paris, we went walking just to explore.  Versaille was just a couple of blocks from our hotel.  We arrived just as they were locking the gate as the inside tours were done for the day.  We were ok with that as we would be touring this with the tour group later.  We arrived a day earlier than the tour to have extra time to adjust, and recoup after the long flight.  So we were able to see the outside.  Even in this one picture, you can tell how large and grande it is, and that rehad is in process.  After all, it was re-built by King Louis XIII, back in 1631...or at least that's when he started with his grand plan.

We continued to walk around and explore looking for a little cafe for an early dinner.  The little patio area where the green awning is attracted us.  We had a couple of glasses of wine and a lovely light dinner as we enjoyed the good weather.  We chatted about what we would do the next day before meeting up with the tour director and the group.  We planned an early dinner, walk back to the hotel and have a nightcap at the hotel bar before calling it a night.

Covid had other plans for us!  Had we met up with the tour group the next day we would have had wine and gotten to know the group and director, and then headed to our first savory French dinner.  The following day we would tour the private apartments of King Louis XIV, The Sun King.  We would have seen the Hall of Mirrors and opulent bedchamber of the queen.  That evening we would have viewed the Royal Gardens of Versailles with a twilight promenade and enjoyed the Baroque fountains.

As the tour group continued on their merry way, we spent 5 days of isolation in a hotel room, scrambling to make alternative flight arrangements to return home once the isolation period was over.

The tour was through Collette, a 12 day tour, "France Magnifique" using Marriott Vacation Club Points.  We added a day in front of the tour and 2 days after.  Now we wait to hear back from the travel insurance folks in hopes of getting our money back.  I might add this tour was apparently doomed from the start, as it had been scheduled 5 different times thanks to Covid.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Appomattox, The Battle, The Village, The Surrender

There are many momento's, older photo's and signs filled with wonderful informtion about Appomattox.  A very historic time for our country.  A long battle,  Robert E. Lee's surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9th, 1865 at The McLean House.

This post may be a bit photo heavy, but I hope you'll enjoy the photo's.

Please click on the pictures to read the details.

These printing presses printed parole passes for all the Confederates to allow them safe passage home.  These passes also entitled them to free passage on any Federally owned Railroad or steamship to help them return home quicker and safer.  Additionally it allowed them to draw rations from The Federal Government they had broken from and fought.  Grant was extremely  leniant with the enemy.  The passes were printed and hung on the line to dry and distributed.

There were 700 total casualities for both sides.  There were 27,805 paroled Confederates the day Lee surrendered; but while this surrender took place on April 9th, 1865; it was NOT the end of the fighting.  Surrenders continued into the month of May from other Confederates.

Mother Daughter Travels and Yarn

Darling Daughter and I almost always start our week together with a massage (and no pictures for sure), and a mani-pedi.  In the previous post you can see the fun we had with trying new recipes and our really lovely Airbnb.

In between tasting bourbons, we sought out a favorite thing for both of us...a yarn shop.

Look how cute the shop is.  Was in a small little house in a residential neighborhood, painted  pink and green.

ReBelle (click for their webpageJ)

Located at 225 Rosemont Garden, Lexington, KY  40503  859-389-9750.  They are closed on Mondays.  Tuesday - Friday  open 11 am to 5 pm, Sat 10-4, and Sunday 12-4.  They are the ONLY yarn shop around the area.  It's about an hour from our Airbnb in Danville, Kentucky to the yarn shop; and well worth the drive.  

437 yards of wonderful Heritage Silk (the pink/rose), and 435 yards of hand dyed self striping variegated yarn jumped into my hand and a lovely handmade wooden shawl pin.

And 420 yards of Craft The Park (Grand Portage National Monument colorway).  The cards flip side is like a bingo game where you can fill in your park yarn purchases.  I haven't been to Grand Portage, choose it for colors.

As well as things you've done while on vacation connected to being outside and or knitting.  These were my purchases, didn't get pictures of Darling Daughters purchases; but they were far greater than mine.  To be fair,  my stash is much larger than hers so she was stocking up a bit.  We love buying yarn while we travel as souvenirs.  AND, each of us have lost our favorite yarn shops at home.

Yes we were in Bourbon Trail Country; but there are other things to do as well; besides you can't drink Bourbon all day long.   Next post will be about Bourbon and one of the distilleries we toured, stay tuned.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.

Quality Mother Daughter Time, Danville, Kentucky

Darling Daughter and I had a Mother Daughter week.  We rented an Airbnb in Danville, Kentucky (part of the Bourbon Trail area).  We really had fun picking out our house and were very pleased with it.  I would love to have known how old the house was, but look at some of the details...the flooring, the woodworking throughout.  We did lots of knitting here in the living room.

The furnishings were all antiques which added to the feel of the place.

The kitchen was well appointed, giving us the ability to have fun cooking together.  We had selected a handful of new recipes to try and that added to the fun.

Even the bathroom had the antique feel.

Two nice sized bedrooms with comfortable queen beds.  This was my room.

This was my Darling Daughters Room.

Night one

Night 2 or 3, can't remember which.

This was nice and refreshing on a hot day.

Don't know which night this was either, lol.  

Our last night.  I seem to be missing a few pictures.  Darn

**We toured Bourbon Distilleries

***We tasted Bourbon, and bought Bourbon

****We found a yarn shop

*****We knitted

******We cooked

Stay tuned for more of our trip to Bourbon Country!

Danville is a nice small town with a pretty university, lots of history, and right on the Bourbon Trail.  Check it out.  It also has a nice selection of Airbnb of varying sizes to accommodate different sized groups.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your google+ profile link or your blogger profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit. Profile pages do not.