Daniel's Story by Kate

When I went through the doors of the children’s center in the Holocaust Museum, I thought to myself prepare to be bored Kate. Well I was so totally wrong. At the time I hadn’t realized how sad and hard the years were back then and I thought it was weird not to notice that after I had read a whole book about it twice called Escape from Warsaw (it’s a really good book I recommend it to all 5^th graders!). I’m going to go back to the story, I walked through the doors and a movie popped up on a giant screen above my head it talked about Daniel’s life before the concentration camp and the Ghetto the last words were Remember my story and I did remember it well do or did, or… whatever.  I turned the corner and I saw a kitchen (obviously it was fake) with sounds of laughing children and a note with a box next to it that had artificial cookies in it with Daniel’s sister’s name on some of them. Then after that there was a window that you could open and close with before and after effects and another one next to it. When you past that it all got more intense, there was a note at every station and turns out all the notes were from his diary. It told all about getting kicked out of school having to sacrifice his favorite sport… swimming he got kicked out of there too, having to sew a yellow star on all of his jackets and writing JEW in dark black letters on the star, going to the concentration camp and the Ghetto, his mother and sister taken away and murdered getting his diary taken away (ha, funny thing he still wrote in it when it was taken away.) getting hardly any food. Well on the bright side he survived and that’s something to feel good about. Other than that it was -like I said before- sad and probably the hardest thing in life. I watched one more short movie at the end about the concentration camp and the Ghetto. You got to write a small note on these small cards (there was a little slot where you put the notes) and I ended up writing about 7 of them. I think Daniel’s story was about the only thing that didn’t creep me out at the Holocaust Museum.

All photos taken by Kate:

Daniel's sister, Erika

Erika's ID card she had to carry with her everywhere with Jewish symbol

Daniel's bed in his home in Germany

His families kitchen

Their things they took with them 

These kinds of signs were posted everywhere in the Ghetto

Writing thoughts about Daniel's story

Olivia wrote:  "You will never forgit (forget) how brave you were back then beceas (because) it is owase (always) be in your head.  Love Olivia"  What she means to say is, we will never forget what happened during the Holocaust because it will always be in our memory.

Maggie watching and learning about the Holocaust

Washington DC, Part II

We spent a packed 3 days with the Ryan's, going to as many places as we could.  Craig and Pat even got some boat projects crossed off the list.  The Ryan's generosity didn't end there!  They booked a second hotel room so ALL the girls could have a sleepover and gave Craig and I a night to ourselves.  We enjoyed that very much!!  Thanks again.

Maggie's panoramic view of the WWII Memorial

A couple of spy's.  I swore to secrecy not to reveal their true identity.

Walking around town with the Ryan's

Hangin' out on the boat

Just as soon as the Ryan family left on Sunday afternoon, a couple of Craig's partners came for a brief visit.  They were in town for the annual Anesthesia conference.  What a coincidence!

Craig's partners, John and John (and John's wife Susan)

And just as soon as they left, we had a visit from our neighbors in Seattle, whose daughter used to babysit the girls.  They are incidentally doing what we are, but in their RV, and our paths happened to cross in DC.  How cool is that!

Joyce and Ernie

The BEP was so cool, watching money being printed

Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian Castle

Street performer

Washington DC

Another fun filled week of sightseeing and good friends.  As we rounded the last curve of the Potomac River we caught site of the Washington Memorial and the Nations Capitol off in the distance.  We motored past Fort Washington and then under the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.  The sun was bright and the air was crisp.  We pulled into the Capital Yacht Club, topped off our water tank and hosed her down before dropping the hook in the anchorage.  The CYC could not have been friendlier, giving us a tour of their facilities that included free showers, 5 washers and dryers and a bar!  DC and all the sights were conveniently located within a half a mile from where we were parked.  Awesome!

The following day we were greeted by our friends, the Ryan's, from Nashville.  Pat and Susan have twin girls, Ava and Ingrid, that are only a couple of months younger than Kate.  Pat and Craig were roommates during undergrad.  We had soooo much fun playing in DC and spending quality time with the Ryan's.

Ingrid, Kate, Ava

Walking to our first museum

Looking in one direction down the mall toward the Capitol

Looking the other direction toward the Washington Monument.  We were a bit disappointed with the shabby state of the grass on the mall.  It was not as green and lush as we anticipated!  

Museum of Natural History

The White House.  It seems everyone received the memo to wear pink!

A view of the back yard without the bars

The front yard

Pat, Ava, Ingrid and Susan

Eatin' dinner on the boat

The Jefferson Memorial

The Washington Monument

The Capitol - view from the top of the Old Post Office building tower

"The Spy Trio" (visited the International Spy Museum)

A nighttime view

Having fun on the carousel

The Lincoln Memorial beyond the Reflecting Pool and the WWII Memorial in the fore front

WWII Memorial - Seattle, Washington is where all 3 were born

Craig's home state of Michigan.  Each state had 2 wreaths, one on each side for contributing to the war effort.  One wreath was made of wheat and the other bay leaves.

Abraham Lincoln sits 19 feet tall and 29 feet if he were to stand (as if that would happen).  

Attentively listening on our free DC on Foot tour

The Vietnam War Memorial

The Korean War Memorial - the 19 soldiers in this field are reflected in the black granite wall (next picture) to make a total of 38 soldiers that represent the 38 months they were at war.

The black granite wall with sand blasted images of soldiers and people impacted by the war.

Pat reading Lincoln's inaugural speech engraved on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial

Ok, folks, blogspot has informed me that I have reached the max for pictures.  I have used up my free 1 GB of space.  Now I have to choose between paying for more space or switching to some other format.  I am thinking about converting our bloodspot to an actual web page.  Please stay tuned for an update and more pictures of Washington DC......