Maryland Etc. Trip: Valley Forge and Philadelphia (3.29.24)

Dave and I are interested in wars.  We were fascinated by a visit to the Normandy beaches of World War II several years ago and we spent a week last year in Virginia and Maryland, visiting Civil  War sites such as Antietam, Harpers Ferry, Appotamatox, and Petersburg.  We have also visited a few battlegrounds of the Revolutionary War, including Ft. Ticonderoga in New York, Yorktown in Virginia, and Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts.  On March 29, 2024, we began a trip to the east coast to visit my brother, Kent, and his wife, Toshiko, in Princeton, and to visit Jared Christopher and his husband Merle, good friends who are now living in Lewes, Delaware.  On the way, we stopped at Valley Forge.  

George Washington spent the winter of 1777 to 1778 in Valley Forge, trying to shape a ragtag bunch of colonial militiamen into an army that could beat the world-renowned British regulars.  

We took a guided tour of the park and learned how hard that winter was.  There wasn't enough food or heat, and there were so many men that Valley Forge got filthy and the men got sick.  George Washington enforced cleanliness to keep the men healthy and arranged for Baron von Steuben, of the Prussian Army, to drill the soldiers.  By the time the winter was over, the American Army had the discipline and skills to stand up to the British and, eventually, to defeat them. 

 We visited George Washington's headquarters, a stone family house where thirty officers worked and slept.

Martha Washington came to spend the winter with her husband, to keep up his spirits and to help out with his men.  We were inspired by the cost of liberty memorialized by this national park.

Valley Forge is just twenty miles from Philadelphia.  When we finished with our visit to Valley Forge in mid-afternoon, I begged David to drive to Philadelphia to visit its world famous art museum.  "It's open late," I assured him.

The Philadelphia Art Museum lived up to its reputation.  It is housed in a grand building with Greek pillars, at the top of an endless number of steps.  There is a statue on the patio of the movie character "Rocky,"  who trained for his boxing match by running up and down all those steps.  On this Friday night, there was a band playing in the huge main lobby, and visitors chatted as they listened and ate snacks.

I had only an hour to visit the museum, so I limited my explorations to two types of art I adore--Medieval art and Oriental art.

There was even a Burmese chinthe!