Scenes From a Vacation Day

[tiggerallyn]

On Thursday, I took a vacation day and went to Washington, DC. The Washington Nationals were having Pet Day - with a special ticket, you received a 2015 calendar of the Nationals players and their pets, you could participate in a pre-game petting zoo, and part of the cost of the ticket went to the local humane society

Comments

[scarfman]

Is there a reason your great-great-grandfather's grave is unmarked? Also the obvious question: when it's unmarked, how do you know whose it is?

[tiggerallyn]

To the first question, I assume the Gardners didn't have much, if any money, when he died, hence no headstone. I believe there are a number of unmarked graves there.

To the second, Congressional Cemetery's website has a comprehensive guide to who's buried where, and the maps for the cemetery indicate a grid system. So I learned the grid coordinates for my great-great-grandfather and his first wife (who I am not descended from). The first time I went, I went to the right general area, but I didn't know his grave was unmarked. For the second visit, I poured through the index of who's buried where and made myself a map of who all should be in that area, and I used that map to pinpoint his exact spot based on who is marked and who is not. Now I'm as confident as I can be that I know where he is.

I doubt I could find his second wife, my great-great-grandmother. She's in a different cemetery entirely (in Baltimore), they don't have a guide to who's buried where, and as far as I can tell (thanks to Find a Grave) she is also unmarked.

[pseudohistorian]

This was cool to read over...it made me nostalgic for my one visit to the Mall, though Air & Space is the only Smithsonian museum I went to on that occasion. :}

I had no idea any branch of the US military had an official rock band! I imagine they play "Danger Zone" a lot?

[tiggerallyn]

I'm trying to think of the last time I went to Air & Space. Probably 2011. It's just a pain to get in there.

The Air Force has several different bands. There's the jazz band, Airmen of Note. And there's their Celtic folk band, Celtic Aire. They have a brass band, a concert orchestra, an a capella group, and one or two more. I think the other branches have their own bands, too.

As for Max Impact, they didn't play "Danger Zone" during the set I saw. It was only half an hour, and they stuck to older material. Like 60s material. They got in, I think, about five songs.