Category Archives: American history

First, the Old Business Found another set of pictures with no post to describe them. This time, I traveled to the Living History Farms in Urbandale, a suburb of Des Moines, with my new student host daughter for a rally during President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign for his second term in office. I wanted my host daughter to experience this great American event as part of her time studying in the United States. The young woman was from China, and I wanted her to observe a part of the election process and to see the president in person. One of the nice things about being in Iowa was that candidates for president, even incumbents, made it their business to visit the state regularly, so this was not the first time I had attended an Obama event. In fact, I was at his first visit to Grinnell College in 2008. Even…

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The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is the DMV’s most popular tourist site, so I waited until the summer ended to visit in the hope that the museum would be less crowded. Plus, October 28th was a Monday, which I hoped would further reduce the number of folks there. I ordered a free admision ticket online, which was still required to help control the flow of traffic inside Air and Space was under construction. Portions of the facilities were closed to the public. Still, what was available was very interesting, proving why the museum was so popular. I am a North Carolina native, so the display of the 1903 first flight by brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright was of particular interest to me. The museum used graphic displays and real, full-sized airplanes, satellites, and spaceships to tell the history of flight. I’m going to let the pictures tell the…

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