The Baumgaertel Family East Coast Trip

In August of 2005 we flew to Newark, New Jersey, and rented a mini-van to drive to Princeton to see my oldest daughter who was finishing an internship.

I am grateful for those families who are missionaries or for those who go on mission trips instead of vacations. I respect various different convictions people may have about such priorities. I pray that our family trip was more than a vacation and that our Lord would bring fruit from who we talked to and what we saw and learned.

There were many things we observed that provoked me to examine the complexities of being in the world but not of the world.

Obelisks, Pyramids, Skyscrapers, Roman & Greek Temples

• Princeton, NJ: 
  Nassau Inn, Nassau Hall
  John Witherspoon statue: President of Princeton, The only clergyman and only college president to sign the Declaration of Independence. Presbyterian. James Madison and Aaron Burr were among his students.
  Princeton University Chapel
  Einstein’s House
  “Beautiful Mind” setting
  Cemetery including Aaron Burr
  Princeton Theological Seminary

• New York City, NY: 
  Strawberry Fields Memorial The Obelisk: “Cleopatra’s Needle” in Central Park behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Obelisks – A Wikipedia Article
  Simon Bolivar Monument
  Lincoln Center
  Columbus Circle
  Empire State Building
  WTC Site – Ground Zero
  Trinity Church building & Cemetery including Alexander Hamilton
  Wall Street & NYSE
  Federal Hall site where George Washington took his oath of office as the first President
  Fraunce’s Tavern site of George Washington’s farewell to his officers
  Battery Park and view of Statue of Liberty
  United Nations
  St. Patrick’s Cathedral
  Rockefeller Center & Prometheus statue
  Times Square
  Phantom of the Opera

• Philadelphia, PA: 
  Liberty Bell
  Independence Hall

• Lancaster County, PA: 
  home to Amish & Mennonites, both of Anabaptist heritage

• Gettysburg, PA: 
  The Battlefield: Seminary Ridge, Cemetery Ridge
  The site of Lincoln’s Address: “Four Score and seven years ago…”

• Mount Vernon, VA: 
  The home: Key to the Bastille from Lafayette, bust of John Paul Jones
  The tomb

• Washington, DC: 
  White House
  Lafayette Square
  Organization of American States
  Washington Monument: An obelisk
  Lincoln Memorial: The Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural Address
  Smithsonian Air & Space Museum: The Spirit of St. Louis
  American History Museum: Start Spangled Banner
  Natural History Museum: Hope Diamond
  Capitol Building:  The Apotheosis of Washington painted fresco on the dome ceiling.
  Library of Congress
  Supreme Court
  National Archives: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights
  National Art Gallery:  Ginevra de’ Benci by Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper by Salvador Dali
  Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

• Annapolis, MD: 
  The town
  The Naval Academy: Bancroft Hall, Chapel and Crypt of John Paul Jones

• Williamsburg, VA: 
  Governor’s Palace
  The Capitol: House of Burgesses – Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington
  Raleigh Tavern
  Bruton Parish Episcopal Church building: George Washington’s pew

• Jamestown, VA: 
  First permanent English settlement: John Smith, Pocahontas
  Church building tower

• Yorktown, VA:
  The Battlefield: The cannon and Lafayette
  The town

• Virginia Beach, VA: 
  Atlantic Ocean

• Dulles Airport, VA: 
  Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
  The Flight Home – Brother in Christ from Auburn who’s son is at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg , PA on “Seminary Ridge”.