The Merry Marsden Travels

Tuesday, November 8/11 Sunny 67 degrees Metr o to L"Enfant Plaza and walked over to Capital Building and did 9 AM tour. Beautiful building - incredible tower. Had very knowledgeable tour guide - older woman from Pennsylvannia who treated our group of 20 like she was a sargeant major - but in a nice way. Then back down the street to the National Botanical Garden Greenhouse and Gardens. Blitzed the Museum of the American Indian and enjoyed the temporary exhibit there entitled "A Song of the Horse Nation". It is a beautiful new building on The Mall shaped like a Southwestern Mesa. Walked over to Union Station for lunch in the Food Court ther e. Toured National Postal Museum after lunch and heard about the Pony Express and Owney the Postal Dog- now stuffed there. Interesting place. Then back to Th e Mall and visited the National Archives - to see the original Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Next stop was the Natural History Museum -...

Time to catch up again. What have we been doing for the last 10 days? Just enjoying the Texas sunshine. Last Wednesday we did meet our friend Thery King and her cousin Wanda for a lovely lunch at Pirate's Landing in Port Isabel. Last night we played "Night Golf" - a scramble with glow in the dark balls - it was fun with 45 people out. Sorry to say cousin Don and Maureen left this morning for Winnipeg and we will miss their company here at Trophy Gardens. Today I was off on an adventure to King Ranch - a 2 hour bus trip north of us. The King Ranch is the largest family owned ranch in Texas - 825,000 acres. I wanted to tour this ranch because we have a Ford "King Ranch" pick-up truck and have passed the ranch on our way to the Rio Grande Valley for 2 winters now. So here is some info on the King Ranch. Captain Richard King (1824-1885) , a Rio Grande Steamboat Captain bought 2 Spanish land grants on the Santa Gertrudis Creek and founded the legendary King Ranch i...