Category: Travel Stories

Mostly these are written for friends and family.

Hillwood Estate in Northwest DC

by philg

Marjorie Merriweather Post famously built Mar-a-Lago, but lived in that modest $18 million (value used by New York judge) shack only during “the Palm Beach season”. She lived in Northwest Washington, D.C. during the spring and fall and in the Adirondacks during the summer. Her DC place, cozy by Mar-a-Lago standards, opened as a museum in 1977 and somehow I missed it while growing up in Bethesda, Maryland. My excuses: I started working full-time at NASA (on Pioneer Venus in 1978); I was too young to drive; the museum is nowhere near the Metro; despite high crime rates, Jimmy Carter wouldn’t send the National Guard into the city (he was too busy appeasing the Ayatollahs).

Ms. Post loved dogs, decorative art, orchids, Japanese gardens, and aviation (her private four-engine turboprop Vickers Viscount ferried everything but the gardens with her among the three estates).

The Museum costs $20/adult, but it is free for federal government workers suffering the trauma of receiving 100 percent pay for 0 percent work:

Like most other American museums, it’s also free for those wise enough to refrain from work (see How to get free museum admissions for life: sign up for food stamps (SNAP/EBT)):

… offering free admission to those receiving SNAP benefits. Present your EBT card upon check in at the visitor center. and receive complimentary entry for 4 guests.

Ms, Post was apparently prescient regarding the kind of society that the U.S. would one day become. A sculpture on the outside of her mansion shows a youth with a swan:

ABC (“Three of four suspects were apprehended” but, as far as I can tell from searching, our noble media never updated us regarding the names or backgrounds of any of the suspects):

The “mansion” itself is unremarkable compared to Mar-a-Lago and, but the contents and gardens are spectacular. A hillside Japanese garden is small, but awesome, and contains some of the stone lanterns that are virtually impossible for consumers to buy today (cheap cast concrete versions are available):

Ms. Post loved her dogs and built a cemetery for them, as well as for the departed canines belonging to family and staff members, on the estate grounds:

Ms. Post built a greenhouse for her orchids (note the modest Islamic dress; in any group of people in Washington, D.C. in October 2025 there was typically at least one person wearing hijab or abaya and at least one person wearing a COVID-19 mask (both indoors and out)):

Some fake iOS background blurring:

The interior is jammed with interesting objects so it is impossible to do justice to them. There are a couple of Fabergé eggs (maybe Optimus can make replicas of these for all of us?):

Here’s an idea of how much there is to see in the “icon room”:

Ms. Post collected a ton of figurines that included dogs. A few examples:

Homage to the highest tech devices of the day:

A couple of personal favorites:

Let’s exist through the COVID-19-safe gift shop:

As far as I can tell, 100 percent of the objects in the museum and estate were made either by East Asians or white Europeans. Ms. Post’s prime years coincided with an almost complete shutdown of immigration to the U.S. Nonetheless, the gift shop reminds us that we should celebration immigration/diversity:

We are informed by Science that there are at least 74 gender IDs, but most of the books for sale celebrate the achievements of people who identified with 1 out of 74:

I wonder if today’s insanely rich people, who are far richer than Marjorie Merriweather Post ever was, will one day leave us beautiful estates in which to wander. It doesn’t seem as though we’re going to get this, though. When Bill Gates sends $200 billion to Africa, for example, it doesn’t even leave a lasting mark on Africa (there are more needy Africans today than ever before, I think). So let’s raise a plastic glass before we eat our Costco ramen to the woman who left Americans this evidence of what the dining experience used to be:

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A visit to Providence, Rhode Island (Part 2)

by philg

I want our kids to appreciate Playstation 9 when they’re adults and, thus, I take them to art museums whenever we travel. The Rhode Island School of Design Museum is a decent-sized crowd-free museum in which the art can actually be appreciated. We learned that the ubiquitous Dale Chihuly is a RISD graduate and former teacher:

We also learned about queer knitting and queer resistance:

And that one could get academic credit for taking a course titled “Queer People/Places/Things”:

At the subscription library Providence Athenaeum we found a database #Resisting computerized management:

One lonely storefront clung to the five-year-old theory that Black Lives Matter:

All of the other churches and shops that we found with social justice messages were consistent with Is LGBTQIA the most popular social justice cause because it does not require giving money?

An Episcopal church associates the sacred Rainbow Flag with a quote from Jesus: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Is the implication that Jesus went to the bathhouse regularly? If not, how is a practitioner of Rainbow Flagism loving his 25 or 50 new friends the way that Jesus loved people?

A United Church of Christ:

The First Baptist Church mixes Rainbow Flagism with cautionary words about the dictator in the White House: “Speech Remains Free When We Pay Attention”. The folks who supported forced vaccination and forced masking celebrate #BodilyFreedomForever:

Rainbow-first retail was on display in the 25-year-old Providence Place mall, now in receivership.

My favorite store, however, was Craftland (downtown; featured in the New York Times, as noted below):

(They admit that the land they’re on is stolen, but won’t pay rent to the Native Americans who are the rightful owners?)

And, of course, it all comes back to Queers for Palestine:

A few more photos of this shop’s windows:

Related:

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A visit to Providence, Rhode Island (Part 1)

by philg

I visited Providence, Rhode Island to check in with a professor at Brown and to torture our 10-year-old with some art museums.

The highlight of the visit was the massive liberation of previously sequestered carbon on Saturday, September 27 via Waterfire.

Here is some of the wood set up and also one of Elizabeth Warren’s cousins paddling in a dugout canoe:

While there we learned that cherished American liberty has been replaced by the cruel tyrannical rule of a king. Also, there is no urgency about protesting the situation and we can endure three additional weeks of tyranny before holding a “No Kings” march:

It’s important to “fight Trumps fascism”, but only one day out of every 14:

While living under fascism don’t forget to also help support Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by feeding every Gazan fighters’ kids:

The RISD Museum’s Charity, circa 1550, reminds us that we will never run out of resources if we promise to fund an unlimited number of other people’s children:

The officials who work in the State House want to remind you to (1) use all of your federal EBT/SNAP benefits, and (2) adopt a pit bull.

The 10-year-old caught a break when we spent the afternoon at the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum, about 12 minutes north in Pawtucket. It’s an all-white group of people embedded in an all-Black neighborhood of, I think, Cape Verdean migrants enjoying a comprehensive welfare lifestyle. Here’s a thoughtful exploration of AANHPI cultural heritage and also a machine with an Elizabeth Warren theme:

What’s on the mind of Brown students? Free Palestine and Boycott Israel; Fight Against Fascism; organize a bbq restricted to students with one skin color; go on vacation with fellow students of one skin color.

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Amtrak Acela ride from New York to Boston

by philg

Amtrak is spending $2.5 billion of your tax dollars on “NextGen” Acela train sets. Here’s a report on an August 2025 trip via OldGen Acela.

My $275 first class ticket from New York to Boston entitled me to use the Metropolitan Lounge at New York’s Penn Station, now named after Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal in his time and a reactionary conservative by the standards of today’s Democratic Party. In his 1965 report, for example, he seems to be engaging in victim-blaming:

The percent of nonwhite families headed by a female is more than double the percent for whites. Fatherless nonwhite families increased by a sixth between 1950 and 1960, but held constant for white families. It has been estimated that only a minority of Negro children reach the age of 18 having lived all their lives with both of their parents. …The Breakdown of the Negro Family Has Led to a Startling Increase in Welfare Dependency.

(Little did he imagine that white Americans would be incented to catch up to their Black brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters by the Family Support Act of 1988, which required states to set up child support formulae such that family court lawsuits would have a guaranteed minimum profit.)

Here’s the view from the lounge’s balcony:

The interior of the lounge, which offers free sandwiches, salads, chips, non-alcoholic drinks, etc.:

Due to the lack of crowding and the friendliness of the employees, this lounge is 20X nicer than what the airline lounges have become. Working WiFi was provided for those who want to sit with their laptops.

Separately, the lounge has a good view of the main hall’s video wall in which the New York City government promises to hire, and then retain forever (“strong labor protections”), anyone fired by the federal government for laziness and/or incompetence:

My initial Facebook post about the trip:

Just leaving Penn Station on time via Acela. Great crew on AMTRAK. The train itself bucks and bumps so much that they should have announcements in Mandarin to reassure our Chinese brothers and sisters that a derailment isn’t imminent (high-speed rail in China is perfectly smooth even above 200 mph). Maybe the idea is that everyone will be too plastered to notice?

The food in the lounge, though simpler, was generally superior.

Some hard-working guys:

My follow-up comments to the Facebook post, not in quote style for readability…

Cars and trucks were blowing past us on I-95, but now I think we’re matching their speed.

We’re in the middle of a one-hour run to New Haven. The iPhone reports a blistering speed.

we’ve cut back to a speed where we won’t have to adjust our watches for time dilation under Mileva Marić’s theory of special relativity (popularized by her husband).

Wifi doesn’t work. AMTRAK needs to adopt Starlink! [The new $2.5 billion cars won’t have Starlink, but “5G” (same idea as what the old cars have and that didn’t work for my trip.]

Our AI overlords have access to data showing that I’m on a train track and moving at 30-60 mph. Also it is time to point out that an AirTag is moving with me on the same track. Maybe this would be a useful warning for someone who owned a private rail car attached to the back of an AMTRAK train?

Approaching Westerly, CT at left lane pickup truck speed on I-95 in South Florida.

15 minutes before Providence we hit 150 mph:

Arrived on time at South Station, just under four hours after leaving Penn Station. Perfect no-waiting connection to the Red Line. Got to the Harvard Square apartment at almost exactly the same as Google Maps had predicted for leaving Penn Station at 6:30 pm by car.

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Wright Brothers, 2SLGBTQQIA+, and Islam in Dayton, Ohio

by philg

We visited Dayton, Ohio on the way to Oshkosh this year, primarily to see the USAF Museum (see previous posts) but also to visit some of the Wright Brothers historical sites.

The place where the Wright Brothers did some of their earliest work in aeronautical engineering is preserved to some extent by the National Park Service, their final bicycle shop building having been purchased by Henry Ford and moved to Greenfield Village in the Islamic Republic of Dearborn, Michigan (represented in Congress by Rashida Tlaib). The sidewalk celebrates the Wright Brothers as well as the equally important Phyllis G. Bolds:

The museum celebrates the two Wright Brothers on equal footing with their friend Paul Dunbar (or maybe Paul Dunbar is 2X as important as either Orville or Wilbur individually since it is the “Wright-Dunbar Center” rather than the “Wright-Dunbar-Wright Center”?).

The Feds remind us not to forget Alice Dunbar Nelson, Paul Dunbar’s widow:

Here’s the neighborhood; note the $200,000+ G-Wagon in a city not famous for economic vibrance.

You can live in a brand-new (except for the shell?) 2BR, 3Ba condo in the neighborhood for about the same cost as the G-Wagon that was driving by.

Dayton is enriched by migrants according to an official city web page:

The city notes that “Between 2014 and 2019, the total population in the City of Dayton decreased by 0.2% while the immigrant population increased by +25.9% during the same time period.” In other words, the native-born population is shrinking while the migrant population is growing and, of course, it would be inaccurate to refer to this as a “replacement”.

After spending some time in a few of these Rust Belt cities I’ve come to the conclusion that the politicians who run them are passionate about immigrants because most of the native-born Americans who habitually work and pay taxes have moved to other parts of the country. The politicians hope that immigrants won’t be quick to figure out that the U.S. is a work-optional society and that these folks will pay taxes to replace the tax base lost to North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. If the immigrants choose to refrain from work, on the other hand, the Rust Belt city can still thrive via the federal cash infusion of Medicaid, Section 8, and other programs (it would be inaccurate to refer to these as “welfare”, of course).

Dayton seems to have been significant enriched by Islamic migrants. We found Halal restaurants both in the city and suburbs. Google Maps shows a variety of mosques (masjids). The International Grocery Halal Market was near our hotel:

As part of Dayton’s commitment to welcoming these observant Muslim immigrants, much of the city was covered in sacred Rainbow Flags (July 13, shortly after Pride Month and Omnisexual Visibility Day and just before Non-Binary Awareness Week). Here is a sampling:

A restaurant flying the Biden-style trans-enhanced Rainbow Flag (note also the Black Lives Matter banner in front of the Black-free restaurant in a city where 38 percent of the residents told the Census Bureau that they identify as Black):

The field where the Wright Brothers did a lot of flight tests in 1904 and 1905 is preserved on the grounds on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (no need to drive through the base gates to see the sights, though). The locals funded a monument at the crediting the Wright Brothers with the invention of ailerons, which was the basis of their patent infringement lawsuits:

Here’s what our Google AI Overlord has to say on the subject:

Ailerons, used for controlling an aircraft’s roll, were first conceived by Matthew Piers Watt Boulton in 1868, who patented a system of lateral control using movable wing surfaces. While Boulton’s design laid the groundwork, the Wright brothers are credited with pioneering the use of wing warping for roll control in their 1903 flights. However, the modern aileron, as a separate, hinged control surface, is generally attributed to Robert Esnault-Pelterie, who used them successfully in 1904. Legal battles over the invention and its patent rights ensued, but ailerons eventually became standard on aircraft, particularly after their widespread adoption during World War I.

The actual field is dotted with explanatory signs:

Although the city’s leaders value migrants, the prairie is preserved as special because it is “native”:

On our way out of town we found a world-class Mooney paint scheme:

Too bad that nearly all of today’s GA pilots are too fat to fit comfortable in this speedster!

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National Museum of the US Air Force, Hangar 3

by philg

All of the third building is devoted to the Cold War:

Highlights of this hangar include the 10-engine B-36 “Peacemaker” and more familiar but still awesome machines such as the B-1, the SR-71, and the U-2. The primary heroes of the Cold War identified as “women” (as the term was understood by the primitive people of the 1950s and 60s):

The Air Force reminds us that “women are responsible for countless discoveries and inventions” (e.g., female engineer Kelly Johnson of Lockheed who led the P-38, U-2, and SR-71 design teams). The next hangar in the tour (building 4) has many reminders of the terrible ideas perpetrated by the inferior sex. Here’s a Canadian flying saucer, for example, and the Goblin fighter that would be dropped from the B-36 Peacemaker to fight then would return to the bomber mothership.

Here’s another “parasite” idea:

Men also came up with some terrible tilt-rotor ideas:

The Cold War hangar also showcases the contributions of mighty piston-powered aircraft. Who knew that the USAF operated the Grumman Albatross?

Imagine bragging about being an Air Force pilot and then being exposed as trundling along at 100 knots in a Cessna 195 on floats!

Speaking of feeble piston-powered machines, what about the Cessna 172? The museum describes the plane’s heroic role on September 12, 2001, shortly after the successful jihad against the World Trade Center:

The uniform and “Nikon” of a C172-flying hero:

The museum highlights the heroism of other Civil Air Patrol officers:

For folks who love engineering, a cutaway F-86 (more relevant to the Korean War, but in the Cold War hangar):

Also in the Cold War hangar, though describing a 2019 event, the Air Force highlights its refusal to follow Sharia and its prohibition on females leading worship of Allah for mixed-gender groups:

There are some outdoor exhibits as well, including this “simulator” that simulates flying by… flying.

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National Museum of the US Air Force, Hangar 2

by philg

Continuing our tour of the USAF Museum (post 1) in Dayton, Ohio…

The second hangar is devoted to the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Walking into the hangar we are immediately reminded that it was American women who did the heavy lifting in the Vietnam War:

Turning 180 degrees we find the Korean War exhibit. The floor signs remind us that, as of July 14, 2025, we’re still fighting our War Against SARS-CoV-2:

Our brave young warriors are also protected from COVID-19 by simple non-N95 cloth masks:

The Twin Mustang was our favorite plane on exhibit in this section:

Tough to believe that these were actually used in combat!

Progressive Democrats have complained about the sometimes-too-cold and sometimes-too-warm air conditioning situation in Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, where noble undocumented migrants spend a few weeks in the UNESCO World Heritage treasure of the Everglades awaiting deportation. USAF pilots and mechanics deployed to Korea spent a year or more in tents without A/C or reasonable heat:

Returning to Vietnam, we lost the war because of failed political leadership:

Dogs and helicopters are appropriately recognized:

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National Museum of the US Air Force, Hangar 1

by philg

We visited the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio on our way to Oshkosh. This is a two-day museum if you want to read more than half of the signs and absorb the history and technical information that is being communicated (vastly more detail than at the Smithsonian Air and Space). The experience starts with words from President Nixon:

The curators are less prone to the Wright Brothers worship that pervades Dayton:

A Jenny is exhibited and also explained:

The museum seems to be run by a separate foundation so they’re perhaps not required to follow Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orders to refrain from dividing military personnel according to victimhood group. The museum celebrates Eugene Bullard, for example, not for being a military aviator but for being the “first Black military aviator”:

The drones that have transformed today’s battlefield were initially developed in Dayton, Ohio during WWI:

Here’s the only surviving Martin B-10 1930s bomber, out of 348 built:

The other side of the first massive hangar is devoted to more familiar World War II aircraft. Visitors are reminded that it was women who fought and won the largest battles, e.g., against bias, of World War II:

Here’s a less-familiar Douglas B-18:

At least in the signage, there are few mixed feelings regarding the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. The B-29 that devastated Nagasaki is on display:

On a more cheerful note, a PBY is painted with the rafts of the aviators rescued:

An original Me 262 is displayed along with a cutaway Jumo engine (note the Donald Trump/Elon Musk symbol on the tail):

The B-24 is named “Strawberry Bitch”. Maybe after someone got a bill for an annual on the four-engine machine?

The WWII hangar includes an original Mitsubishi Zero and this unusual Kamikaze trainer (one flight school that it would be great to fail out of!):

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What is the Flag Code for the sacred Rainbow Flag?

by philg

Happy Gay Uncles Day to those who celebrate.

When the American flag is displayed we can refer to the official U.S. flag code for guidance on orientation, etc. I’m wondering what the corresponding document would be for the Rainbow Flag, which is far more sacred (it is permissible and protected speech to burn an American flag (Supreme Court) but burning a Rainbow Flag is punished by 15 years in prison).

Here’s what I assume is the proper way to display a trans-enhanced Rainbow Flag (flown by Joe Biden in 2023 and reported by state-sponsored PBS):

The trans-enhancing triangle is on the top.

Here’s part of a taxpayer-funded display of the state religion’s sacred symbol in Boise, Idaho on July 1, 2025 (after Pride but before Omnisexual Visibility Day (July 6));

The trans-enhancing triangle is on the bottom. That can’t be correct, I don’t think, but where is the flag code to establish authoritatively that it isn’t correct? (See Big Sky v. Jackson v. Park City as a summer destination for images of a taxpayer-funded display in 2023 where the triangles are on the top, just as Joe Biden set up.)

Speaking of the U.S. Flag Code and Boise, the folks who run the Zoo decided that the American flag fit perfectly into the Olive Baboon habitat:

The backup Baboon American flag boxes were displayed contrary to U.S. Flag Code (maybe a protest against the Trump administration?):

Finally, let’s have a look at post-Pride (July 2025) displays of the sacred flag and related symbols by merchants in Boise:

One establishment reminds the public that a MAGA hat can be considered “Nazi symbology” or, at least, Nazi-adjacent:

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Report from Sun Valley, Idaho

by philg

Here’s a report on last month’s trip to Sun Valley, Idaho.

We changed planes in Denver, surrounded by Scientists, to get a regional jet to KSUN, one of the nation’s most dangerous airports (see U.S. local and federal governments respond to an urgent safety situation (2016), regarding a safety problem recognized by the Feds no later than 2009).

I talked to the pilots after the flight and learned that special sim training is required to operate at this airport. Here’s a best-case instrument approach plate for an aircraft that can climb at 420 feet per nautical mile (might be tough after an engine fails in an airliner):

Notice that the aircraft can’t land unless the lowest clouds are no lower than 900′ above the runway (minimum descent altitude (MDA) without seeing the runway is 6180′ and the runway is 5289′ (TDZE at the top)). That’s essentially visual flying conditions. “What if you’re at 200′ above the runway and a vehicle or another aircraft drives onto the runway?” I asked. “That becomes an ‘extraction’, not a missed approach,” the pilot responded. “Can it be done on one engine?” was my follow-up. “No.” (i.e., there are no good options for a go-around once close to the runway in the event of an engine failure). You can see from this plate that an airport built at JUNOL, just 10 nm south of KSUN, would be idiot-proof.

The downtown hotel recommended by the lawyer with whom I was working, a coronapanic refugee from San Francisco who never did go back to the office, was quoting $1,700 per night. I decided on the budget option of one of the last rooms at the venerable Sun Valley Lodge for $750 per night. While the elites swan around in their G-Wagons, Grenadiers, Ferraris, and restored classic cars, the local post office reminds the peasants how to renew their Medicaid:

(Why don’t the peasants get rich working in town and become ineligible for Medicaid? Most of the servers and cleaners in the village seemed to be from Eastern Europe, here in the U.S. on temporary work visas.)

Returning to swanning around, here are the resident swans in front of the Sun Valley Lodge:

The restaurant at the lodge isn’t abusively expensive, but if you want to save some $$ and honor Maryland’s leading citizen you can zip over to El Niño Y Pupuseria in downtown Ketchum for the inexpensive snack (pupusas) that purportedly resulted in Kilmar Armando Ábrego García being targeted by unspecified gangs in his native El Salvador. The restaurant is quite smoky inside so don’t go unless the weather is nice enough for dining at the outdoor tables.

For soups, sandwiches, and salads at breakfast and lunch hit Bigwood Bread Bakery & Cafe instead (recommended by a local). Grumpy’s was the recommended hamburger joint, but we didn’t try it.

Make reservations in advance for the Thursday night barbecue at Galena Lodge, which features good company at big tables and live music. Drive beyond Galena to the Galena Summit Overlook (8,440′ above sea level according to my phone), if not all the way to Stanley (next town north after Ketchum). Do some hiking on side trails before coming back to Galena Lodge and the easy trails that begin right from there. It would be great to have a Tesla full self-driving car for this journey so as to appreciate the scenery on both sides of the road.

Downtown has an interesting free museum on the opposite corner of an intersection from the library. Part of the museum features Ernest Hemingway. Note the #Truth that the Spanish Civil War was against Fascism. The progressives who traveled to Spain were definitely not fighting for Stalinism, forced collectivization, and the killing of roughly 7,000 Catholic priests.

Stickers in the gift shop remind patrons that the library and the museum are united under the sacred Rainbow Flag:

The Library has an awesome treehouse plus the usual books:

If you’ve got a lot of leftover climbing rope, the library stocks BDSM 101:

They’d just begun to run the lift up to the top of “Baldy” (just over 9000′):

It’s unclear why a 1940s or 1950s car is the right choice for mountain roads, but we saw quite a few beautiful classics in and around town. 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville:

1948 Buick Roadmaster in front of the (unimpressive) supermarket (drive 20 minutes south to Hailey to get to an Albertson’s):

And we found the same car later at the National Ballet of Canada performance in the Sun Valley Village:

Sun Valley is an awesome place to spend the summer, but it desperately needs a better airport. It’s not as offensively ritzy as Jackson, Wyoming (maybe because Idaho imposes a state personal income tax rate of over 5 percent vs. 0 percent in Wyoming?). It’s reasonably flat and easy to walk around. The access to trails and outdoor activities is as good as anywhere in the U.S.

What about as a year-round home, either in Ketchum or in Hailey (probably more practical)? Aside from the skiing opportunities, one big plus for young people seems to be college admissions. The kids I talked to who’d gone to high school in Idaho had been admitted to all of the colleges where they applied whereas the kids I know in Maskachusetts, except for one bizarrely superhuman half-Asian boy (admitted even to Harvard, the gold standard for Asian hate!), were rejected almost everywhere.

Related:

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