Tomorrow we leave on our vacation/history trip. We'll go to Washington, DC first. We have plans to go to Mount Vernon on Sunday, then to the US Capitol on Monday morning (we'll also get to the Library of Congress on Monday). We plan to do the National Archives and the Museum of American History while we're there as well.

Wednesday is play day, as we'll be in Baltimore to see the Rays plan the O's in a 12:30 game. After the game we'll probably take in the Inner Harbor (might we go to Phillips Restaurant for some cream of crab soup?). Then Thursday to Philadelphia to visit my parents, some high school friends, and also see Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center, Christ Church, etc. After that we'll go to NYC to see Tim, and then to Boston to see all the history there.

I'm about to finish Frank Lambert's book The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America. It's not about the Founding Fathers as much as it is about a history of Christian faith from Jamestown and the Puritans, through the writing of the Constitution. A very good and informative book. It's interesting to see that there were many people - including many Christian groups and many clergy, including Baptists - who were fighting for the separation of church and state, because of the concern that a state church was a violation of religious freedom and individual rights. I've developed a fondness for Isaac Backus, a Baptist preacher who was very forceful in calling for that separation of church and state. I like what he said and what he wrote. It's also interesting to see that there were a number of people who saw the American Revolution not just as a political revolution and political independence, but that it had a very strong religious background, to the point where some would even go so far as to say that the Revolution was a religious revolution more than a political one. Where was all of this when I studied history in high school and the first year of college?

I do plan on taking a couple of books with me on the trip, as well as a couple of novels (I was told I should read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol before going to DC. Well, I started it, so that will go with me also.

I'll give some reports while we are on our travels.

Peace!