Today we spent the morning and afternoon at Rock Creek Park. It was very rainy so we hunkered down in the Nature Center and worked on Jr. Ranger books. We earned the Rock Creek Park badge and the Night Skies Badge.
Then we went out between raindrops to explore the park. It is a sprawling park and best navigated by car. We found the Peirce House and learned all about grist mills.
The mills still operates 2 days a month for special ranger programs. We got to see how it works “on paper”. We also saw a marking on a pilar in the basement that was labels April 2014. We assume it was from a big flood they had.
We grabbed lunch and then visited the Old Stone House. It is the oldest standing building in DC. It pre-dates DC. In fact it is said that George Washington and Mr. L’Enfant planned DC from this building and the tavern across the street (which is no longer there).
We also completed the Centennial National Parks badge along with the 50th Historical Badge. They were both fun books since we had to reflect back on parks we have been to before. There are so many badges to earn in this area but we just don’t have enough time to do them all. Not bad for just a few days so far!
