On our second full day in Washington, D.C., my daughter Liz, son-in-law Peter, and my granddaughter Adeline walked over to the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum. Our family has many Patriots in our family tree, and my mother Shirley Kohler Stabbert, my sister Billie, my daughter Liz and I are all DAR members. There are several rooms of interactive exhibits of what life was like in the colonial and Revolutionary times, and many period rooms presented by various states of the Union.

We also paid a visit to their impressive Library where one can research ancestors and genealogy. I worked on the computers with Adeline while Liz and Pete found a copy of James E. Quinlan’s History of Sullivan County published in 1873 by W.T. Morgans and Company of Liberty and discovered the history of Callicoon.

Adeline and I found our Hill ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War in Connecticut and later settled in White Sulphur Springs. The website of the DAR is quite impressive.

From the DAR we walked back over to Zaytinya, the restaurant of chef/humanitarian José Andrés. We just had to have one more serving of his great food.

Then it was back in the car for the next leg of our journey in Philadelphia. On the way there Liz realized that the Rittenhouse, the hotel where we were staying, had an indoor pool, but none of us had packed bathing suits. Yikes!

Luckily, an en route call to the front desk saved the day. We were advised to stop at a Macy’s a few minutes away from our hotel. This Macy’s was a rather unimpressive version of its former self but was located in the fabulous original Wanamaker’s department store. And I mean fabulous. It is home to the world’s largest pipe organ (purchased from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair) and recitals are still given twice daily, except on Sundays. This organ has 28,750 pipes. I would take a trip back to Philly just to hear a concert there.

The original Wanamaker’s was opened in 1876 in time for the American Centennial Exposition. By 1910, the building had been rebuilt and featured 12 floors and an area of two million square feet. Nine floors were dedicated to retail. John Wanamaker was a visionary in the business and was the first to put price tags on items. He also used pneumatic tubes to transfer cash, had the first White Sale, and sent buyers to Europe for the latest fashions.

I mean, for an unimpressive Macy’s this store has some history.

At any rate, we were able to find something that passed for swimsuits, and as soon as we arrived at our hotel, Adeline was ready for a swim.

NEXT WEEK: Harry Potter meets Ben Franklin.