Gettysburg

We woke up with hopes of leaving the hotel by 8:00 a.m. (that didn’t happen, does it ever?)  It’s always fun to share a hotel room with 5 people.  You start to find out all sorts of things about the people you love, for example out of all the kids Cambelle was named the “clothes changing ninja”, she changed the fastest under the “sharing of the room” circumstances.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and Sara and Cambelle shared a Siamese pancake, for some reason it came out looking a little like a snowman.  We made it to the Gettysburg museum around 9:15 a.m.  There was a short film and then an experience called a cyclorama.  The film was so informative and very well done, then we were moved into a room that was circular and on the wall was an enormous painting that was painted in 1864 just one year after the battle of Gettysburg.  It was restored in 2008 and is the longest oil painting in North America.  They had a narrator that told the story of the battle, at the same time there were lights that would highlight explosions with sound effects to go with it.  It definitely had an impact, I felt an intenstity that I can only imagine is minuscule compared what was felt by the soldiers those three days in July of 1863.  It amazes me the number of men that were involved.  We visited the museum after the film and cyclorama.  

Of course there were relics and artifacts that were beautifully preserved, then we made it to a room that had a voice over coming through the sound system.  It was the Gettysburg address being recited.  We sat down and listened and faced the words that were written on the window.  I was struck by the power of the words that Abraham Lincoln shared in a few short paragraphs.  I felt the importance that he felt in keeping the Union together.  We left the museum to explore the park that contains the battlefields and cemeteries.  The original graves were organized by regiment, in a circle surrounding a monument to the soldiers.  There were many unmarked graves and there was an entire section that were men that could not even could be identified by regiment.  I thought of the families that never knew what happened to their loved ones, it broke my heart.  It felt like sacred ground, to be where men fought for the freedom of others and all fought with the thoughts of their families at home.

 We headed into town for lunch after that and found a fun little corner diner called Luke’s American Grille.  It was the perfect 50’s diner and had amazing burgers and pulled pork.  The town itself is beautiful, so quaint and the buildings are all amazing.  We wandered to an ice cream, Mr. G’s,  place that was in a building built before the civil war, in fact the building is in a picture of Abraham Lincoln.  I got vanilla ice cream with a warm spiced apple sauce, it was like apple pie without the crust.  Out front there was a ring toss game that we played while we ate our ice cream.  I’m pretty sure that it was the video games of the 19^th century.  Cambelle was the first one to finally get the ring on the hook, J.T. and Troy both made it too.  Sara and I were not quite so talented.

This was the countryside that we were blessed to travel through....stunning.