Three's Company: Gettysburg - A Day at the Battlefields

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Gettysburg - A Day at the Battlefields

We spent our first official day of vacation in Gettysburg. We went to the Visitor Center/Museum in the morning and started the car tour. Nathan works with someone who visited here last year, so we borrowed his car tour cds and they were really helpful in explaining what took place and where.

Jacob, Jen, Nathan, Kevin, Ellie, and Emmaline (napping in the stroller)

in front of the flag that flew over General Meade's Headquarters

Nathan and Jacob by the Peace Memorial

For part of the afternoon, we took a 1 1/2 hr. train ride. It was the first time any of the kids had been on a train and they had a blast. We rode in an open double-decker car (the only one of it's kind), and learned about the history of Gettysburg. As a point of interest, we also passed the Musselman's Applesauce Factory in PA.

Front row: Emmy (in car seat), Ellie, and Jen
Middle row: Nathan
Back row: Jacob and Ginger

Ellie and Papaw Kevin

Emmy slept the first half of the train ride

Jacob and Grandma

Emmaline was in awe as the world raced past the train

Ellie slept the last half of the train ride

Jacob in his train engineer hat (My great-grandpa and grandpa, both named Jacob, worked for the railroad)

Ellie got her own pink engineer cap

After the train ride, we finished the car tour and then went back to the hotel-o for more swimming and laundry (Yes, I did laundry 3 different times on vacation. It was nice to come home and not be bombarded with piles of dirty clothes.).

There were several different look-out towers around the battlefields. This was the tallest one (probably 6-8 stories high). I used the excuse of needing to feed Emmaline so I didn't have to go up, but really it was my fear of heights. Everyone else enjoyed the view...a very nice biker took this picture for them.

Here we are on top (yes, I climbed up this one!) of a memorial that looked like a castle at Little Round Top. The rocks in the background to the right of Nathan are known as Devil's Den. They may look small from the picture, but trust me, they are huge (you can see some of them in the next picture). There are tunnels and lots of hiding places within these rocks that were used during the war.