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Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
June 25th to June 26th |
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Our very first campsite, in Gettysburg. The map of the campground listed it as "primitive." |
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The Gettysburg National Cemetary |
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Above: James with one of the numerous cannons found throughout the cemetary and battlefields. Left: A view of just a small portion of the tombstones within the cemetary. Below: A memorial commemorating Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The actual spot of the address is marked by the Soldier's Memorial Statue, shown in the picture below and to the right of the Lincoln memorial. |
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There are monuments throughout the cemetary in memory of soldiers and officers who fought in the battle at Gettysburg. The one above is for Majoral General Reynolds. |
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Roses, like this one, can be found on some of the graves at Gettysburg. |
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The Hall of Presidents |
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There are a variety of museums in Gettysburg. You can go to military museums, Civil War museums, the Jennie Wade House, and this, the Hall of Presidents. This was the first place we visited and it ended up being the only place, besides the battlefields. Our visit made for a good story and some funny pictures, but we offer this up as a way to help all of you--now that you can see pictures, you won't have to go to the Hall of Presidents yourself. Trust us, you won't be missing anything--especially not the money you have to pay to get in! |
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Picture this: you are herded into a room with a handful of other people. You all sit down on bleacher-type seating, the last person in the door pushing a button before taking their seat. Then it happens. The spotlight comes on, focusing on a wax figure. Then you hear the static-y sounds of a low-tech voice-over, played along with the sounds of patriotic tunes. In "the words of the presidents themselves" you hear about the history of our country, in which these presidents seemed to have done everything right (at least, according to what you are told). You are shocked into silence, until you catch the eye of the person next to you. Then you have to stop yourself from laughing. After all, this is a serious matter. You paid money for this. And it wasn't cheap. So you move from room to room, looking around you in amazement. You just can't believe it. Why didn't you just go to the Jennie Wade House instead? |
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Left: George Washington. Below: Thomas Jefferson. Below Right: Abraham Lincoln. |
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Left: Teddy Roosevelt. Right: One of the background pictures, this one depicted the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. An event that seems much more significant to us now than ever before. |
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The men with initials.
Right: FDR. Far Right: JFK. |
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Left: George Bush, Ronald Regan, and Jimmy Carter. Either they got a new wax figure-creator with Carter or just found a new technology. All of the previous presidents were close-mouthed, but, starting with Carter, all we get is toothy grins. Below: Bill Clinton, supposedly. We didn't catch much of a resemblence. |
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Below: George W. Bush with his wife, mini-Laura, a future resident of the First Ladies gallery. This gallery is up the stairs from the Hall of Presidents and features all of the First Ladies, all dressed up with nowhere to go. |
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Jacqueline Kennedy |
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The
"John Malkovich"
Door
If you haven't seen Being John Malkovich, you won't get this...but, to those of you who have...where do you think THIS door leads? We found it at the end of the First Ladies presentation, just before the set of stairs leading back downstairs. We wanted to open it up, but were afraid we'd suddenly be sucked into somebody's mind...Afterward, though, we vowed that, if given another chance, we'd open it up. Who knows. Maybe the movie wasn't just make-believe. |
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After the Hall of Presidents, we went to the Village Shops, a number of stores set up to look like the Gettysburg of the Civil-War era. This horse was there, too, so we stopped and took a quick picture with it. |
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Left: This picture requires a little bit of explanation. When we got married, Kristen's mom wanted us to take THE picture--you know, the one with the hands and the rings and all of that. But we refused. Too cheesy. Too traditional. However, we relented a little and, almost one year later, we took one of those pictures, except with bracelets (courtesy of the leather shop in the Gettysburg village) instead of wedding rings. Happy, Mom? |
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Our first night camping and it rained. Figures. Right: James looks thrilled about being cramped inside the tent while it pours outside. |
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Left: James cooked our first campfire meal--cheesy scrambled eggs with a sprinkling of Ranch powder and a curiously strong smoky flavor. Considering our facilities, though, and our options...it wasn't too bad. |
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The Battlefields |
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The Gettysburg battlefields are big, much bigger than we realized before our visit. In fact, they cover about 25 square miles. Obviously, this is too much to cover by walking--unless you are insane or something. So we took the easy way out. We paid for our own personal tour guide, in the form of a CD we played in our car while we drove around the battlefields. We got to see all of the highlights and took a lot of pictures (many more than we showcase here). The whole thing took about 3 hours and it was well worth it. Unlike the Hall of Presidents, this comes highly recommended. |
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This farm found itself in the crossfire during the battle of Gettysburg. If you look in the middle of the red brick, you can see the hole made by a cannonball. |
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This is the site of springs the soldiers got water from during the battle of Gettysburg. The springs were still in operation until recently, but, for whatever reason, were not working when we were there. |
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