Gettysburg

The day after Thanksgiving we left Grandmom and Grandpop’s house and headed for Jonathan’s Uncle Al and Aunt Claire’s house in western Pennsylvania.  They live under 20 miles from Gettysburg so we took the chance to spend part of our day at the National Park taking in this historic site.  Although the historic battle took place in the summer, I really appreciated the spectacular views of this area under a blanket of snow.  Wherever you were, you could see for miles.  It was a chilly day, obviously, so we decided to do our tour of the park in our car (it is a HUGE park with more than 1,300 monuments, markers and statues scattered throughout the battlefield)—we purchased a guided audio car tour CD set from the visitors center and followed the signs to the various historical highlights and landmarks throughout the park.  The audio guide had some dramatized battle stories and also gave us insight into some of the people involved in the battles or living in the various houses on the land.  The stops along the journey which allowed us to get out of the car and explore a bit definitely helped to break up some of tedium of listening to war history.  The last time we as a family took a trip together to Pennsylvania we were spending the 4th of July in downtown Philadelphia so I had made a point on that car drive up to read some history and even the full Declaration of Independence to the kids.  Now that’s kind of a family joke and the kids were breathing a sigh of relief on this trip that I wasn’t inflicting history on them when they were trapped in the car—well, ha ha, the joke’s on them!  The audio CD read all the history and more to them for nearly 3 hours during our drive through Gettysburg National Military Park and even finished with the Gettysburg Address…which I may or may not have made them listen to twice, until they could tell me what they thought was meant by it.  Honestly, the kids were great sports listening to all that Civil War history and exploring Gettysburg—which definitely made me feel good (like they were ready) for the trip we had planned for Spain just a month after this. 

{ella’s not a huge selfie-taker, so at this point it’s still cute when she whips out her itouch and shoots away.}

{note to self: wear sunglasses in photos facing the sun. #squintcity}