Philadelphia and Gettysburg...lots more History!

First, I want to apologize for all the complaining in the last post. I was just frustrated with the temperature and traffic. Everything up until that point had been awesome, so when things were not "perfect" like they had been, I found myself a little grouchy. That being said, we did enjoy our stay in NYC. There is a lot to do in the city. I'm sure we could have spent a lot more time there without getting bored.

On to Philly... our first day in Philly was great. We had a tour of Independence Hall. The tour guide was great and passionate. He made us really feel the history that went on in the buildings we visited. I couldn't believe we were standing in the same rooms where the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederacy, and finally the Constitution of the United States had been!!! You could almost hear the debates and the huzzahs. After the tour we did a quick geocache on our way to get a Cheese Steak... the sandwich was good, though, not much different than a really good Subway sandwich... I keep wondering if I had gotten it with Cheese Whiz if it would have been better... oh, well, next time.


Where the Declaration of Independence was signed!!!



The family outside of Independence Hall with our first President!



Independence Hall



After filling our bellies with cheese steaks, we came back to see the Liberty Bell. Overall, it was another great day, though a little hot.

The Liberty Bell -
now inside and unable to be touched because some people didn't treat it with respect!

The following day, we decided to take a tour of Philly. We got double-decker tour bus tickets. It was a great way to see a lot of the important spots. Our guide was funny and informative. We had another great lunch at the City Tavern and then called it a day due to the heat.

City Tavern - frequented by George Washington & Thomas Jefferson

Three buildings that are all different heights?
Nope, an optical illusion specifically designed to do so by the architect!

Our third day in the Philly area we spent at Valley Forge. Again, it was a very nice park and we learned quite a bit about the Continental Army... in fact, we all thought that the winter they stayed in was a harsh winter and that the men were sleeping in tents without food and such. Though the conditions were difficult, the winter was actually fairly mild. The men built small log cabins with a fireplace in each... though many did not have shoes and some didn't have socks, they weren't "naked," as we know the term to be today... rather, when Washington wrote Congress and said that his men were naked, he meant that they didn't have shoes and such and that their uniforms were sub par... I know, it would have been extremely miserable in the dead of even a normal winter to not have shoes, but it wasn't what I had envisioned after reading text books during school. I still can't comprehend how difficult it would have been without air conditioning... climbing the three stories of the house Washington used for his command center, which was likened to the Pentagon of today... though it was extremely tiny, you could just feel the oppressive heat and squalor. The servants slept on the floor of the unattached kitchen building... all 10 of them!!! The kitchen was no bigger than a typical bathroom in today's modern homes!

Cabins at Valley Forge

Washington's desk

We also got to tour the Washington Memorial Chapel that was in the area; it was beautiful!!! We did a virtual cache at the park and drove back to Philly in the rain... This was the first time it rained for any extended time during our trip. The rain seemed to cleanse the air and wash away the dirt and grime as it cleansed the spirit...

Upon returning to Philly, we decided to stop at the Becuna, a World War II submarine and the USS Cruiser Olympia.... one of the last iron clad ships in service right before World War I. The submarine was expectantly claustrophobic, but really cool. I got a chuckle when I read the sign next to the shower, "Conserve Water, Shower With a Buddy." uh... the shower was no bigger than a restroom on a jet plane. I would barely fit into it, let alone having a buddy in with me! Check it out at the Independence Seaport Museum!

Funny!!!

The Cruiser Olympia was also cool. It was all wood on the inside. As cramped as the submarine was, the ship seemed spacious. I know it wouldn't have been if there were actually men on board with more hammocks strung, but the captain's quarters were palatial seeming. After visiting the ships, we ran over to the Naval Museum, which was nice, but not too exciting. We then went over to Christ Church, the location that a lot of the signers of the Declaration of Independence attended services. In fact, several pews were claimed by the various signers. There was a really cool puzzle cache that you had to figure out the pew numbers of various signers and derive the coordinates to the cache... we got all of the numbers and then decided to check on the iPhone when the cache had last been found... unfortunately, it had several DNFs (Did Not Find posts) so, even though we had the coordinates, we didn't put too much time into the search. We were very disappointed, but as a consolation, we got to see the church... By the way, did you know that the church still has an active congregation?

Christ Church

We got up early the next day and drove to Gettysburg. We saw a great movie that was narrated by Morgan Freeman. This was an excellent way to introduce us to the events that occurred during this 3 day battle. After the movie we continued into the Cyclorama, a huge painting that was painted in the 1890's (not too long after the War) and was restored in 1996 at a cost of several million dollars. When the restored it, they placed it as it was intended... on a curved surface in a circular room. The painting encircled the viewers as if we were standing on Little Round Top. It had a diorama that blended perfectly into the painting. It was beautiful and majestic. My only wish is that we had more time to spend looking at the details. We then had time to view the museum... which was excellently done. I especially loved the videos and touch screen computers that let you zoom in and out of an aerial view of the various times throughout the three days.




Gettysburg...the start of a long, but great day!



The whole family



Although you can't get the full affect, this is one of the areas of the cyclorama.


We then got to meet our tour guide, Joanne. We had hired her to give us a personal tour of the battlefield in our own car. She was incredible!!! Her little stories of the civilians of the town was a nice touch. It was very interesting to hear about the battle from the perspective of the townsfolk... as well as the men that fought, of course. She pointed out little details that having do it on our own, would have never known about... for example, there were several homes with cannon balls stuck in the walls, Joanne pointed these out. You could tell that she really loved the history knew her stuff. She made the whole thing come to life. On top of that, even though we only paid for 2 hours, she toured us for 5 hours!!! The time just flew by, she enraptured the kids and kept our attention the entire time. Should any of you ever visit Gettysburg, you have to hire a guide! I can't imagine the day going any better. In fact, the skies rewarded us with a beautiful sunset as we finished our tour at the location of where Picket's Charge failed...




Thank you, Joanne, for a GREAT day!!


Today (Wednesday the 27th), then, we got up a little later than we intended... Ruth was awesome in that she stayed up very late doing much needed laundry. (Thank you, Sweetie!!!) We then drove south towards Washington D.C. stopping at Antietam National Battlefield. This park was the site of the single most bloody day of the entire Civil War, where there were over 5,000 casualties. We were all very tired and didn't spend too much time here, but we did stop at a few of the locations along the tour to take pictures and read some plaques. We even had time to do a virtual cache towards the end of the tour. Oh, and did I mention we got a geocache along the highway on our way to Antietam?

Memorial tower at Antietam - great view of much of the battle area

We then checked into our hotel in D.C. and called it a night. We were all beat.

PS - this post is even later than normal because I (Ruth) did not have the energy/time to proof and add pictures to it until now...sorry! Keep watching for the next update very soon!!! :-)