Gettysburg, PA

On our way home from Lexy's Synchro Competition in Hershey, PA we stopped by Gettysburg, PA.  (Thanks for the suggestion Bob.)  I didn't realize that Gettysburg was in Pennsylvania, I guess I figured it was in Virginia.  With Isaac being such an Abe Lincoln fan and 5th Grade currently studying the Civil War, how perfect was this stop on our trip?  He loved it, I loved it, and BONUS, Lexy loved it.

Here is Lexy in her Abe Lincoln hat with leftover makeup from the Synchro competition.  I for one think she is super cute.

We stopped by the town square and ended up in the Wills house where Lincoln stayed the one night that he was in town.  This is the area where the room was he slept in.  The bed in the back ground, to include the linen,  was the bed he slept on when he was there.

What an awesome way to learn about this bit of history.  I had no idea the the Gettysburg Address was a short blip in a long dedication ceremony for a Union soldier cemetery.  The speech didn't become famous until well after it was given.

This is a copy of the only photo that was taken of Lincoln at the ceremony.  The photographer thought that he would take much longer in his speech and didn't get up to take a picture until Lincoln was done and people were gathered around.

You can't see if well in this photo, but this building is adjacent and attached to the Wills House.  Just above the Malt Shop sign there is a small flag at the base of the second story window.  Directly under that flag is a cannon ball from the Battle of Gettysburg that has been stuck in the wall since 1863.  Pretty stinkin' cool.

Several of the old buildings in town had these plaques commemorating that they survived the battle.

Here is Isaac checking out the cannon at the cemetery.  He might be a RedLeg after all.

Here is one of the areas where unknown soldiers are buried.  There were a total of some 50,000 people died in the Battle of Gettysburg.  I equated that to a football stadium full of people for the kids to get a scale of how many people died in that one battle over three days.

Rows and rows of tombstones.

I highly recommend a trip to Gettysburg, PA.  We were only there for a few hours on a cool winters day.  I would bet you could spend 2 or 3 days to see all that you wanted there.  For the Charleston crowd, it's about 4.5 to 5 hours drive.