Today we went to Gettysburg.  Everyone knows the story of General Lee’s loss here and of Lincoln’s famous speech.  These were the battles that ended Lee’s campaign to take northern cities, one of the worst battles of the Civil War with the North and South losing so many men.  Lincoln’s speech was only two minutes long, and was not considered of note by the newspapers of the time.  Both of these, however, changed history forever.

 

 

 

 

Years ago, when my daughter was about 5, her dad and I brought her to Gettysburg.  We did our own little car trip around the battle field, visited the museum, and saw the wonderful painting done of the last battle of the campaign here.  (There were three battles, July 1, 2, and 3 in 1863.)  Today we rode around in an air-conditioned bus with a fantastic guide who pointed out all the points of interest to us.  It was amazing to see all the restoration that has been done here.  The battle field has mostly been restored to how it looked when the troops advanced upon it.  Even the painting has been restored and moved to a fantastic cyclorama that is the latest in style.  The new visitor center/museum/gift shop/cyclorama is now housed in a newly built building---at a cost of 106 million dollars.  Yes, it all is a big upgrade from the old.  It is indeed nice.  We were glad that we got the chance to visit Gettysburg (again for me).  It is such an overwhelming experience.  In addition, today with the guided tour we got to see places that I did not years ago. 

Tomorrow we start heading home.  We are now ready to get back home and pull our home life back together.  It is fun to be gone, but it is also fun to get back to our “regular lives”.