Philly and Gettysburg

The Internet didn't work last night. Yesterday I visited valley forge and Gettysburg. The battlefield was massive at Gettysburg. I didn't realize exactly how massive the scale of fighting was. There were lots of ghost tours and ice ream. Then we got to Philly and I had a cheese steak at Jim's which was really tasty. Later went to a place called McGillin's where the bartender was quite rude and so she didn't receive a tip. She didn't quite personify the city of brotherly love. Today we did a scavenger hunt out in the 106 degree weather in Philly. It was fun to go to Philly again and see all the different places. My team actually won the scavenger hunt so yay for us! Our team name was We the Peeps. Our tour bus got pulled over by 2 state troopers so that has delayed our trip to CT.

These socks are the source of the park ranger's power for sure.

Yesterday was a busy day with no Internet. I toured the Capitol and saw a guard in full body armor carrying an M-16. The capitol was interesting. More to come later.

I was super tired last night, so I didn't blog. So today's post is Saturday and Sunday. I had the most fun at the Spy museum on Saturday. It was worth every penny to get in. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures, but it was still a neat place because they gave you a cover so you could be a spy in the museum.

Saturday we started our day at Arlington National Cemetery. It was a really profound place.

I saw the JFK Memorial:

The tomb of the unknown solider was really profound as well. I also got to see the changing of the guard, which was something that certainly was a sight to see. They just walk back and forth, never ending. Then the officer comes out and inspects the new guy and there is a trade off. Some people in our group got to lay a wreath at the tomb.

 I also visited Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Boothe. The Presidential box was kept the same and they even had the derringer pistol, which was tiny.

Today I got to see Fredrick Douglas' House and we had a most interesting tour guide who kept saying, "If you will," about 50 times.

 Me shaking hands with Fredrick Douglas, the Marshall of D.C.

 I'm at Lincoln's Summer Home pretending to be Salmon J. Chase, a man in Lincolns cabinet, who strongly supported emancipation. Which I will remind you only freed slaves in the rebel states and did not end slavery. That would be the 13th amendment that ended slavery.

 Here I am helping President Lincoln saddle up his horse so that he could ride to the white house as he tended to do every day. A 30 minute commute...not too bad and he would do it without and guards. I thought that was crazy!

We started the day off at the National Archives, which was a really cool place that I didn't even know existed.  There was a great workshop, where I got to look at some official documents and even be part of our own little press conference. 

I saw this crazy looking little black fox that reminded me of Gingee so I took a picture in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural history.

I also saw the Hope diamond, but I was kind of disappointed with it. I really thought that it would be bigger.

I also really liked the FDR memorial as well. I got a great picture with some men looking for work and FDR's dog.

The Lincoln memorial was really the most impressive memorial that we went to today. It was a crazy long day.

 Today we had a workshop at Montpelier about James Madison, then we headed out for Mt. Vernon. This place was the nicest grounds of all. Jefferson's house was probably more interesting, but we got to see ALL or Washington's home, which I thought was really neat.  There were people walking around and even tending the gardens in period clothing.  So funny to hear people gripe about temps in the 80's. HA! SO here I am holding hands with the Washingtons

Now we have President Washington's grave, which was pretty impressive. Got to the bookstore and had to school this senior citizen cashier on not judging a book by its cover, because she didn't want to give me the discount because she didn't think I was a teacher. Shows what she know. But I did ending up getting my book Rules of Civility.  Washington studied this text as a young child to learn about etiquette and how to hold a conversation. It was really neat to see what rules were still alive and which we have forgotten.

We arrived late tonight in Alexandria and I can't wait to see Washington D.C.! 

Day 4- Jefferson's house and Madison's house

Today I got up early and ate some delicious Hampton Inn waffles. Gotta love waffles :) 

Monticello was the most beautiful house that I have ever seen. Jefferson was a great innovator and inventor. Seeing the different things that he added to his house was amazing. He was such a great scientist and farmer.  It's hard to picture a scientist in the 18th century. But it seems to me that he really did revolutionize a lot of technology.  It was kind of humorous that they called him a benevolent slave holder, as if there was such a thing. "He found whipping his slaves to be degrading and only did it when it was absolutely necessary," they said.  Having my toenails cut off was absolutely necessary, but it was still just as painful! So I think that statement is silly. Slavery was their way of life, but it still didn't make it right to make someone property.  

Here is Monticello, which belonged to the Jefferson family. Really ahead of it's time, but definitely uppity.

Jefferson had a state of the art French style kitchen underneath his house. It was such a good idea to have those burners on the left there.

Jefferson had some very good rules to live by, but apparently he himself couldn't follow his own rules. He died poor with most of his slaves mortgaged out. OOOOOPSSSSSSSSSS!

Jefferson's grave is surrounded by a huge iron fence, that I had to stick my camera through. It really seems he or his family felt they were too good to have people just walk into his cemetery.

Me posing with TJ,

To run a house this big, Dolly Madison certainly a big job for anyone.  I really liked the ground of Jame's Madison's house, but I really liked Jefferson's House.

                                        

Look Sara...it's a Zebra.A very flat zebra.

 Now we switch gears to Montpelier. It was a really interesting place, but didn't start off great. I asked if there was a teacher discount at the gift shop because most places have one.  I was told no, except for teachers who were attending the Constitutional Convention Workshop. So I said we were in the morning and this elderly lady wanted to see my badge. What is it with people and these badges? I don't need no stinking badges. But I left because whatever. It's their giftshop and I would just wait till tomorrow when I got the badge. Then  I found out that the discount was given to the much older looking folks in my group, so I marched back up to the desk and requested that I get treated the same as any other teacher, despite my outward youthful appearance. So I received and apology and my discount. :) Needless to say I got my Virginia Penny.

James, Dolly and I looking over some notes. Maybe the constitution.

I asked before I sat down in this historic period chair. The sign said I could, so you know I was going to try it out. It was pretty awesome. It ranked up there with the oooooooooold key and lock that I turned about seven times, because...well I just have a thing for old keys/locks.

James Madison and Dolly Madison's graves, you can get really close to and are only behind a metal chair. So these graves are more accessible than the Jefferson's were.  I mean c'mon. I could walk up and touch Tyler's grave, why not these guys?  This leads me to believe that Madison or his family were much more modest, but the Jefferson were a lot more showy. 

Day 3 Hollywood Cemetery/ Appomatix Courthouse

Today 7am came a little earlier than it did yesterday and the allergies finally got to me. But the day went on. Today was the day of the grumpy tour guides for sure.We stared off the day at the Hollywood Cemetery. It was a beautiful Victorian Planned Cemetery.  There are 80,000+ graves and 2 more were being added while we were there.

  I saw this dog and just had to get a picture. A man had this dog cast in the likeness of a dog his children loved to watch over his children's graves. Sad, but it was a really neat statue and is apparently a nationally recognized statue.

 This is President Tyler's grave. At the time the he was just the VP, but when the President Harrison died unexpectedly there was no legislation on how the next president would be chosen. So he said," I am the President indeed," and everyone went with it.

This is President Monroe's grave that is affectionately called the "bird cage" for obvious reasons. 

 Here is a picture of the James River. I'm pretty sure I saw a badger running amongst the plant life down there...














This was a really cool group of stone tree markers, except for Frank down in the lower right corner. Frank left his wife and six children, so no tree marker for Frank...bad Frank...bad.

 Below we have  a picture of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis' grave. It was pretty cool.

Now we switch gears to the Civil War and the Appomattox Courthouse Village. Above we have the McLean house where Grant met Lee and the Union gave it's terms of surrender for the CS army to follow. It sounded like it was actually a pretty good deal. Soldiers got free travel home and were basically pardoned as long as they swore allegiance to the Union.

Below we have an outhouse, yes I sat on it and had my picture taken. Actual picture to come soon.

 This Cypress tree looked like a gigantic bonsai tree next to this grave. Not sure what happened to it, but neat looking all the same.

 This is the actual towel that was used at a white flag when the Confederate army surrendered. It really seemed like a testament to what bad shape the south was in at the end of the war.

 It was a really crazy day. We were told that we would have a tour guide at Appomattox, but when we arrived this Park Ranger went postal on us saying that we were wrong and wanted to see our paperwork and was quite rude to our group of 35. Well that wasn't smart to do that to a group of teachers, especially this group. Several comment cards got filled out and we got an apology and a bunch of free stuff! Sweet.

Even more interesting they had a place where you could look up and see if your ancestors were in the civil war. I found a J.G. Avara that lived in Galveston County and was part of the 12th Field Battery of Texas. So that spurred a whole new line of investigation for our family tree. I wrote a comment card about how helpful the bookstore worker was, so hopefully he will get some praise from his boss, especially in light of what happened with the other guy.