Gettysburg

We started the day out early. This was made possible by the fact that the curtains do not close, so when the morning comes, it fills the room with light. The brain can't but say, "Hey there. Get up. It's time to be up." Even The Banana woke up without as much complaining as usual.

We had breakfast at Tipton's Grill in town. We had just ordered when the Good Mr. Dr. got the alert that the Supreme Court had released their opinion allowing the health care law to stand. Of course, I was dancing in my seat. It's kind of cool to be in a really historic place when a historic court decision comes down. The Banana doesn't quite understand the significance and I hope that she can spend the rest of her life wondering why this was such a big deal. Breakfast was great. Very filling and was all that much better because of the good mood we were in.

From there we went to the Gettysburg National Military Park and Museum.. Initially I was not that interested in seeing the video but in order to go to the Cyclorama, which is what I wanted to do, you had to watch the video. I was totally impressed by the whole show. The video was new and narrated by Morgan Freeman. It provided the background and made clear the significance of the battle. Many people left the theater with moist eyes.

I was interested in the Cyclorama because I had read about painting, which was first shown in Boston in 1884. After the presentation and being able to be right there with it, I understand why it was described as incredibly moving to the people who were able to see it the first time. It's not just that the painting is so well done. It's also that you are very close (not so close to be able to touch it) and it depicts the reality of one the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Between both sides, over 50,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. You see it all in that painting

The museum is also impressive. You could spend the entire day there. It is a bit maze like and at the end, The Banana and I had a hard time finding our way out. What I liked most was that they focused on the story, including the history of slavery, the politics of the war, the impacts on the lives of Americans at the time, and how the war influenced the country after. It isn't until you get to the end that there is the typical focus on names, dates, strategy, etc.

We decided to do the auto tour. We bought the CD, which was more expensive than the one in Williamsburg. They said it would take two hours and we did learn our lesson from last time about listening to the CD in advance of the stops. Nevertheless, three hours later, we were still only two-thirds done. At this point, we were hungry and tired. In terms of the audio auto tour, the take-away for me is:

1. The entire route is filled with monuments. It is an amazing set of monuments to what has to be every company, regiment, brigade, etc involved in this battle.

2. There is a bizarre and, in my view, totally uninteresting fascinating with the strategy and the machinations of battle. Particularly in the second CD, which we stopped because it was too much of the kind of history that isn't really all that informative if you want to really understand the history.

3. This battle was huge. It took place in farm fields and orchards, in portions of the town, in the woods, in the streams, and on craggy hillsides.

We skipped the last three stops and went straight to the National Cemetery. After the battle, the town and surrounding fields, woods, and streams where the battle took place were literally filled with bodies. Thousands of bodies. The U.S. government decided to build a cemetery to properly bury the dead. Lincoln's Gettysburg address was made at the dedication of this cemetery. You definitely get the feel that this is hallowed ground. Over five hundred soldiers are totally unknown, meaning that they could not even tell what state they came from. New York and Pennsylvania lost the most soldiers. Massachusetts came in third in terms of lives lost.

From here, we went back to town to get something to drink and plot the rest of the day. We wandered around part of the downtown and ended up at the Refreshment Saloon. We decided to do a ghost tour. La Suegra was not feeling up to it. We decided to have dinner at O'Rorke's, an Irish pub. Consistent with every Irish pub we've been to, there were nachos and good eating all around. The Banana just about inhaled a half rack of ribs and chopped down the mountain of fries that came with her order. She is definitely in the running with the Queen in terms of ability to put it away.

After dinner, The Good Mr. Dr. dropped his mom off at the hotel and joined us a bit into the tour. I have to say that this was the most disappointing ghost tour ever. We spoke with a woman earlier in the day who spoke very highly of this tour. Our guide, however, was the most unenthusiastic ghost tour guide I've ever witnessed. This was the first time we've never left a tip. Yes, it was that bad.

From there, we headed back to the hotel and to bed. It was a long day. We were all asleep in pretty short order. Tomorrow, homeward bound.