Day Three - Gettysburg! Written by Taber

Luke agreed that after I post he will write a post, so I won't write too long!

Today was an incredible day.  We were up early, had omelets (breakfast is "free" at the hotel) and started our day at the Gettysburg Visitor Center.  Following the advice of many we had arranged a tour with a licensed battlefield guide and that was set for 10am.  We took advantage of the time before hand to see the 20 minute video with Morgan Freeman and Sam Waterston and visited the Cyclorama.  The video was well done and I found myself a little choked up at the thought of what happened here.  The cyclorama was also a great way to think about the war and the detail was outstanding.  It is amazing to think that the painting is over 100 years old and the detail rivals a photograph.

We met Howie, our battlefield guide, at 10 and spent the next 2 1/2 hours with him.  The photos is of Luke and me at Little round Top with Howie.  Right away he told us that he was a talker and he lived up to that, we had to time our questions and slip them in between breaths.  Howie is a wealth of knowledge and did an extraordinary job orienting us to the battlefield, sharing stories and answering questions - of course!  Hiring a guide was very reasonable an excellent way to learn about Gettysburg and understand what was happening.

By the time 12:30 rolled around we were tired and hungry so we took Luke to an East Coast fixture - Friendlys.  Luke promises to share all the details on Rita, our server, but a simple lunch ended up taking more than two hours before we were back on the road.  We had several places that we wanted to return to visit and our museum passes were only good for today so we wanted to get back and check out the museum before it closed at 6. 


After lunch we returned to the battlefield and visited the two monuments to the First Minnesota (the only Minnesota regiments at Gettysburg), The monument to the 20th Maine and several others, including a monument to Pennsylvania soldiers, which is massive and sets the bar very high.  We also visited the soldier's cemetery that Lincoln helped to dedicate.  This was another very powerful experience for me.  The cemetery was very quiet and gave me to time to reflect on the events that transpired her 148 years ago and what Lincoln's address was truly about. The museum in the visitor's center was another fee, but it was extensive and we spent out time going through the exhibits.

We had a little re-grouping time at the hotel, had dinner at the Farnswoth house, which has bullet marks all across the brick and serves period meals in a cozy home.  After dinner we did a little exploring on foot and we plan to do some walking and shopping tomorrow. I wrote about some of the powerful moments, but there has also been a lot of goofing around and fun!  I've had to tell Beth AND Luke to cut it out a couple times and Luke is taking photos of all sorts of things and we're enjoying the time together.

A haunted Gettysburg tour is still on the maybe list.  We've asked several locals if these things are worth it and none of them have ever gone on a tour, but Howie did tell us that is essentially a story-telling walk.  Stacy asked what it is to be "farby".  First of all these are "farby".  A farb is someone who tries to re-enact a different period, but doesn't do it accurately - i.e. a Civil War re-enactor who is wearing a wrist watch or talking on his/her cell phone while in costume. 

Thanks to everyone for the comments - keep following!