virginia

Manassas....Fredericksburg....Chancellorsville.. I think I've been on as many battlefields as Robert E. Lee. We returned to Virginia two days ago, staying in Reston , just outside the Beltway. Never thought we would take the road monster that close to D.C., but there was a very nice county park that was close to the part of the C& O Canal where the Park Service gives mule-driven canal boat rides. Just like it was in the 1800's. Way cool.

Kept looking for Clarence Thomas in the park, but since court is not in session now, I guess he's touring the West.

We are now in Fredericksburg where we have been joined by our oldest son and his family. They will be camping with us for the rest of this week. After seeing a little more of VA, including the Shenandoah Valley, we will start our cross-country trek back home.

Back to the battlefields

The National Park Service has done a fantastic job here at Gettysburg. What an impressive museum. Overwhelming, actually. Rather than just focusing on the battle here, it tells the whole story of the Civil War, and I thought it did a very fair representation of both sides of the conflict. But, as always, "us old folks" learned as much from the junior ranger program as we did from the adult-oriented exhibits. Collin was involved in an hour-long program with a ranger entitled "Join the Army" that enabled the kids to feel what it must have been like to be a soldier then. They got to lift the actual equipment and see the uniforms that would have been worn. And the ranger conducting the program was so good with kids (kind of a kid himself) and had so much personality, the hour flew by. My advice: If you really want to see one of the National Parks, go with someone aged 6-12.

Catch-up--Atlanta

Just thought I'd do a little catch-up work today with some of the photos from earlier in the trip. This is Atlanta. Don't I have cute grand-kids?

Amish

You are now seeing what I am seeing. The boys are still asleep and I am having my coffee while looking out over the Amish countryside. We will be leaving this bucolic farmland today for the battlefields of Gettysburg. Hmm. Ponder this. Some of the bloodiest battlefields are in the midst of the Amish, Mennonite, and Quaker settlements.

Hershey,PA

The Sweetest Place on Earth--at least that's how they advertise it. Didn't do much for Jim , did it? We were decked out in our sterile garb for the lab. Don't worry it's still safe to eat Hershey Bars, they didn't let us touch anything but our own candy.

We went to the Story of Hershey Museum and Hershey's Chocolate World and I'm OD'd on chocolate. We now know everything there is to know about the making of chocolate and the history of the town that Hershey built. Actually, it was some pretty interesting stuff. Got to hold a cacao pod--much bigger than I thought--and make our own candy bar in the Chocolate Lab. Milton Hershey established a home for orphan boys here in the 20's as well as the model industrial town that housed the workers along with the largest chocolate factory in the world. He modeled it after Cadbury's in England. We also learned about the process of "milk" chocolate that made chocolate affordable for the masses. Pretty heady stuff, huh?

It's a very tidy town with streets named Cocoa and Chocolate...Chocolate Ave is lined with street lamps that look like Hershey's Kisses.

More 4th

I'm sorry that our blogs have not been coming regularly but we are having a steep learning curve going here. Hopefully, we are now ready to do something almost daily. So keep your comments coming. Love to hear from all of you.

Happy 4th

Yesterday was a day of firsts for the Fourth. We went to a ball game. A minor league team, the Lancaster Barnstormers were playing the York Revolutions at their local stadium which looks a lot like Dell Diamond. The game was followed by one of the best fireworks displays we have seen. Collin was able to go down on the ballfield with the other kids 12 and younger. He was giddy with excitement. Experiencing the Fourth, hearing the Star-Spangled Banner sung, in the area where the Revolution took place, brought goosebumps to the grown-ups too. I really liked the music selected to synchronize with the pyrotechnics. In addition to the military and patriotic selections that usually accompany the shows, we were also rocking to "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond and James Brown's "Living in America". Hope you all had fun Fourths.