Gettysburg

Some of my weekend plans ended up falling through so at the last minute I decided to take a trip down to Gettysburg. It ended up being about a 45 minute drive from my hotel, not too bad really. I have to admit that I didn't really know much about why Gettysburg was so famous so it made for a good learning experience. It was quite a sobering experience to really think about how much people sacrificed to unite our country. I am really grateful to those brave people and I take it for granted way too often.
I've decided that I'm not a huge museum person. I tried to be, but after half an hour or so, I get kind of bored. So I mostly watched the movies they had playing about the 3 different days of battle and the aftermath. I had never really considered the toll that battle had on the residence of Gettysburg. After the battle was over and the soldiers had moved on, the town was full of dead bodies, horses, damaged property etc. They said it took generations for it to return to normal.
After I saw the movies and went through the museum, I went on the driving tour that takes you around to the different sites of the battle. I'm not much of a picture taker, but in honor of my blog I snapped a couple of shots.





This is the actual town of Gettysburg. You can't tell from this picture, but the most distinct feature to me was a church steeple, which I thought was kind of appropriate.



This was an observation tower you could climb. It was really hot and humid, which made me not want to go up all those stairs, but the view was worth it.







All the states that fought in the battle have their own little monuments and then Pennsylvania's is HUGE (of course).



I had to get one picture to prove that I was actually there (even if it isn't a very flattering one).