Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

Gettysburg. On Saturday, we woke up at the butt crack of dawn (a.k.a. 7:00 am) and drove an hour and a half to Gettysburg, PA. We went to the museum there and toured the battlefield. It was an amazing experience!! Being there feels so real. It's hard to put into words, but it is a really cool experience. We learned so many interesting things about the battle that you could only learn if you went there, and that would only make sense if you were there. Some of the houses still have artillery shells in them. Our guide said you can still find bullets in the grass and trees. He said that not even all of the bodies have been found. It is interesting to stand on Little Round Top and look at over the battfield and imagine what it must have been like, what it must have looked like, covered in bodies. More men were killed at Gettysburg, a three-day battle, than the Vietnam War, a 15-year war. Suze and I found a little cave on top of the hill made out of rocks, with a perfect hole to shoot from but not get shot. I am sure one or two soldiers hid in that cave during the battle. It is so sad, but an almost haunting experience, as if those men are still there. We stood where Pickett's Charge took place, which is still hailed as one of the greatest military attacks in history. We got to see where Lincoln stood when he gave the Gettysburg address. It was a neat experience.
Yesterday decided we wanted to go to the Theodore Roosevelt Island Wildlife Preserve. We hadn't even taken five steps when it turned into one of the funniest adventures we have had yet in DC. We had a battle, Jillian and her Blackberry vs. me and my iPhone. If it wasn't for me misreading the directions, I would have won. However, we ended up on the other side of the freeway from where we were supposed to be. We ended up jumping over the side of the freeway barrier, taking a sketchy trail, jumping through a hole in the fence, going under the bridge on the bank of the Potomac, and ended up on Roosevelt Island. It was so much fun!!