Gettysburg Visit

A few weeks ago the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so B and I decided to skip town for a little day trip. "To the beach!" I said, only to realize that from our present location the beach (I mean the real beach along the ocean) is a 3 hour drive. Groan. (Sidenote: I have never lived this far from the ocean and it saddens me.). Instead we set a driving limit of 2 hours. What can we reach in 2 hours or less? Well, we've "done" Fauquier County, the wineries, the orchards, so what else? Richmond didn't intrigue us. Downtown is played out and Baltimore has been visited enough. So that left only one direction: due north and straight on to Gettysburg for a day of history and Civil War battleground!

Abe and Cat: best friends

The drive was exceedingly pleasant and we even found a parking spot close to a picnic table (to be used later) and the visitor center. We decided to splurge and "do it all" so we bought tickets for the museum, 20 minute film "A New Birth of Freedom" (narrated by Morgan Freeman), the Gettysburg Cyclorama, and a 2-hour guided bus tour.

Section of the Gettysburg Cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge

The cyclorama was especially cool. It is an 1884 oil-on-canvass painting by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux depicting "Pickett's Charge," the climactic moment of the Gettysburg battle on July 3, 1865. The painting is huge, measuring in at 359 feet long and 27 feet high that wraps around you for a 360 degree view.

After the film and cyclorama, B and I had a light picnic lunch then hopped on the bus for our 2-hour tour. Our tour guide was amazing at painting a vivid picture of the battle for us non-Civil War buffs. We hit all the major spots: Culps Hill, Seminary Ridge (the Confederate front line), The Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, and finally Cemetery Ridge and The Angle where Confederate troops broke the Union line only to be slaughtered and essentially end the battle.

The Angle: the only place where the Confederates broke the Union line at the culmination of Pickett's Charge

There was something surreal and somber about standing on that place where so many Americans died. You could feel their spirits there. As an archaeologist I was also struck by the sheer amount of monuments dotting the landscape. A thousand years from now a team excavating Gettysburg will have an interesting time piecing together what force motivated people to mark these fields in such a permanent way. Will the battle have meaning for those archaeologists the way it does for us currently only 150 years separated from the event?

After our battlefield tour, B and I went in to the town of Gettysburg to stroll along the shops, eat some yummy pub food, and spy the bullet holes still marking the sides of several historic buildings. We even ventured by the David Wills House where Abraham Lincoln stayed the night before his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery.

Check out the rest of our Gettysburg pictures here.

4th Anniversary!

It's hard to believe, but Catherine and I recently celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary.  The time has definitely flown!  Each year we try to do something fun to commemorate the event and this year was no different.

A couple of months back I came upon a Living Social coupon for a 2 night stay at the Blackthorne Inn.  The deal included a 2 night stay, 2 complimentary breakfasts, a $25 gift certificate to their pub, a free tasting at a nearby winery, and lastly a bottle of wine plus cheese and crackers in your room upon arrival.  All for around $200!

We drove out in the early evening on September 16th.  We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Shenandoah Valley as we drove westward.  We arrived and checked into our room that used to be part of the old stables on the grounds back when the land was deeded to George Washington.  The main house has since been converted into their restaurant and pub.  The pub was cozy and filled with patrons. A trio of musicians provided live entertainment.  After some beers and fish and chips we were quite content!

The pond and gazebo on the grounds.

On Saturday we ventured further west toward the town of Front Royal.  Near there we explored a walking trail around an old civil war camp and battle site.  The lunettes where the cannons were stationed were still along the ridge of the hill, albeit all overgrown now.  There were also some natural caves along the trail which were marked with plenty of "Keep Out" signage and warnings about the natural hazards that can be found within (bears, snakes, bats, fun stuff like that).

If Ansel had taken a trip down below.

The highlight of the day though was from our visit to Skyline Caverns.  A vast network of caves discovered in 1937 has since been opened up as a tourist destination.  Along with all the natural mineral formations you expect to find within caves systems like that, the big geological claim to fame is the anthodite clusters.  These ultra-rare formations have only been noted in a couple other places in the entire world.  Apparently the section of cave in which they were found was naturally vacuum sealed.  When the excavating geologist put his spade into the mud at the mouth of that particular cave section, it wouldn't come back out.  When a stronger workman finally extricated it, a loud rush of air enveloped them all and much of their equipment was sucked inside!  The anthodite look like crystalline sea anemones.  The tour took about an hour altogether and was pretty amazing.

Mineral Formations.

An Underground Pond.

Anothodite Clusters.

More Anthodite.

That evening we dined at the Hunter's Head Tavern.  It's an English style tavern that uses all locally grown and raised ingredients in their dishes.  Everything was very tasty!

Carefully considering my options.

On Sunday we checked out and went in search of apples!  We found Stribling Orchard nearby.  We spent the late morning picking half a bushel of various types including red delicious, golden delicious, jonathan, grimes golden, and empire apples.  To spoil our lunch we had some fresh pressed apple juice and some apple turnovers from their little shop on the orchard grounds.  So delicious!

Cat blends in quite nicely.

We had lunch then made our way to Barrel Oak Winery (BOW for short), which was the free tasting provided by our Living Social deal.  We thought the abbreviation was cute, but didn't realize the full extent to which it applied!  As we drove up we saw families with their dogs all over a large grassy areas with picnic benches and umbrellas.  Inside the tasting room was the same scene.  Folks with their leashed dogs sidled up to the tasting bar.  The imprint on the top of all the wine bottles is even a doggie paw print.  We had a great pourer who was very knowledgeable about their wines and the region in general. The wine was tasty too, imagine that!  Cat and I had to obsess over the couple of bottles we ended up getting, otherwise we could have easily spent waaaay too much.

All-in-all a very fun/relaxing trip!  I'd say the only bummer were the constant stink bugs we had to eject from our room.  Guess there are a lot of them out there this time of year.  They weren't dangerous or anything, more of a nuisance.

If you want to see all the pictures from our trip, you can see them here.