Historical Road Trip

After we left the kids with Grandma and Papa, Mr. Cash and I were on the road again. Our first stop was Gettysburg, PA. We stayed in a historical bed and breakfast called the Brickhouse Inn, which was very nice and cozy, right in downtown. The downtown area was very touristy, loud and congested, but our room, the Ohio room, was at the back of the house so it was pretty quiet. We walked the downtown area that evening,many of the buildings were there during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. We even saw one that still had the bullet holes in it from the battle. The next day we visited the Gettysburg National Park. Everyone we talked to had recommended getting a personal guide for the tour of the battlefield so we did that first thing. Our guide drove our car and took us to the important sites on the battlefield. First, let me just say, the battlefield was huge!! I had no idea it was so big!! It's a good thing that we did the personal tour, we never would have seen it all or learned so much! Every state that was in the battle has monuments for their men. We saw the eternal flame and many statues of commanders in the battle. We also visited the cemetery where unknown soldiers are buried and saw where President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address. It was a very interesting, informative and sad day when you remember all of those men who died in that battle.Mr. Cash and me in front of the eternal flame monument.Statue and monument of Robert E. Lee.

The next stop on our trip was Philadelphia. Neither of us had been there so we didn't quite know what to expect. We stayed in the Omni right by Independence Park so we could walk to all of the different buildings. Philadelphia was interesting, the city is built all around the historical sites so when you are walking to the different areas you are walking in an urban area with lots of cars and buildings. Now I know that Philadelphia's motto is "Brotherly Love", but we didn't see much love for the tourists or maybe I'm just not a big city girl. Anyway, the sites are scattered all over the downtown area so we walked a lot that day. We went and got our tickets for Independence Hall first and got that out of the way, while in Independence park, we also saw the Congress House and the building where the first Supreme Court sat. We saw Betsy Ross' house, Benjamin Franklin's grave and square, where his residence and shops were. We saw the Liberty Bell, the First Bank and Second Bank of the United States, and Carpenter's Hall, where the First Continental Congress met. We saw the house where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and Elfreth's Alley, which is the oldest continously occupied street in the United States. For lunch, we ate at the City Tavern, which serves authentic 18th century dishes. I had Martha Washington's Turkey Pot Pie. It was a busy and tiring day.

Independence Hall at about 8:00 in the morning, notice no people, it doesn't stay that way. The modern buildings in the background ruin the historical effect.

Me at Elfreth's Alley. For my fifth grade teacher friends, this is the same alley that is in the social studies textbook.

No explanation needed.

The next day, we went to the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic site (house) in Philadelphia. We had to drive to his house so we went there on the way out of town. Poe lived in the house for about a year. The thing we remember about this house is the basement was really creepy and reminded Mr. Cash of one of his short stories. After that we headed to the Valley Forge National Park, which was the site of the American winter camp of 1777-78 during the American Revolution. This site was also huge!! What was really neat about this park is it has walking and biking trails throughout as well as horseback riding. We did the self guided driving tour. There are rebuilt cabins, monuments to the men who stayed there and, my favorite, George Washington's headquarters, which was the actual building that he stayed in. Unfortunately, what I remember about this park was that someone ran into my car with their bike while we were looking at a monument and scratched up my bumper.

Monument to soldiers.

Washington's headquarters.

Statue of Von Steuben, who trained the soldiers at Valley Forge.

Then we finally got to leave the state of Pennsylvania. I really did not care for the state. The roads were horrible!!! We were on our way to Charlottesville, VA. We stayed in the historical part of town and drove by the University of Virginia, which was founded by Thomas Jefferson. The next day we got up and went to Monticello, which was Thomas Jefferson's estate. It was really pretty and one of my favorite parts of our trip. He was really forward thinking for his time when it came to building his house.

After touring Monticello, we headed for home. We were on the road for 12 days, drove over 3,000 miles and through 11 states so it felt good to get back home. Visiting all of those places made us realize how much we like where we live and that we have no desire to move anywhere else.