Reunion Time: Chelsea is Here

Isn't she beautiful?

Our oldest, Chelsea, is a nanny back in the Seattle area and her family had a week off so we flew her out here to visit and as a early birthday celebration since we won't be there for hers and she wasn't here for D's. The first visit in 4 1/2 months!

We rode a ferry on the east coast

Had a super special crab dinner at yummy Joe's Crab Shack, where they made her be part of the entertainment

Explored Colonial Williamsburg - with a very tired girl

Rode a trolley with one of our friends from Seattle who lives in VA now

Had a family movie night - in the camper

Went to the Atlantic Ocean

And got to have some much needed Chelsea time. We love and miss you already. Thank you for visiting your crazy family.

Civil War - Gettysburg and their horses

So much more than a time in history, visiting Gettysburg history comes to life and becomes real. 

Real men fought against each other. Friend against friend, brother against brother, to the death. 

We used the car audio tour that you can purchase in the Gettysburg book shop inside the Visitors Center. It directs you through on a driving tour to see specific sites that were marked in history. Some by bloody battles that made the river run red and others where famous speeches were given. 

The Calvary was a large part of the war and is attested to my the multitude of monuments to the men and their horses all across this country.

What made this more interesting for us, was learning about the details and studying more about the Civil War. Although the war will always be remembered for true freedom for all and the end of slavery as we are all taught in school, there is so much more to the Civil War than slavery though. Did you know slavery still existed in the North after the end of the Civil War and Lincoln himself owned slaves? Not long, but it was still there.

Much of it came to a difference of opinion over the Constitution and whether or not it was an evolving document, land rights, cotton and the desire for the south to succeed from the union. 

Gettysburg will go down for all of history as a battlefield of all battlefields. In 3 days of fighting, the Union lost 27% of their troops and the Confederates lost somewhere between 30-34%. Three days. Almost 50,000 lives gone. In the Visitors Center, they use those numbers and estimate if the war happened today, that 50,000 would be well over 1 million with today's population. 

I am saddened at the losses and the families that never happened or that were destroyed due to the war. I love this country. I hope that if given the chance, you will take time to drive the battlefields and see our countries history. 

the boys and their dog in the middle of a battlefield

Happy Birthday Dakota and Jamestown

This is our second birthday on the road - this time for a 12 year old!

We actually started the day before in Jamestown, going back to 1607 when the very first settlers arrived (13 years before the Pilgrams arrived) in what would become these United States of America.

Scott and the boys on the Susan Constant

Here, Jamestown has been recreated back to the 17th century where we walked among the settlers in their daily lives, whether it be in the kitchen where they prepared one meal a day and the other two meals would have been leftovers and possibly some fruits or vegetables and cheese, to the forge where we watched as one man stood making nails. Yes, nails.

They did used a version of raised beds back in the 17th century.

And the chickens were allowed to roam and fertilize the dead beds

We also experienced a little of the life of the Powahtan Indians and walked through their homes. It was amazing to see all the actual animal rugs. If the men in your family were very good hunters, you would have made the very best hides into large coats to keep you warm through the winter. The rest would have been laid across the beds - both for comfort as well as warmth. The bones from the animals were used as well. Primarily as tools, animal bones were also filled and shaped into fishing hooks.

Boys trying on the gear

We ended the day by celebrating at Red Robin, one of D's favorite places - singing and all.

 

On his birthday, after a short school day, we headed out for an adventurous day of hands on learning.

We started out in Yorktown, went and played video games (talk about two opposite ends of the spectrum), went to a military surplus store for D to pick out some of his own gifts, and ended the night with a new Royal Rangers group where he found a new friend with very similar hobbies. 

Not being a big sugar eater, D opted out of cake and just wanted some ice cream, so day 3 of his birthday, ended with a trip to the local ice cream shop.

In the end, D said this was the best birthday he's had without having his friends around. Whatever that means, I'll take it he had a good time.