Day 2: Started with rain, ended with sun!

Our day began bright and early with a 6:00 a.m. (!) wake-up call from the front desk. I don't think anyone really likes the phone anymore. Breakfast at 7:00 was a very good buffet - replete with fruits, eggs, dairy, and carbs! And, oh yes...coffee for the chaperones only.

The rain was coming down fast and furious. Mother Nature was angry for some reason. I'm sure it was nothing our group did...

We boarded the coach for the 2-hour ride to Sharpsburg, MD and Antietam Creek - for a visit to the Antietam National Battlefield. We viewed a 22-minute film on the Battle - the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. Afterwards, we got back on the bus and did a 1/2 hour tour of the fields, the Creek, and the significant structures that surround the now sacred ground.

Poster announcing the Cyclorama

Awaiting General George Meade's next orders...

What else? McDonald's!

Another hour more to Gettysburg, PA. The rain started to subside just in time for 12:00 lunch in Gettysburg. We reminded the students that McDonald's was not there 150 years ago. After some excellent nourishment at Friendly's, McDonald's, or KFC, we got to the National Military Park at Gettysburg in time for our 1:00 battlefields tour.

We really could not have been more blessed with a tour guide. Gary Kross was so knowledgeable and entertaining that 2+ hours on the fields and the bus through the grounds went quite quickly. All of us learned so much about the battle strategy of the Confederate's own Robert E. Lee, and The Union's George Meade. We got very luck with the weather as well. Although windy, the sun came out and warmed us all. We climbed a 90-foot observation tower, scaled Big Round Top and Little Round Top, and we stood in some of the exact locations of the battle's most notable leaders as they surveyed the action and schemed their next moves.


Next, we saw a 30-minute film reenacting the skirmish known as Pickett's Charge, called "Fields of Freedom," and we headed to the Visitor's Center to witness the painting-in-the-round known as the Cyclorama. 

Of course, our visit ended as all tours do...with the ubiquitous gift shop.

"We heard this is where the Union Army eats!"

It is now 6:15 p.m. and we are almost in the vicinity of the Pentagon City Mall. In groups, the students will have dinner and a little time to cruise around the 3-story mall. Afterwards, it will be back to the hotel for a swim, a time to relax, and a time to calm down for bed.

At the base of an observation tower near Culp's Hill, Gettysburg National Military Park

More details to follow...