Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sneaking around Maryland

On our way to dinner from Gettysburg, I spotted this house. Jamie will almost always stop and drive in for me to get pictures. We saw a sign that said "No hunting, trapping or ..." the rest was covered with vines so we figured we were okay because we weren't planning to hunt or trap anything.

Then before heading to the airport on Tuesday we stopped at another farm. Tiffany had told Jamie about a barn there so he drove by. We knocked on the doors of the house, but no one answered...so off I went to take pictures.


I really liked the doors...
Jamie said 'No Sweetie, we can't take one.'
Fine, I'll just get a picture then.
As we were driving out, we noticed a (huge) No Trespassing sign on the driveway to the first barn. Oopsss...guess it was a good thing that we parked in the driveway to the house then huh?

Gettysburg

Before the game on Sunday, we headed to Gettysburg. Jamie knew that I would enjoy the history in the area and suggested we all go. Shayne & Tiffany had never been to the battlefields, and Jamie couldn't remember it. Because we had a late start to the day, we decided to eat lunch, walk around a bit and then come back the next day for a tour.

or Shayne could give a tour??
So on Monday, we all loaded back up and headed to Gettysburg! We had some time before our tour bus left, so we visited a Soldier Museum. We didn't know it was just going to be toy figure soldiers and pictures of battle fields. It was informative, just not what we were expecting I guess.
Laynie liked it tho
Then we headed over to the Soldier's National Cemetery. Amazing...

so many of these
she was waving at me & still happy
We quickly grabbed some food and headed to the tour bus. This is when we found out that we wouldn't need to bring the stroller because we wouldn't really be getting out during our 2 hour bus tour. What?!?!? I know the brochure said 'stop at the battle fields and monuments' - which apparently meant that the bus 'stopped' and the guide explained what we were looking at. We could take picture through the window as we were 'stopped' or slowly drove by. Needless to say, I was not happy! About 15 minutes in to the tour, Delaynie wasn't happy either.
at the beginning of the bus ride
Luckily, the bus looped back around towards town and we decided to get off. (Otherwise, it would have been a long walk back for all of us!) We went back to the tour office -they wouldn't refund our money of course. (When we originally walked in with an infant and stroller, maybe they could have mentioned we would be stuck on a bus for 2 hours?) They told us that we could drive the tour on our own, highlighted a map for us and off we went. Laynie took a little nap and was much happier when we actually stopped to get out of the car!

The monuments and area were just simply beautiful. You could almost envision what happened there July 1, 2 & 3, 1863. Things could have ended up so differently. Thanks for the tour Jamie, Shayne & Tiffany!

As I am used to looking for photo opportunities while driving, I spotted a small dirt road along the way. There was a sign out front that said Shaffer Farm, and I like old farms! I talked Jamie in to going back to see what was there. The road was hidden by trees, but it looked easy enough to drive down. We finally spotted a big, beautiful barn and old house. Jamie and Tiffany went to see if anyone was home while I got out to take pictures. Lucky for us, there wasn't anyone living there at the time so I took pictures wherever I could.

On the way back out, we noticed a sign showing that the road/driveway was more like a horse path. Maybe that's why there was so much horse manure? Oh well...good venture!
Shayne, Tiffany and Delaynie headed back home while Jamie and I walked around Gettysburg for a few more pictures. Jamie took some pictures of me this trip, and you'll notice that I actually have feet and a head in all of the shots. Good job honey!
me with Abe and a regular today's citizen
After Gettysburg, we headed back to Maryland to have dinner with Jamie's mom, brother, niece and nephew. Even though there was country music, loudly playing in the restaurant and people were throwing peanut shells on the floor, the food was pretty good. It was a nice visit with Jamie's family too!