Summer 2017 History and Broadway Tour

We said goodbye to Horsham and got on the PA turnpike, and then the NJ turnpike. We went through the Lincoln Tunnel, drove into Manhattan and found our hotel easily. They let us check in right away, even though it was just 12:30. Our room is on the 14th floor, so we have a great city view, especially at night. We're just 2 blocks from Times Square and the theater district. After we got settled in our room we headed out for some lunch. We got genuine NYC hot dogs and some meat and cheese empenadas right in the middle of Times Square, while the city bustled around us. Then we wandered around the M and M store, Nintendo store, Coach store I thought this $1600 leather jacket would be perfect for me to wear to school but Sarah said "No!" Dinosaur made of Coach bags. Roar! and a few blocks north to Rockefeller Center, where the Today show, Tonight show, Saturday Night Live, and NBC news are broadcast. They were redecorating the Today Show set fo...

We finished our tour of the Gettysburg battlefields today, ending with a stop at the national cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. A park ranger pointed out the exact spot, and explained that they know exactly where he stood by examining old photos and then using GPS to pinpoint the location using landmarks there. Fascinating! Here are Amy and Sam  in front of that spot: There are hundreds of graves of unknown soldiers, and thousands that are attributed to specific regiments or divisions, but the names are not known. The whole experience was very enlightening, and I think we all have a better understanding of the entire 3 day battle. Sam and I got ice cream while Amy and Sarah went through the museum of Jenny Wade, who died of a stray bullet while baking bread for the Union soldiers. The house is said to be haunted, and Sarah said it was really creepy in the cellar. Here is Amy with the statue of Jenny. Next we pushed on to Valley For...

We got up early to arrange some touring today around Gettysburg. Our hotel has a "breakfast cottage" rather than a room off the lobby where the usual breakfast foods are offered. Underneath it is a "haunted" pub. Then we got an auto tour book, CD and smartphone app from the front desk and began our Battlefield tour. We did half today and will finish tomorrow. We met some interesting characters at the battlefield sites. The town is gearing up for the annual re-enactment July 1-3 so lots of enthusiasts are in town and on the tour route. After lunch we swam a little and did some laundry chores. Then it was time for a carriage tour through town, complete with a guitar player/singer who regaled us with Civil War era songs. We got some interesting information about the downtown homes and history. Then we walked back downtown to a great dinner at the Pub and Tavern ( http://www.the-pub.com/ ) in the heart of Gettysburg. It has a very pretty function room upsta...

We drove to Monticello from Staunton this morning. Amy and I had visited about 16 years ago, and wow has it changed. There is now a huge Visitors' Center with a movie, museum, gift shop and shuttle buses to get to the actual house and Jefferson's grave. Last time, we parked right next to the house and walked up to buy tickets. Our whole visit took about an hour. Today, the computers were down, so all transactions were done by hand, and the scheduling system for the house tours was inoperable. So instead of timed tickets and small groups waiting to enter, there was a looong line with no plan for organizing people. Our visit ended up being about 3 hours as a result, but we enjoyed learning all about Jefferson and his life and times. The company that now owns the site is busy building and restoring things to their original 1820 state and there was a lot of new stuff since our previous visit. No photography is allowed inside, so these exterior pictures are all we could take....