Sunday, April 7, 2013

Five Years Part I

On March 15th, Josh and I celebrated our five year anniversary!  These last five years have flown by.  We have both finished up degrees, have lived in 3 different states, have lived in 5 different apartment/homes and have had a lot of fun. 
 
Here we are on our wedding day, 5 years ago.
 
Because it was our FIVE year anniversary, we decided that we needed to do something a little special.  So at the last minute, we decided to take a little bit of time off work and headed out.  We didn't really have any specific plans except we wanted to go to Gettysburg and Hershey, PA.

We/I took a ton of pictures, so beware.  Our first stop was Gettysburg.  It was a great place to go and we went at the right time of year.  We could see that during the summer, this place is completely packed!  It was great to go and learn more about our history.  I'm sure I learned all of this in school, but its completely different to see it in person and to learn about it at this age. 

We started out at the visitor center/museum.  This is right outside of it:



We first watched a 25 minute video narrated by Morgan Freeman.  Then we went to see what they called "The Gettysburg Cyclorama."  It is this HUGE painting.  It is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs an estimated 3 tons.  Here they told the story again for the actual battled and played a little light show on the painting.  It was so neat!  There are so many details on the painting.  It is completely amazing.

Josh had to make sure that we got a picture of the field "hospital."


After the Cyclorama, we went into the museum.  There are cannons all around the town of Gettysburg.  We were told that they are placed everywhere so that we can remember the events that took place there and remember to respect the peace and the lives that were given there.

This was one of my favorite quotes.  It almost even brought tears to my eyes as I thought about it and about where we are as a country today.  There are many who fight in our military and give their lives today but what about the other citizens of this great country?  Are we willing to do everything we can to protect our country and the freedoms that we have?

The battle took place over three days, from July 1-3.



After the museum, we drove around and did our own little car tour of the battlefield.  There are statues and monuments all along the tour.





There are several lookout points along the way too.  It was a little cold and SOOOO windy, so we only climbed a few but he is one of the views.  It's a beautiful place!
 





This is at the top of the "Little Roundtop"






This is where the well was and were the soldiers obtained water throughout the battle.
 
This was day one of our little vacation.  We had a great time there and it truly is an amazing place.