Vacation 2013 - Post #2, Gettysburg, PA. (Pt 1 - The Museum)

So, late into day 2 of vacation, we arrive in Chambersburg, PA.  Why is this significant?

Good question!

It's because it's the point of the first beer store we found on the trip.  I don't recall the name of the joint as it wasn't much more than a Morton building on the side of a 4 lane road thru town, but there it was in all of its neon decorated glory!

We pull in and Dear Ol' Dad goes into the store to peruse the wares. I selected a 12 pack sampler of the Smuttynose variety and a Yuenglings Porter case!  When I got up to the register, the lovely young lady working there explained that they only sell things by the case so I had to go grab another 12 box of the Smuttynose sampler!

Oh the horror! Oh the shame!

So I carried it out to the car in one load and nearly died doing it!  I haven't carried 48 beer bottles (full) since my much younger years and it's harder than you think!

Anyway, moving on to the point of the post...

The town is, roughly speaking, about 15 - 20 miles West (and just a hop, skip and a jump North) of Gettysburg.  You can really start to see the lay of the land described in so many of the stories of the civil war, not to mention that there are a whole pile of period buildings in town that have been preserved in between the Hardees and Morton buildings filled with beer.

Very cool.

We leave there and continue on Southeast towards what's basically the mythical town of Gettysburg.  It's one of those places that we always hear about in the Midwest, but never really expect to visit.

We arrive there quite late in the evening and it's dark. It's dark and the roads are curvy.  It's dark, with curvy, short roads and suddenly there are old wood fences and cannons visible by the dim light projected from the 45 - 90 degree angle of the headlights!

VERY COOL!  ...and a little spooky.

We find our hotel shortly thereafter and hit the proverbial hay after a dinner at the hotel restaurant.

The next morning we head into the Gettysburg visitor center and get the day going.

Let's cut to the pictures so perhaps I'll shut up...

This is the Museum/Visitor center that was built fairly recently. This houses the ticket booth, the gift shop and the museum and probably other stuff that we did not experience.

This is the left side of the Museum/Visitor center from the shot above.  The big round-a-bout thing on the top will come into play later on in this post regarding a mural that some fella painted.

Robby with a Abraham Lincoln hat on.  It was HARD getting the boys out of the gift shop!

Calebber McCheese with the aforementioned hat on.  His favorite president is Mr. Lincoln and he might be the only prez that Caleb recognizes.

The boys with their soldier caps on.  Notice that Robby is wearing blue.  Mom had set out clothes for him that morning and they happened to be grey shorts and a grey shirt.  Robby said, and I'll paraphrase, "Mom, I don't want to be picky, but this stuff is grey and we're in Gettysburg.".  So be it!  Momma helped him get some other clothes that more closely represent his inner feelings.  :-) 

Now we're in the museum.  This is one of the official uniforms and rifles.  These guys appeared to be small!

Again, more stuff from the museum to give an idea of what kind of stuff is in there.

Caleb by one of the many preserved cannon muzzles.

I was creeped out by the "Sale" documents that have been preserved.  Notice the doc in the upper left side of the photo titled, "Slavery   Ordained By God".  This conversation could go in SOOOOOOOOOOO very many differentways.  Talk amongst yourselves...

Here is the first shot of the mural that is called the Gettysburg Cyclorama.  It was painted by a fella named Paul Philoppoteaux depicting Picketts Charge.  It circles that entire big round area in that second photo up top.

certain young lad who is fascinated by all things Civil War/Presidents/history in general.  What you can't tell from either of these photos, is that they went thru the trouble of building a 3D landscape that leads from the viewing platform down to the wall where the mural starts.  It's all to scale so the stuff right up close to you is much larger than the stuff, say, 25 feet away.  A fella had to look pretty hard at times to figure out where the actual mural started and the more "real" stuff leading down to it ended

Some of the musical instruments used during the war.  I say some, as there were more scattered thru the museum.

Some of the guns used in the war.  Both the guns and the instruments were both donated items as well as "stuff" collected from the battlefields themselves.

"Small Chinese Boy" posing next to one of many displays of medals of honor issued during and after the war.  One room was dedicated to this alone!