Gettysburg Trip Day 2

Gettysburg Trip Day 2
7/20/14

We started the day out with going to the earlier parts of the Self-Guiding Auto Tour that we did not visit yesterday. Gettysburg was a battle that lasted 3 days. The area we went to first in the morning was an area where action occurred on the first day. The pic to the left was near Seminary Ridge. The ridge looked out to an open field. 

There are lots of interesting Memorials along the route. 

This is the Virginia Memorial with Robert E. Lee at the top on his horse.

From this memorial, you can walk out into the large open field where you have a nice view of where the last Confederate assault of the battle know as "Pickett's Charge" occurred.

We then continued on to the Observation Tower, that the kids loved. They really enjoyed walking up the stairs and my 5 year old tried counting. According to him it is 117 steps.

After the tower, we headed to hike up Big Round Top. It was a nice short hike, probably about a half mile one way. At the top are some memorials. No view as the trees with all the leaves are obstructing any good views. The hike up might be better in the Fall when all the leaves have fallen if you want a good view.

After the short hike, we headed toward the High Water Mark where we saw the Copse of Trees and The Angle. 

Our last stop of the tour was the National Cemetery. This was where Lincoln did his Gettysburg Address at the Cemetery's dedication.

We were getting hungry by the time we were finished visiting the Cemetery, so we headed back to town and had lunch at Lincoln's Diner. Not bad and very affordable!

It was right across the street from the train station, so we checked that out as my 3 year old loves trains. He was excited to go the station, but was disappointed when he didn't see a big train. There is a little museum inside with a model train, but no big trains.

We walked around Gettysburg and saw where the David Wills House was. We also went to this free museum, the Gettysburg Museum of History that had a lot of interesting war relics.

Gettysburg is an interesting place to visit and I enjoyed seeing all the sites. However, it is also pretty touching since so many lost their lives on the battlefield where we visited. There was so much to see and learn about such an important historical event! It would be great to go back again when the kids are older and have learned about the Civil War and the Battle that took place.