June 30, 2009 (Gettysburg, Hershey)

We left Baltimore early Tuesday morning and drove 1 1/2 hours to Gettysburg. We hired a private guide who drove our car around for three hours and pointed out the many interesting things at the battlefield. There are 1,400 different monuments at Gettysburg. I thought the tour would be too long for the kids, but they loved it. Jake even wanted to stay all day. This is a picture of Little Round Top, a hill taken by the north, which helped ensure their victory in the battle. We happened to be there around the time of the anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg, which took place July 1-3, 1863. It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

Here we are fascinated by our guide's explanation of events:

Monuments at Gettysburg:

It rained briefly while we were at Little Round Top. It was beautiful.

This is the monument erected by the State of Pennsylvania commemorating their human losses at the battle. After the names of the soldiers who fought in Gettysburg were engraved on the side of the monument, some were scratched off by other soldiers. The scratched off names were those who were judged to be deserters or soldiers who did not fight honorably at Gettysburg:

After leaving Gettysburg, we went to Hershey, Pennsylvania. We took a short trolley ride around town (the tackiest trolley ride EVER.) It was interesting through to learn about what a great person Mr. Hershey was. We also loved seeing the street lights that look like chocolate kisses.