A Trip 150 years in the Making: Gettysburg 2013 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I've never done a trip report, so please bear with me on this one.
But my family just got back from our trip to Gettysburg for the 150th Anniversary events and re-enactment, so I thought one might be warranted.
The troops: Me. That would be Carolyn, age 48. I grew up taking road trip vacations with my parents, and have become the trip planner for vacations with DH and DD. This is probably our biggest road trip ever. DH: Aka Rick. An engineer with an interest in history. Overworked, and in need of a vacation, though this one was hardly restful! DD: Age 13. She's the Civil War buff in the family. She's had a fascination with Lincoln since she was little, and that turned into an interest in the Civil War. In addition to regular middle school history, she's taken an elective class on the Civil War, so she can follow the battle with the best of us.
We drove to PA from MN, north of Minneapolis.
We were joined by my brother, Les, who flew up from Florida.
My brother is 13 years older than I am, so we don't have childhood memories in common. But we have the same parents -- an engineer father who probably should have been a history teacher, and a mother who rolled her eyes and went along for the ride. I've often said about my childhood that if our vacation took us within 50 miles of a battlefield or President's house we went.
My brother spent his childhood in PA, and went to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run as a child, so going to the 150th at Gettysburg was more than he could pass up.
We've travelled with my brother before -- DH and I went to Scotland for a week with him in 1998, just after we were married. And the four of us (me, DH, DD and DB) went to Winnipeg together last summer. But we've always had our own rooms to retreat to. Because DB joined our plans late, and rooms were in high demand for the anniversary, we made do with one room. I was worried, but it turned out to be a non issue. Most of the time. More about that later.
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I cannot wait to read about your trip! I'm a huge history buff and my degree is actually in Pre Civil War Southern History--however there was a lot of "war overlap" as I called it in my college days.
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I love Gettysburg. We always hire a guide when we go and we learn so much! I can't wait to hear about this. My husband is a history teacher and my kids and I love it too. We actually talked about going to the 150th anniversary, but it wouldn't work out. I'm excited to read about it!
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I wrote a very long paper in high school (American History) about Gettysburg - main source material was a 2 volume sete my dad (the retired General) has called "The Civil War"... I am a history buff too - esp. the civil war - and being an Army brat - vacations that came within 50 miles of battlefield or any other military object (ships, planes, etc) meant a detour.... but I have not made it to Gettysburg yet. It is a must do on my list. Can't wait to read your report.
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