Saturday, August 27, 2016

My Trip to Gettysburg part 1

My family and I took a two week vacation from 8/11-8/24 back to NJ/NY and PA, to visit family and friends. We also took trips out to NYC, the shore, PA and other spots in NJ.  This post and another post I will put up will be about our trip to Gettysburg.  Now I grew up in NJ and moved away when I was 26.  I had never been to Gettysburg before this trip.  It was simply amazing.  I've been to other battlefields but I have never seen such a well preserved battlefield before and the museum was hands down the best I've ever been too.  Our first day consisted of us driving in from NJ and heading out to the museum.  What I thought was going to be a short little jaunt turned into a 4 hour stay at the museum.  As we were heading out to start our battlefield tour the weather turned nasty with lightening, thunder and a heavy down pour.  So we checked in at our hotel and waited out the storm doing laundry. :-) After about 3 hours of buckets of rain, we headed out for dinner and then decided while the sun was still out to start our driving tour of the battlefield.  We did that until sunset.


My wife and daughter at the entrance to the museum. Once inside we paid to see the movie about the 3 day battle, which allowed my daughter and wife to get acquainted with what happened.  From there they take you upstairs to see the 360 degree cyclorama of the battle that was painted in the 1880s.  It is simply stunning. My pictures don't do it justice.  While you are looking at the painting the battle unfolds in front of you with the cyclorama back lit at certain points of the 3 day battle.





To help capture the depth of the battlefield the museum extend the cyclorama out with modeling the battlefield in 3D.  It added depth and touch of realism to the effect.  It was very well done.





Unbeknownst to me each section of the cyclorama had been painted and then sent to different museum around the country at that time.  The above photo was one section that was in NYC.




A diagram on the components of the army.




The museum was so well done.  There is so much to see it just inside it can take a full day to see it all.


My daughter in the gift shop. She cracks me up.

3 comments:

  1. Great photos! I went over last year and I can't wait to go back. Even after a few days on the battlefield I feel there is still more to see and experience!

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  2. Looks like a great visit, Vic. Your daughter strikes the right poses for the headgear. BTW, I'm surprised the PC police haven't banned those Rebel kepis :)!

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  3. I'm surprised that you never managed to visit Gettysburg when you were growing up in NJ. I was there twice with my family growing up, and on the trip my future wife (married 34 years today took together where I proposed to her, we left from NJ and visited Gettysburg, then Harper's Ferry, and then proceeded down the Shenandoah valley, visiting Lurray caverns and the skyline drive through the Blue Ridge mountains.

    My favorite trip there, though, was with my scout troop when I was about 15. We actually camped on the battlefield two nights near some of the Southern positions, hiked the route of Pickett's charge, and also up Little Round Top top Chamberlain's position. Naturally, I provided most of the expert commentary, LOL!

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