Return to Gettysburg

Wednesday June 3.

The trip from our hotel west of Cleveland to Gettysburg would take us less than five hours and that would give us time to maybe get off the interstate and explore some of the backroads of western PA. Susan learned that just off the PA Turnpike at the Somerset exit was the Flight 93 Memorial.  It was about three hours to Somerset and another 20 minutes or so to the memorial park. 

What an incredible place! Words do not do justice to this small slice of our nation's history but perhaps a few photos might. You really have to be there to realize the enormity of it all.

From the entrance it's another 2.5 miles to the visitor center and crash site.

visitor center on the left and restrooms and trail head on the right

the views from atop the visitor center plateau were pretty spectacular 

the walkway represents the final flight path of flight 93

visitor center entrance

Inside the visitor's center is a very moving series of news clips and timelines depicting that day on 9/11/2001 which was, at times, hard to watch for those of us who remember it so clearly. This year is the 25th anniversary too.

continuing along the flightpath

looking back toward the visitor center

the wall of names in the center and just beyond is the crash site

We drove down to the memorial plaza and walked to the crash site along the debris field to the wall of names of the 40 men and women on flight 93 (no children we were told).

tokens of remembering

a portion of the wall

a look back up to the visitor center

On the way out we stopped at the Tower of Voices. Made up of tubular wind chimes, the winds have to be up to at least 12mph for it produce sound. It was a pretty still afternoon when we were there so it remained quiet.

Across Rte 30 (the Lincoln Highway) is Patriot Park. This is a memorial to the 7,000 men and women who have died during what was referred to on the signage as the Global War on Terrorism. There is one flag planted for each person.

Returning to Rte 30 we drove to Bedford, PA where we got back on the Pike. After another 20 miles or so we got off and made our way back to Rte 30 through Chambersburg and on into Gettysburg and our hotel. The drive was lovely and leisurely and we didn't mind that a bit.

Once we were settled in and unpacked we drove to the Peach Orchard to pay our respects to the boys of the 3rd Michigan -- and their compatriots of the 3rd Maine and 2nd New Hampshire who served alongside them in the Orchard on July 2, 1863.

the 3rd Michigan monument in the Peach Orchard

small stones on the right mark the connection of the 3rd Michigan and 3rd Maine

the 3rd Maine monument

the 2nd New Hampshire monument with the 3rd Maine center and 3rd Michigan in the distance

We drove a short ways along the Confederate lines looking for the James Longstreet memorial which we could not find. We'll rectify that tomorrow.

From the park we drove back into downtown Gettysburg and parked along the street. The parking meter caused us a short few minutes of anxiety before we figured it out then off we went in search of a place to eat. 

Susan was looking at the menu of a place called the Sign of the Buck when a threesome walked in and one of the guys said to her "this place is good". And so in we went. And yes the food was good and, it being Wednesday, all the wines by the glass were half price. We each had a scrumptious salad (Susie's was caesar with chicken, mine was a chopped with shrimp) washed down by Cremant de Loire.   Not a bad way to end a very special day for us both.

Tomorrow we head back into the park for the auto tour and who knows what else!

Back on the road again

Tuesday, June 2.

It was a gorgeous day in west Michigan as we departed for the east coast. Having replaced our electric vehicle with a hybrid (a Honda CRV if you must know), we were eager to tackle our first major road trip in more than three years.  Yes, yes we did the trip to Sault Sainte Marie Ontario and a trip to Chicago but we were keen to drive back to New England to see family.  And that would have required God knows how many stops to charge yada yada yada.

But enough complaining. It was a pretty quick drive to our first stop, Cleveland. From our condo we drove right to the Cleveland Museum of Art to check out the Manet-Morisot exhibition now underway. And what a place! Located at the edge of an large oval green space close to the Botanical gardens and the Museum of Natural History this place is truly amazing.

And Grand Rapids please take note: the museum is free and ticketed exhibitions are free for military!

It was a moving experience for the both of us to revisit (once again) so many paintings of two of our favorite artists Edouard Manet and especially Berthe Morisot.

The exhibition was well laid out, easy to navigate and very well signed.

Just to give you a quick sample of Berthe's work:

A Summer's Day, 1879

And this:

Woman Sewing, c. 1879

And just one more:

Interior, 1872-73

From the exhibition hall on the lower level we moved upstairs and visited several of the galleries dedicated to Impressionism, Realism. We  skipped through the Abstract Expressionism to visit the photography gallery which was dedicated to early images of France during the time of Manet and Morisot. 

I was particularly taken by this image of Notre Dame taken by Charles Soulier from the early 1860s:

We made our way back down to the main floor and enjoyed a cup of coffee (our afternoon "hot beverage"in honor of Sheldon from the Big Bang) while soaking up this the incredible open space. 

We were fortunate to strike up a conversation with a fellow who has long since retired from the Cleveland Symphony where he played the viola. What began as a simple "where do you live?" turned into him sharing some wonderful stories with us.

From the museum we made our way back to our car and allowed Google maps to navigate us out of the nexus of meandering streets and residential neighborhoods to our hotel in Streetsboro (SE of Cleveland proper, getting us on our way to PA). When checking in, I learned there were not a lot of options nearby for food but one recommendation was for a Mexican restaurant, Don Patron. So after settling in off we went for a meal of tacos with sides of rice and beans washed down with as tasty cerveza.

Back to the hotel we relaxed until bedtime. Tomorrow it's off to our next stop, Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. We'll spend two nights there which will give us a good full day to pay our respects, particularly to the men of the 3rd and 5th Michigan regiments who suffered terribly in the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard on July 2, 1863.

Stay tuned!