A Patriotic Weekend

What a festive weekend!



 

Since on the 4th of July my family and I didn't really celebrate, I certainly made up for it this weekend, with the chance to not only have ribs and chicken by the bay, but to attend the  150th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Saturday morning mom, dad, Ryan and I loaded up copious amounts of potato salad and headed to my grandmother's house by the Chesapeake Bay. We had a wonderful meal of ribs, chicken, salad, watermelon, and adorable little mason jars filled with angel food cake, strawberries and blueberries. Yum!

The king on his Pride Rock

So yummy!

Ryan and I! One of the few times I could get him to cooperate--he hates pictures.





On Sunday, I got invited to the Gettysburg 150th Anniversary Reenactment of Pickett's Charge with my best friend from high school, Megan, and her family. It was very refreshing to catch up with them since I've spent many summer vacations with them and had missed their endless banter (as an only child, watching a 6-person family interact is like attending the movies. Seriously...where's the popcorn?!!). We toured Gettysburg College and ate at a cute little pizzeria before heading off to the site. Since the battlefields are considered sacred ground, they weren't allowed to hold the reenactments on the actual war sites, so we had to drive a bit to the fields where they were hosting the event. We arrived about three hours before it began, and had to find some entertainment in the 90+ degree heat. I gotta say, it was excruciating. Simply walking up the hill to where all the tents were had us wiping our brows and fanning ourselves. They had all sorts of tents pitched up to sell antique trinkets, paintings, and books, and I would have thoroughly enjoyed it if the weather had been about 20 degrees cooler. Alas, taking one look at the women dressed in petticoats sent myself and Megan's mother and sister running to the nearest tree for shade. While Meg and her dad walked around, we cheerfully slurped on snow cones (honestly my saving grace) until the troops started rolling in.

I have to say, the battle itself was pretty cool. The Union soldiers were closest to us, while the Confederates were on the other side of the field. They began by setting off the cannons, which I thought was awesome. I stuffed in my earplugs and watched the smoke curl in a perfect "O" as the men labored to continuously reload the cannons. At some point, I had to finally break down and put on a hat since the sun was scorching and I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable. The cannon sequence lasted a bit too long--even though I was super pumped about it, I eventually began wondering whether they would ever move on. They did, and the Confederates charged the Union soldiers. I have to admit the ending was kind of anticlimactic, for dark clouds loomed in the west and the announcer warned us of a storm watch. Sure enough, the moment the Union soldiers threw up their hats in victory, I felt a raindrop. We weren't even out from the bleachers before it began pouring. I mean, torrential rain pouring. I was a nervous wreck... we had about a mile to walk and  50,000+people to pass to get back to the car, and I had no idea if I was really able to protect my camera. Thankfully, nothing was damaged, but I certainly was soaked to the bone!

Overall, I had a great weekend. While the reenactment wasn't all that I had expected it to be, their efforts were appreciated and I would have had a much better time if the weather was more pleasant. I am thankful that I got the chance to attend!

Some highlights:

Union soldiers with Confederate cannons in the background



Let's take a moment and look at the sheer amount of people here. There were more on the other side.



Once the cannons started firing off.



What a cool experience! Glad I got to "relive history" for a few hours.



 I also attempted to compile all of the good video footage that I managed to capture of this event. Unfortunately, the site doesn't seem to want to upload it, and as it's going on midnight here, I'm going to call it a night. I will try to work out the kinks so that I can upload my video-editing debut (it's horrendous though I promise I'll do better) in the next post. Until then, I hope you have a happy week!

Nighty!

xo