Visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Hubby and I managed to "run away" this past weekend for a much needed relaxing get away. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast called The Brafferton in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We were treated to delicious breakfasts.

Our room was quite nice and very comfortable.

There were plenty of historical sites to see- and hearing the personal stories of Civil War soldiers and their families was very moving. We saw a film about the Battle of Gettysburg (fought July 1-3, 1863) which was extremely well done, and the almost brand new (opened 2008) museum was extremely interesting. I highly recommend visiting the area, especially if your child(ren) happen to be studying the Civil War.

The casualties for the 3 day battle were about 50,000. Almost 150 years later, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is still moving and thought provoking, a reminder of the resilience of our Great Nation.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate...we can not consecrate...we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.