Sunday Fun!

Last week Jim had taken Bella to the Land of Little Horses in Gettysburgh, Pa. for the day.  On the way there they saw some monuments and passed the Boyds Bear Factory.  That evening at dinner Bella asked us if we didn't have any other plans, if maybe on Sunday we could all go to Gettysburgh as a family and go to Boyds Bear and see some monuments. Well Jim and Michelle were all over that!  They both love to go look at those old monuments.  Me, well I've seen them before.  Lots.  They have too, but still they never seem to tire of seeing them.  But I was a trooper and went along and had a good time, despite a bit of a migraine that had been hanging on for days. 

Our first stop was the Boyds Bear Factory.  That place is really quite something.  It is a four story barn that is just full of bears!  There are different vignettes all over, Noah's Ark, jungle theme, patriotic, Christmas, baby, etc.  Really cute.  Upstairs you can 'adopt' a bear in the nursery-that starts at $50 a bear or you can build your own 'critter' for starting at just $20.  Bella really wanted to adopt but we talked her into creating her own.  Not that we have anything against adoption,  but I think we will have to save up for that!

Working on her 'Critter'

Ginger the Giraffe

In the pajamas Bella choose for Ginger

All boxed up and ready to go!

Then we went to see a few of the monuments.  We didn't do too much, but we did make it to Devil's Den and Little Round Top and a few other sites.  Bella loved to look a them and was especially interested in the monuments that looked like men or horses.  Of course, she loved the castle! 

We saw a group of tourists taking a tour of the battlefields on Segways, that was something that we had not seen before and that looked kind of fun.  Might like to try that out.  I've always wated to do the tour on horseback though, I think that might be fun.  Jim said that the horses would take one look at him and claim they were off duty.  Ha!  

 It was a hot day, but there was a nice breeze so it wasn't too bad.

Atop the rocks at Devil's Den

Even after all the years of going here though, it still gets to me.  The beauty of this place, the sacrifices made here, the number of men who died here, it is staggering. 

We ended our trip with lunch at Dobbins Tavern in the heart of Gettysburgh.  We ate in the Springhouse, which is downstairs and is nice and cool.  The Rev. Dobbins built the house and a school on 300 acres he bought for his family, he lived there with his wife Isabella with whom he had ten children.  She died an early death and he later married a woman who had nine children of her own!  Can you imagine!

Anyway, later the home was used as a 'station' for runaway slaves on the "Underground Railroad" and the house is a museum to that today.  Its pretty neat! 

Lunch was good too! 

It was a very pleasant day and it was a lot of fun to see how Bella was interested in everything.  She wanted to know about the war and why we had it.  I don't know how much she could understand, but it will sink in given time.  What's funny is that night we adults were all worn out and she was raring to go.  She usually goes right to sleep, but she just laid in bed with those big brown eyes wide open for a long time.  Have to wonder what she is thinking about sometimes!