Mount Vernon and Gettysburg

Friday after we visited Arlington, we skipped over to Alexandria and toured the house and grounds of George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon. It's located on the banks of the Potomac River and is so beautiful! We were lucky that we went on Friday and only had a short wait. We weren't able to take pictures inside, but the house is beautiful. 

This is the view from the back patio. Beautiful!

We did A LOT of walking on Friday. Oaklie was dragging along but wouldn't let me carry her. I asked her if she was tired and she kicked one foot up and said, "My toesies are tired." She is such a ham!

A statue from inside the museum.

This quote is for my dad!

Here are some of the gorgeous views of the river we saw on our drive back to Leesburg.

Saturday was rainy and cold, so we decided to do some sightseeing from our car and headed a couple hours up north to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The battleground there is huge! Over three days of fighting, roughly 53,000 soldiers were killed. It was hard to picture such beautiful ground literally bathed in blood. 

There were many, many different memorials there. One for each state and one for each battalion that fought in Gettysburg. Here is Virginia's monument. Our current "adopted" state :)

We climbed up a large tower to see a 360 degree view of the battlefield. I'm more than a little scared of heights, but Amaya held my hand the whole way :)

Views from the top.

Love my hair in this picture!

Of course Oaklie, our little daredevil, wanted to lean over the edge

We also got a quick peek at the Gettysburg Cemetery where many of the soldiers who died at Gettysburg were buried. This was the location of President Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address.

"Fourscore 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 battlefield 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 that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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."

Abraham Lincoln

Valentine's Weekend Part I

Valentine's Day was pretty low-key this year. We did homemade heart shaped pizzas and Dallas brought me home a dozen red....cans of Dr. Pepper. He sure knows the way to my heart! 

If you couldn't tell, I was much more into this picture than he was.

Amaya has been into making not-so-attractive faces for the camera lately. More on that in a minute.

So I told Amaya to smile and this is the face she made. Along with a noise that sounded like a beached whale. So I showed her this picture and told her that when she makes weird faces, this is what it looks like. Her face was priceless. And then I told her that if she doesn't quit with the weird faces, I would print this picture off and hang it in her room. I feel kind of bad for blackmailing a three year old, but she has been smiling so nicely ever since!

The next day we hit the road for our weekend in DC!

Aww! Her smile is back!

Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. I've wanted to visit here since I first studied it in school Arlington was General Robert E. Lee's plantation. During the Civil War, Arlington was confiscated by Union troops and the war dead were literally buried in Mrs. Lee's flower garden. Below is a music video that is set in Arlington. I think it's a great tribute to "our nation's most sacred shrine". 

Arlington overlooks DC and the view from there is gorgeous! A fitting location for our nation's heroes.

Seeing the rows and rows of gravestones is indescribable. Each time I thought I'd seen most of them, we would hike up a hill and see thousands more. Seeing so many historical sites and battlegrounds has really driven home for me that these events were real, and seeing the grave sites of soldiers who fought in those battles and died in those battles has helped me more understand and appreciate the price of freedom.

Arlington House

The crew. 

The view from the top of the cemetery.

Arlington is also the burial place of President John F. Kennedy and several other members of the Kennedy family. Above is the eternal flame. Amaya whispered to me, "It looks like they've been camping or somefin'"

"And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of mankind." --John F. Kennedy

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert F. Kennedy

Every headstone represented and American soldier who served our country and left behind friends and family.

Tomb of the Unknowns

The mortuary.

"HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD."

It gave me absolute chills, I can't even describe the feeling there. I was just overwhelmed by a sense of enormous gratitude for those who serve and have served our country, and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. 

This tomb has been continuously guarded, 24 hours a day, since 1926.

I love the quote at the bottom.

Up next, our visits to George Washington's plantation, Gettysburg, and DC.