Friday, November 26, 2010- Black Friday Shopping in Gettysburg

After breakfast and a quick swim for the girls, we were out to the town again. We started at the National Park Service’s new multi-million dollar visitor’s center. We were here for its opening day back in 2008. They seemed to have pulled a “Pamplin Park.” The old visitor’s center may have been showing its age, but it was centrally located and pedestrian friendly. There is nothing left of that building but its parking lot now. This monstrosity is so big, and out of the way, it can only be approached by car (and then the best parking spaces are reserved for “Fuel efficient vehicles”—Is that discriminatory?) We went through the gift shop, but the main museum exhibit is ticketed, and apparently packaged with the movie and cyclorama, and we didn’t want to spend the time or money on ALL of that this morning.

So, we moved on to the big attraction for the girls—the Boyds Bear megastore. We spent a while in the three-story barn that it is housed in, surprisingly doing more looking then buying. There were amazing displays and merchandise to see. Just as we were about to leave, though, we learned that Santa was about to arrive, and everyone gathered out in front of the store to see him pull up in a horse drawn carriage. The girls were among the first to visit with him, and got their picture taken on his lap. Emma told him she wanted an iPod Touch, and Anna said she wanted an iPod Touch with a camera in it. He told them that it would put their eye out and kicked them down the slide. No, wait, he didn’t say that last part, but there was a slide for them to go down after they had visited with him, and we did buy the picture that was taken.

We went to the Dobbin House for lunch so that Julie could get her sweetbread. We were there only moments after it opened, and it was already quite crowded. Scott was disappointed that we couldn’t get a seat along the wall. He was hoping to get a picture of a growler there for the cover of the “Rush the Growler” demo CD, but it was just too crowded. Maybe later in the weekend.

We then went out to the battlefield to get the girls and Schnitzel some exercise. We parked near Spangler’s Spring in the Culp’s Hill area, a spot that often gets overlooked by us. We strolled around for a bit, taking pictures and enjoying what was becoming a cold but sunny day. Anna and Dad climbed to the top of the Culp’s Hill observation tower to look around at the town and battlefield from above.

Then we began the real shopping portion of the day. We parked on Steinwehr Avenue and began working our way through the many gift shops. Steinwehr sometimes gets criticized for being too tacky and full of junk-shops, but it’s one of the favorite parts of our visits to town, and a must-see for us each time. There are usually some changes as business come and go, but there are always old favorites to see there too. Some shops specialize in Civil War re-enacting equipment, some in tourist souvenirs and t-shirts. The Horse Soldier is located there now. It specializes in selling actual artifacts of the Civil War, and while it’s expensive, it’s always fun to look through. Dad got an Irish Brigade t-shirt in one of the first stores we visited. We made our way up to the Avenue Restaurant, where we stopped for a drink and ice-cream break. Then we circled back to the car where Schnitzel was waiting for us.

Julie had heard about a store called the Christmas Haus, which was supposed to be several miles east of town. We had to stop at the visitor’s center to ask directions to it, but we eventually found it in New Oxford. Its specialty is German made Christmas decorations, and we were told several times that the owner personally goes to Germany to purchase their ornaments and decorations directly from the craftsmen that make them. The store itself was behind a house, in three small outbuildings. The things were nice, but we didn’t buy anything here.

After the shopping on Steinwehr, there was only one more thing that Black Friday needed- a stop at the Outlet Stores. We had been to Old Navy and Aeropostale, yesterday, but that still left most of the stores untouched. We can’t mention a lot of what we purchased in this blog, because Christmas is coming, but we did get the girls some snowpants for those days they go sledding. Emma had fallen asleep by the time we arrived at the stores, so Julie went to Guest Services to see if she could get a stroller. All they had were wheelchairs, so we used that, and Emma bundled up under the blankets in it for the first half of our stay there. The stores were busy, certainly, but it wasn’t crazy like it must have been earlier.

By the time we were done shopping, it was after 6:00 and we were all hungry. We called for an extra-large pizza from Pappa John’s . Because they made a mistake and they ended up giving us a large pizza for free in addition to the extra-large that we ordered. We took both pizzas back to the hotel and devoured them while watching iCarly on TV. Then, after a short swim for the girls, we called it a night and turned in.