Gettysburg, PA- Sunday, Feb 17, 2013

Much like last year, we're using part of the February President's Day break to have a dry run of the trip that Julie will be taking her high school students on this spring. They're going to Washington, DC, and we'll be there tomorrow. Today, though, we've stopped in Gettysburg.

We were somewhat surprised to see that the Homestead Inn is up for sale. It used to be the Civil War orphanage, and as an inn, it was the place where we stayed a lot back in the day.

Since it's the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, Scott wants to do a lot of re-enacting this year, but he needs to get his gun back in working order. We began at one of the sutler's in town to get some springs for his musket and some other pieces he needs.  His gun is a bit of a relic now.  The company that made it is out of business.  When Scott said it had been at the 125th anniversary, the man at the store said, "Oh, I believe it!"

We planned to do "shopping" after that, but that ended up meaning different things to different people. The girls went shopping out at the Gettysburg Outlet stores, while Scott went through the Civil War shops on Steinwehr Ave. The weather has been changing back and forth quickly. You could go into a store while it's blue skies and sunny, and come out in cold, grey, windy snowfalls.

We met up again at one of our favorite spots-- the Dobbin House, but after waiting a bit, we decided that we needed food quicker. It's ALWAYS packed there now, even on a cold day in February, and Emma was falling asleep on the floor while we were waiting. We decided to go next door to Tommy's Pizza, where we've also eaten many times before.

We took a short drive through the southern part of the battlefield. We could see the various little bands of snowfall in the skies around us, even though it was blue skies overhead We made our way out to our hotel, where the girls were ready to swim.