Monday morning we left Pennsylvania and headed for Maryland; our goal was Antietam Battlefield. In anticipation of this trip, Nikita spent the first three weeks of September studying the Civil War, and this battle in particular.
It was a two hour drive, and once there we viewed the inside exhibit with artifacts, then walked around the field outside. It is sobering to think about how many men (along with woman and children) died at each other's hands in such a short period of time. To look out at the fields and know that the photos we had just seen inside were of these same fields exactly 150 years ago really brought it home to us.
Of course, we were in our second day of driving and also took some time to shake off some of the energy that was building up.
We took a small two lane highway from Maryland to West Virginia where we had lunch at Cracker Barrel. The hostess was raised here in Massachusetts!
After lunch we were back on Route 81 headed to Luray, Virginia. The ride was absolutely beautiful.
We went to Luray Caverns, where we did not actually even go into the caverns! While I would have loved to see the Awesomeness of God's Creation on display, I was not going to pay $24 a person to walk through being told they are millions of years old, when instead we could have the hands on fun of the giant Garden Maze and the Ropes Course. It was such fun!
(Leif is in the above photo.)
After all this fun, we drove another hour or so to Harrsionburg Virginia, where we spent Monday night.Tuesday
was all about driving, 6 hours down to Fort Jackson.
We checked in at
Weston Lake Recreation Area, a part of Fort Jackson. Here we would
spend the next two nights. The cabin was beautiful, and right on the
water. Wednesday morning we would be seeing Alexander for the first
time in 2 months and 9 days! Jamie was unable to join us on this journey, but his Dad flew down and stayed at the cabin with us.
Part 3 will feature our time with Alexander!
