Getting Away in Gettysburg

We ran away from home on Saturday.

Do you ever do that?  Not to head out on a big planned vacation but just leave life behind for a day.  We used to run away to SLC.  We'd stay with the folks and go out to dinner and movies.  We'd walk in Red Butte Gardens, we'd shop (ok, mostly me), it felt good to leave it all behind for a day.

As I wrote in a post or two ago, it's been a tiring few weeks.  Things are looking up but we needed a minute.  So we went to Gettysburg.  Did we plan to go for days? No.  Pretty much it was Saturday morning and I said, "let's go somewhere."  What's within a 2 hour drive?  Well, Gettysburg.  Why not continue what will will heretofore call our "Lincoln July": first Ford's Theatre, the Lincoln Memorial and now Gettysburg. 

We stopped at the Container Store on the way (why yes, again that is twice last week.  Heb even offered to add a "container store" category to the budget.  I wholeheartedly agree.  Was he really serious because I'm on board.).

The first time I went to Gettysburg was at least 15 years ago and the entire place has been redone.  There were two things I remembered from my first visit: 1) A light up map that was used to describe the battles.  I have to admit, that I kind of missed it.  The whole place has been redone and there's a movie, a great museum and a huge painting.  And 2) the somber feeling.  There was so much lost on these fields, lives changed forever.  The effects of a battle forever change the feeling of a place.  I would compare the feeling to what I felt in the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.  No matter what they do, you will always be aware of the human suffering that occurred there.

This time, I heard the story with new ears.  I think I'm going to need to read a book about it because it is a fascinating moment in history.

Huge beautiful trees.

You can tell that Leo liked it too.

Where is your favorite place to run away to?