Camping outside of Gettysburg

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 Lisa writes: One of Tom's coworkers bought a working apple orchard just outside of Gettysburg, PA a few years back and hosts an annual October barn party with a live band and hayrides. Friends from farther away camp on the property. We got invited this year.

We were a bit late to the party and missed most of dinner, but luckily there was still quite a bit of desert. 


Car camping. It was supposed to be 50 degrees that night. It felt a LOT colder than 50 degrees and I was awake most of the night worried that the boys had wiggled out of their blankets and sleeping bags in their sleep. In the pre-dawn, James, in Tom's 10-below-rated mummy sack, somehow got himself twisted up and started yelling that he couldn't get out. I said, "Good. Stay in there," but that kind of logic doesn't work on a frantic, half-asleep 5 year old.


In the morning, we met up with the family and other campers at the house for breakfast. James has recently had this burning desire to climb a tree. He's always asking if he can climb a tree. Unfortunately, our neighborhood has mostly 60 year old trees that are too tall (no low branches) to be any good for climbing. He was so happy to discover this huge tree with low, wide-spread branches in the yard. He and Joseph were all over it.



Getting back some of that missed sleep.


We hit up Gettysburg on the way home. The boys didn't care much about the brand, spanking new visitors center.


There happened to be a regiment of Union Civil War reenactors that weekend. These guys had also spend the night in tents -- those little white canvas ones, to be specific.


Both of the guys were work at IBM in regular life. The younger guy would only give his name as Private Olson. He was GREAT with the kids. He showed them all of his gear and what it was for and how it worked and let them touch everything.




Mandatory Gettysburg canon pictures.












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