Hockey Camp

Adam poses with the camp coaches, Cameron and David

Friday June 25, 2010

Now that I'm done blogging about the road trip I can catch up on some other things we did this summer.

At the end of June, Adam and Derek did a week long hockey camp. We almost signed them up for a camp that started the day after we returned from our road trip. Thank goodness we didn't do that. At least Helen and the kids had a week to veg at the pool and recuperate before hockey camp started.

This summer was incredibly hot so it wasn't the ideal time to be bundled up in hockey gear, but the boys still enjoyed themselves and thought the camp was worth it.

Road Trip 2010: Day 17 of 17 (Lynchburg, VA to Atlanta (Home))

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Although we faced a long drive home we couldn't resist going a little out of our way to see Appomattox Court House National Park, which is about 30 minutes east of Lynchburg

Union forces (in blue) blocked Confederate forces (in red), who were trying to resupply themselves and join up with Confederate forces in North Carolina. Lee felt he had no choice but to surrender his once mighty Army of Northern Virginia.

Grant and Lee had a series of exchanges leading up to the surrender












Lee and Grant sign the formal surrender agreement in the town of Appottamox Court House



McLean House in Appomattox Court House where formal surrender was signed




The Union soldiers lined this path and watched solemnly as the Confederate soldiers filed by to lay down their arms. After years away from their families, this marked the end of fighting for most soldiers. Almost all were more than happy to lay down their arms, but unfamiliar with normal life and unsure of what they would find when they returned to what they once knew of as home. For many, home was hundreds of miles away. They were starving and exhausted and had only the clothes on their back.

The courthouse in the town of Appomattox Court House. I always thought the surrender had occurred in the courthouse in the town of Appomattox, but we learned it occurred in the McLean House in the town of Appomattox Court House.

Finally back home. The boys can't wait to see Lulu our dog.

Sunday June 13, 2010

We had a long drive home from Lynchburg to Atlanta, but decided we could still swing a little more time to see some things. We could have spent some time at Jerry Falwells's Liberty University, which seems to dominate Lynchburg, but that's not really our cup of tea. So instead, we opted to drive about 30 miles east to see Appomattox Court House, the town where Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful and long. We didn't get home until after 10 pm. The boys missed Lulu, our dachsund, and were excited to see her. We unpacked some things and then headed to bed. It was back to work for me the next day and Helen, for some reason, scheduled a dentist appointment for early the next morning. So after 17 days on the road we all had to be up and out the next morning and back to real life.

Road Trip 2010: Day 16 of 17 (Gettysburg, PA to Lynchburg, VA)

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Gettysburg Battlefield

Marker denoting the site of Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address



Gettysburg National Cemetery





Gettysburg Cyclorama at the visitor center

Visitor center book store

The visitor center is pretty big - obviously a big tourist destination

Getting some words of wisdom from Honest Abe Lincoln


The little town of Gettysburg is cute but a little touristy

Lots of pretty farmland on the drive south to Charlottesville

We went through Shenandoah National Park to take scenic Skyline Drive





Adam got lots of use out of his binoculars on Skyline Drive

Derek and Adam with my main man Thomas Jefferson at his estate, Monticello, in Charlottesville Virginia

Apparently they just recently started allowing you to reserve tour times making the experience much smoother

Our guide was intelligent and cute







You always hear about Monticello the house, but the other supporting buildings and the grounds were the most impressive to me. You can only tour some rooms on the bottom floor of the house so you don't see the whole house, but it didn't seem to me that the interior is nearly as impressive as the exterior.

Jefferson had all kinds of ingenious things like this ice house which was filled each winter with ice from a nearby river for use throughout the year

In Jefferson's day, the expansive support buildings with connecting tunnels were bustling with people and made the estate feel like a small town. The tunnels and building material made it feel very pleasant even when it was hot outside.



The views of the surrounding hills from the terraced garden were most beautiful. We spent a lot of time in the garden trying to identify all the plants and marvelling at how nice and tidy everything was.







"There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me"

Derek finally picked out a keepsake - a big nickel?

The football stadium at the University of Virginia. We drove around the nice campus some and there was a big crowd for a baseball playoff game with the University of Oklahoma.

Saturday June 12, 2010

There was a big crowd at the hotel in Gettysburg. Gettysburg is obviously a big tourist destination.

I made reservations for the latest tour time (4 pm) of Thomas Jefferson's estate, Monticello, in Charlottesville. That meant we had to hustle to see Gettysburg because I knew that the scenic route I wanted to take along Skyline drive down to Charlottesville would take some time.

We drove to the Gettysburg battlefield and walked around. We walked across the street to the cemetery and checked it out. And then we drove a little way to the Gettysburg Visitor Center where we watched a film and looked at some of the exhibits. As usual, there were lots of other things to do if we had the time.

We had a nice drive South through fertile green farmland and rolling hills. We entered the Shendoah National Forest to take Skyline drive where we saw some fantastic views. We were running late so we had to exit Skyline drive before it ended in order to take a quicker route. It was probably for the best because, although the views along Skyline drive were pretty, the twists and turns were getting old.

We arrived at Monticello in time for our tour, but later than the suggested arrival time. Luckily a big storm had just passed through and all the tour times were pushed back. We took a shuttle bus from the visitor center to the Monticello estate.

The tour of the house was informative and we were able to answer some of the questions our guide asked based on things we learned in Washington DC - like the fact that Thomas Jefferson's personal library restocked the Library of Congress after the British burned the original library during the War of 1812. The tour was pretty quick and you only got to see a portion of the house.

We walked the beautiful grounds for a long time and investigated all the supporting buildings. We spent a lot of time in the garden and, not long after we returned from our trip, the New York Times ran an interesting story about the garden with a neat slideshow.

We walked back to the visitor center and spent some time in the gift shop. Derek hadn't really been interested in anything (that we approved of) for a keepsake of our road trip, but he finally found something here - an oversized nickel with the likeness of Thomas Jefferson?

We were driving back home to Atlanta the following day so we were attempting to cut the distance down some to make the drive the next day easier, but we only drove about an hour before we gave out and stopped in Lynchburg for the night - still leaving us an 8 hour drive home.