Rendezvous at S.I.U.

Yesterday Greg and I got to meet Baby Leo--and see Mom, Dad, Sarah, Joel and Eliza too! Mom and Dad helped the Agates move from South Carolina to Carbondale, so Greg and I were able to rendezvous with them there. We are so excited that the Agates have moved to Carbondale, where Joel will be teaching at Southern Illinois University. Now they will only be three hours away from us--we're Illinois neighbors! Sarah and Joel have a nice house there in Carbondale, and it was looking really great there with Mom and Dad's help. Greg added some good muscle yesterday too :-)

Baby Leo has to be the happiest little guy we've ever seen. He is so smiley! And Eliza is, of course, a wonderful big sis. The kids were so happy to have "Gramma and Grampa" there to have fun with. Unfortunately we all had to leave southern Illinois today. Greg and I took Mom and Dad to the airport in St. Louis and then drove back to Springfield. We will miss them and the Agates, but hopefully it won't be too long before we can see everyone again!

Baseballs and Battlefields

Yesterday Greg and I returned from a WONDERFUL trip to Pennsylvania and Baltimore! I worked a half day on Wednesday, August 4, and then we took off. We drove to Zanesville, Ohio (about an hour past Columbus) for the night, and then made it to Gettysburg on Thursday. It was so fun to see my Mississippi friends Angie and Matt, and to meet their little guy, Benjamin. Angie and Matt took us to a Gettysburg staff cookout that evening, and it was fun to meet their nice co-workers. Angie and Matt have a beautiful home about 20 miles from Gettysburg, and they were nice enough to let us stay with them. Ben originally called Greg "The Man," but by the end of the trip he was calling him "Reg." :-) It was so cute!

On Friday Matt had to work, and Angie was taking care of Ben, so Greg and I headed to Baltimore to do some exploring. Our first stop was Fort McHenry--birthplace of "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was so beautiful there in Baltimore Harbor! It was really hot outside, but we had a wonderful sea breeze to cool us off. I love visiting Fort McHenry--it is a very patriotic place, and it is inspiring to see the circumstances surrounding Francis Scott Key's authorship of our national anthem. It's always neat to see an American flag flying, but there's just something extra special about seeing a flag over Fort McHenry.

After the fort, we went downtown for a late lunch. The hardest part was finding a place to park, but once we got that out of the way, we went to Phillips Seafood--right smack in the middle of the harbor. This was the view from our table! At one point a pirate ship sailed by, but I didn't have a chance to whip out my camera. There was literally a pirate standing there on the deck of the boat. It must have been some kind of kids' thing. He looked like Jack Sparrow.

But even better than the view was the FOOD!! Greg and I had the most amazing crab cakes ever. I have literally never tasted anything so delicious. There were large chunks of crab in said cake, and it was seasoned and cooked to perfection. It was so good!!

After our divine meal, we headed over to CAMDEN Yards for the Baltimore Orioles baseball game! Isn't that cool that Camden has a baseball stadium named after her?! Camden Yards is a beautiful park. I found it funny that not only does the park share my niece's name, but one of the streets bordering the park is "Eutaw Street" :-) Very appropriate. But they spelled it wrong--just kidding.

Greg and I got to the stadium early so we could hopefully get autographs from some of the players. We arrived just as the Chicago White Sox were starting their batting practice, so Greg and I camped out on the front row right by first base to watch. After a while I started not really paying attention, so I was just kind of looking off into the distance when Carlos Quentin came up to bat. He hit a foul ball, and all of a sudden I heard a White Sox coach yell "Look out!!!" Then a baseball smacked the wall right in front of me! It bounced off the wall, and the man standing by first base picked it up, nodded at me, and tossed it over our way. Luckily Greg was there--he reached up and caught the ball one-handed. It was so cool! One of the guys behind me said, "That makes it worth almost getting creamed in the head, right?" Ummmm, I guess so. :-) I watched more closely after that.

Angie and Matt came and met us at the stadium (they are big Orioles fans), and though Greg and I still love the Cardinals and Royals the most, the whole Orioles atmosphere was pretty contagious. It was an absolutely perfect evening for baseball. There was a nice breeze and a terrific sunset.

Greg and I managed to get one autograph--Bryan Roberts (#1). He's been injured for most of the season, but I think he's making a good comeback. He won the game for the Orioles with a walk-off home run last night. The Orioles have had a rough season so far, but they just got a new manager last week, and he seems to have kind of picked the team up. The game we went to was awesome. The Orioles ended up winning in the 10th inning--it was so exciting, and the crowd went crazy!

What better way to celebrate a victory than with fireworks? They had a really great fireworks show after the game. Luckily we had Matt and Angie in the car with us to help us get out of Baltimore--because it was quite tricky, but we made it. We took them to the metro station and then met back up with them at their house. It was a late but fun night!

Saturday was our Gettysburg day. Angie took us to see the amazing new Visitor Center (completed in 2008), which included a new movie and a huge museum. Then we met up with Matt and had lunch at the FARNSWORTH House Inn!!!! The inn is named in honor of Elon John Farnsworth--a distant relative of Mom's, so he's the closest person I have to a Civil War relative. Our common ancestor is Matthias Farnsworth--Mom's sixth-great grandpa and Elon's fourth-great grandpa. Elon Farnsworth was killed at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, just two days after being made a Brigadier General. It was really neat to have lunch at the inn named in his honor! And the food wasn't bad either--I had some delicious pork and sauerkraut with homemade mashed potatoes--yummy.

After lunch Angie and Ben showed us around the battlefield. Here we are at the Robert E. Lee monument, marking the center of the Confederate line where Pickett's Charge began. As you stand there and look out over that open field, up towards the position of the Union line (which included a lot of cannons), it is hard to imagine the courage it must have taken for those Confederate soldiers to charge. There was no protection for them--just open field. My favorite description of Pickett's Charge, which really seems to capture the essence of it, comes from William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! He said:

"For every Southern boy . . . there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863; the brigades are in position behind the rail fence; the guns are laid and ready in the woods; and the furled flags are already loosened to break out. And Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand, probably, and his sword in the other, looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word. And it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet. It hasn't even begun yet. It not only hasn't begun yet, but there is still time for it not to begin. . . . Yet it's going to begin, we all know that. We have come too far with too much at stake. And that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory . . ."

As we stood there looking across the field, I thought about this quote.

That evening, Angie took Greg and me to Devil's Den, where Greg's ancestor, Pinckney Downie Bowles, fought with the 4th Alabama regiment of the Confederate Army. In this picture of Angie and me on top of Devil's Den, you can see Little Round Top behind us. Imagine being in the 4th Alabama, reaching the top of Devil's Den, and seeing that you were going to have to try and climb that hill--with guns and cannons pointed down at you! Yikes.

We then went up to the top of Little Round Top for a special ranger program called "Twilight on Little Round Top." One of the rangers Angie supervises was giving the program, and she was interested to hear what he said. It was great--especially the scenery! It was a beautiful evening. After the program Angie took us to dinner, and then we went back to the house. It was sad that it was our last evening together, but at least Greg and I knew we had chocolate waiting for us the next day.

We woke up the next morning and left Angie and Matt's to head to Hershey, Pennsylvania! Our destination was, of course, Chocolate World.

On our tour of Chocolate World, where they explain how Hershey's delicious chocolate is made, we learned what makes their chocolate just so tasty: it's the singing cows!

Here I am with the world's largest candy bar. We thought of bringing the world's largest candy bar back to Illinois to use as payment to Melissa for taking care of Lily while we were away (the Spikes were at a doggy hotel), but then we decided that might be a little too much chocolate! We still ended up bringing home a lot of chocolate though. It was quite the trick to keep it from melting.

We stayed that night in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, then yesterday morning we got up bright and early to head for Illinois. On our way home we stopped in Dayton, Ohio at the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, but when we got there, we realized that we were kind of toured-out. This particular site was also located in the ghetto of Dayton, so we decided to just take a quick look around and then head on our way. It worked out well because we made it home in time for Greg to pick up the dogs, and we were able to spend a nice evening here together with the animal children. It was a whirlwind trip, but it was so much fun--especially to see Angie, Matt, and Ben!!!!

While we were vacationing, Sarah and Joel graduated with their DOCTORATE DEGREES from Clemson University! Congratulations to them on such a wonderful accomplishment! Mom and Dad are currently helping them move to Illinois, and Greg and I are excited to meet them all in Carbondale on Thursday. It will be wonderful to see everyone and to meet Baby Leo!