History Day

Us at the visitor's center
Today was history day for the family. Carla took us to Antietam Battlefield The Girls biked while I drove the tour route meeting them at certain points. The history of this battle is an interesting one. Besides the bloody day with 23,000 Americans dying on the field, the draw was decisive in ending the Confederate plan to invade the north changing the course of the civil war.Soldiers at sunken road More on the history behind the field. It was a hot but dry day 88 degrees so the biking and the picnic was a bit short. There were Marines getting ready to ship out to Iraq there and it was an experience to see the psychological effect of this battlefield on them. The Marines obviously know how to pull the right strings to get soldiers ready for combat.
Visitor's center
After eating lunch by Burnside Bridge we headed to West Virginia and Harpers Ferry.This town at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers was significant in the raid by John Brown on the Armory there. Today it is a National Historic Site with many of the building preserved and actors participating in sharing what life was like around the civil war. We were not lucky enough to see the actors as Monday is there day off. So things were slow there but we could still walk in and see the exibits. Carla was particularly helpful though having been a fifth grade teacher she had taken students here many times and loved the place. It was like having a personal guide to Harper's Ferry.
After the tour Joy and I headed back while Elisa went with Carla who needed to teach a Yoga class in Middleton MD. Joy and I stopped at Nutter's for Ice cream in Sharpsburg MD. Now I am writing this and will be helping Tom make dinner a bit later. Tomorrow Washington DC!