travels | gettysburg | history of america conference

Scenes from the field

I spent the last week traveling to Pennsylvania for the 150th anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg. We attended the History of America Conference hosted by friends of ours in nearby Harrisburg.  What a fabulous time we had!  The car ride was really long (not that we're not used to that or anything...) but arriving at our hotel and seeing friends more than made up for it!


Me & some little Indians!

  The conference was hosted at the hotel, which was great, except for the fact that nine million people had descended upon the county for the anniversary of Gettysburg and every hotel was sold out.  Not to mention that our group literally had nine hundred people with it, and the staff couldn't keep up.  Neither could the air conditioning, but that's another story for another time...  I have never experienced a hotter week in my life.  Gracious!  Humidity and heat everywhere you turned.



My brother Daniel nailed it as astronaut James Erwin!



I really enjoyed the conference, so many great topics and speakers!  Dad was checking up on notes, so that gave a little incentive to actually pay attention and not chat in the hallways during sessions (who does that?!?).  Marshall Foster, Paul Jehle, Doug Phillips, & Eric Weir were my favorites, per usual. 




Me & the kiddos after play practice!

 My little peoples were in the children's play on Friday night.  Our friend Stephanie did an amazing job of pulling 50+ kids together with only two practices and making one unforgettable show!  The costumes were hilarious and they really loved it.  I was really impressed at the acting skills of some of the kiddos. 



I was one of the official reenactors for the event, playing Gracie York, the wife of Sergeant Alvin York.  It was more than a little out of my comfort zone, but in the end I really had a great time interacting with the children and signing my "autograph" for them.  I'll have to dish on my costume later.

More photos to come.  Soon!