Firsts from Spring Break

Off the top of my head these are the firsts from my spring break:

Was in/drove in West Virginia and Delaware.
Ate pheasant.
Ate goober pea soup.
Ate pickled watermelon rind.
Went to Gettysburg, and pretty much everything I did there was a first since I'd never been there. It was powerful.

Little Round Top

Pickett's Charge, which effectively ended the Battle of Gettysburg and paved the way for the eventual Confederate loss.

The only monument to peace at Gettysburg

Went on a ghost tour (in Gettysburg).

Weeping Angel (not really, but I saw it on the ghost tour.)

Drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Gor.

Geous.

Went to a cemetery where an ancestor was buried (that isn't Spanish Fork Cemetery).

Beaver Dam Lutheran Cemetery

Christian Mauney, born 1741

Drove in Pennsylvania (I was on a train going thru once in 1997).
Went to a Pennsylvania township (where an ancestor lived). Grabbed some earth.

Willaims Township right across the river from New Jersey. The majority of this township is still quiet farmland. **love**

Ate Burmese food.
Ate Ethiopian food.
Saw the White House in real life.

Obama was even there. {SQUEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLL}

Went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. exhibit.
Saw the WWII Memorial.
Went to the Hirshhorn. Fell in love with Barbara Kruger.
Saw some Ai Weiwei.
Ate a pretzel in DC.

Ate a second pretzel in DC.
Walked to the Capitol Building and Supreme Court.
Went to the University of Maryland.
Drank Gettysburg sarsaparilla.
Went to Fredericksburg and walked thru the Union cemetery at the Marye's Heights.

Went to Spotsylvania battlefield, specifically the Bloody Angle or Mule Shoe.

Stood on the spot where an ancestor was taken prisoner of war.

The rolls in the dirt are the original earthworks that the South (and probably my 3X great grandpa) built to protect themselves at the battle.

Got some earth from the spot where he was taken prisoner of war.

Taken about 200 yards looking back at the spot where he was taken prisoner of war at the East Angle. If he had been at the Bloody Angle, he most likely would've died.

Ate crawfish.
Went to Petersburg.

Reconstruction from the Petersburg driving tour.

Saw the crater.

The collapsed earth where the Pennsylvania coal miners explosion went off.

The entrance to the tunnel that the Pennsylvania regiment full of coal miners built. They lit the fuse underground and created the crater about 150 yards away. It's crazy how close the armies were on the battlefields for days, weeks and months at a time.

Stood at the spot of the last major southern charge of the Civil War. 

Union Fort Stedman that was attacked by Lee's soldiers about a week before the final surrender. It was the last major attack by Lee's troops.

The spot where the Confederates fought back a Maine regiment that set off from Fort Stedman in the distance. The southerners also set off from this point when they took the fort.

Walked along a picket line where the South had built a wooden fence. (It was probably against the rules.)

I walked right in the middle of the picket line markers. The white sea shells mark the path.

Built a leprechaun trap.

Honey was poured into the jar and put on the lid. The leprechaun would jump on the clothespin releasing the thread, which would drop the lid. The honey would make it stick. Thus the honey-loving leprechaun would be trapped. I heard, though, that the leprechaun was too smart for it and it didn't work.

Visited a cousin at their university. (I was surprised that this was a first.)

Katie's going to be in Bulgaria by fall!

Went to the Cheerwine factory, which wasn't fascinating or anything, but was a pilgrimage, nonetheless.

I know there are more, so I'll keep adding when I remember.