The kids have gotten so spoiled with most of our locations having a pool and a mini golf course for putt-putt. What a life?! Waking up on your summer mornings for some mini golf and a swim, can life get any better than that for a kid?! An everyday ritual that we have incorporated into our days whether it be starting the day off or ending with it! These kids are living their best life. What is so great about that- is that we get to experience and live our best lives with them! 100%!
We stopped at a horse park campground that you can ride horses into the battlefields of where much of the Civil War occurred. Though we didn’t take up this experience, as we walked majority of all the historic spots and all those trails, we by far hit the gold mine with this site. This campsite was actually the closet to the actual downtown area of Gettysburg. This was perfect distance and had the perfect amenities. This by far probably had the best pool we have had for a campsite. 18-hole mini golf, corn hole and whole lot more. We only planned for two days here. But man, there was so much to see and do. First thing first, we passed a fruit stand/market about 10 miles prior to this campsite that we wanted to hit up on for some homemade specials and pies. We have learned, these spots, have THE BEST food. Between the Farmers Markets and these random fruit markets on the side of the road next to large fields- we have learned are the places you want to stop at for fresh, natural ingredient items for meals. 2 frozen premade pot pies, 3 frozen pies, a couple apple dumplings, and a fresh pie for home made its way back into the Jetta! I swear we have spent majority of our money at these sorts of places. If you are ever passing through Pennsylvania/Maryland and drive by the Catoctin Mountain Orchard- STOP! Turn around, make the time! Absolutely worth it! We want to dig into that Strawberry Rhubarb pie and cinnamon apple dumpling donuts!
Gettysburg is setup for a self-guided, audio-car tour. Which is super cool. You go at your own pace, learn of all the stories within certain stops and get to walk the trails that they have and all the monuments…oh the monuments! So many monuments everywhere! So much history. We were mind blown! So enamored with the history, the reason for the Civil War and the purpose of Gettysburg. You hear of it, you learn of it, but you don’t truly understand it as well, until you are walking the walk and reading the stories of the people and their fight! Let’s just say, we couldn’t get enough. The kids were surprisingly so intrigued with it all as well. Blake had us watch quite a few different movies leading into this, so it was fun for the kids to experience it and reference certain things. And man, history can be cruel and brutal, and some may turn their heads on us showcasing this to our young kiddos, but the fact that they can experience our history in a way that we were able to have analogies and movie scenes to reference, it only betters their knowledge and perspective of life, how we fought, what we fought for. How grateful we should be for our life we get to live and so forth. I feel like this day has brought so much more perspective for them and broadened their views and continues to diversify them in life and in our history!