More Gettysburg

Cat's Cradle?

A Day at Gettysburg by Duncan Williams

On Thursday, our class went the site of one of the greatest battles in the history of the Civil War: Gettysburg. The national historic battlefield was snow covered and peppered with monuments dedicated to the regiments and commanders of the Confederates and the Union. Our tour guide, John Fuss, was not ancient, but close to it. Filled with a plethora of Civil War facts, he directed us through the entire field of battle and relived the entire conflict. The Civil War was fought between the Northerners, or the Union, and the Southerners, or the Confederates. The Confederates wanted to keep slavery, while the Union believed that the slaves had the right to be free. One of the Union generals was named Sickle. He was a complete moron, and was only a general because, being a politician, had bought himself into the war. After the tour, we visited the super cool museum with genuine artifacts and cloths. It showed the differences of the soldiers. The Confederates wore gray wool, and had secondhand equipment, while the Union had up to date weapons and cloths. After the museum we piled into the van, and went to Ruby Tuesday’s and then back to the 4-H. Gettysburg is a place that I would defiantly visit again!

-Duncan

Mt. Vernon by Duncan Williams

On Wednesday, our class took a trip to the Mount Vernon, home of our Founding Father and first President George Washington. He lived atop a beautiful ridge near the Potomac River just outside Washington DC. After a tour of the grounds with a cool guide, we were able to explore the estate for ourselves. The mansion is two and a half stories and has five guest rooms. We saw the slave quarters and one of George Washington’s own inventions: the treading mill. After a pleasant walk, we went into the Educational Center building, ate at a quaint colonial themed restaurant, and watched an awesome interactive movie about several Revolutionary War battles with falling snow and vibrating seats. Later, we watched the most tremendous movie in the entire complex. It showed the life of George Washington when he was in the British Army during the French and Indian War until his death on December 14, 1799. I think that if it becomes a full movie, it would go on to win an Oscar, but it would have to be Pg-13 because the short movie itself was kind of bloody.

Dessert Binge! by Mathias Van Patten

As you have certainly asked yourself as you look upon our blogs on important historical places and people: What are they having for dessert? Well all those questions will be debunked now! To start off our day we eat at the National 4H center. Now they usually have pretty good choices such as cranberry juice and milk but there are always those plates of doughnuts. Every morning two huge plates of delicious doughnuts tempt the entire group, and often a few of us will take some. And I won't even mention the bins of Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops. Today at the Friendly's Restaurant in Gettysburg, we each got giant two scoop ice cream sundaes after lunch. At night it's even worse. When we go downstairs to the cafeteria we eat the main entrée, which is usually pretty good, such as orange glazed chicken. After the meal, everybody in the entire group (Except for Mr. Harvey) goes over to the ice cream machine and fills up a cup, including a veritable plethora of toppings. Someone, who shall remain nameless, always drowns his ice cream in chocolate syrup, later drinking all of it.

Even on top of all of this we have still gone to two other delicious shops. On our way home from Mt. Vernon, which was amazing, we went to a Krispy Kreme doughnuts shop! But by far the best desert was at Mr. Yogoto, where we got to say our Braveheart speech and Noah, Sam and Mathias recited their parody yogurt version of Mr. Roboto. Mr. Yogoto even had a Nintendo 64 and plenty of games that we played. Overall our entire dessert binge has been tons of fun.

An Evening with Aunt Janice by Melina Harvey

Tonight we went to Aunt Janice’s for a barn dance!!!!! We arrived and were met by three dogs: Bone-Dog, a neighbor dog and their new puppy Richmond. It was really fun to meet them and they were so nice. Then everybody snuggled with the muddy puppy. We walked up to the barn made up of three sections and three stories. The first section was the dance floor which had been cleared. There were sections on the right and left, the right filled with delectable treats, and left having the stereo system. Strewn from the ceiling, twinkle lights hung giving the place a festive feel. The bon-fire was so large we needed marshmallow sticks five feet long, and we would still be really warm that far away. We ate many s’mores and KRISPY KREMES. Finally, it was time to dance… The boys mostly screamed at the top of their lungs and jumped up and down while the girls sang and busted out some moves learned from “Just Dance.” We listened to classic rock like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” and popular hits such as Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.” All in all everybody had a blast!!! We were all sad to leave but just about promised Aunt Janice that we would return if it snowed. So, please everybody pray that it snows!!!!!! Thank you Aunt Janice!!!!

(For those of you who don’t know, Aunt Janice is Lexi Krueger’s aunt, and we were her guests two years ago on our first Carden DC trip. Janice and her husband Greg live in a splendid old farmhouse on around 20 acres in Poolesville, Maryland, about 40 minutes from the 4-H Center and right on the way back from Gettysburg. The Glenn Farm is a very special place, filled with love, safety, welcome and blessing. We are thankful and fortunate to get to share in it.)

Relaxing (Besides Mr. YOGATO!!!)

Mount Vernon Blog, by Jonathan Gallivan

Today we travelled to Mount Vernon, the home of our country’s first president: George Washington. He inherited it from his half-brother Laurence and expanded upon the original building. We toured around the property with a guide until we ended the tour at the tomb of George Washington. Four volunteers Melina, Talbot, Maddie, and Noah, helped complete a wreath laying ceremony.

Afterwards we explored the Wharf and found Washington’s sixteen sided barn and we ate our delicious lunch (thank you Mrs. Williams) at the Mount Vernon Inn. We then explored the rest of the grounds and saw a super cool movie that had moving seats and snow fell from the seeing, I mean, ceiling.

Mr. Yogato, by Noah

Hello from the East Coast all ye school goers. Today we went to none other than Mr. Yogato!!! At Mr. Yogato, if you do cool stuff, you get cool discounts. Three of the 7^th grade boys who shall remain unnamed composed a parody of the song Mr. Robotco. Don’t look it up, we’re scarred for life. Anyway, we got a discount for that as well as reciting the Braveheart battlefield speech that ends with, “…but they will never take our FREEDOM!!!” We also got a discount for answering various trivia questions. That’s why you go to school kids! Duncan and another nameless yogurt-eater were especially adept at answering the questions. The staff recorded our speech, and if they are to be believed, they’re going to post it on their website: http://www.mryogato.com. The flavors were regular, tangy, and guava. Not to be biased or anything, but guava won hands down. They had several interesting toppings, such as olive oil and sunflower seeds. If you’re ever in D.C, look it up. Anyways, we enjoyed amazing yogurt and a NES thoughtfully provided to the customers. Enjoy the Pacific Northwest-ish weather!

-Noah

Metro and White House, by Maddie Ekin

Hello, I have made a goal of lying down in all the class pictures. Hopefully, I will beat my brother’s record (if you can remember, he did the same thing last DC trip). Anyway, yesterday we traveled on the metro instead of in our vans. When we left for the parking lot where we parked our cars, we noticed a plastic owl in the rafters. Upon closer inspection, we counted eight different owls, three balloons, and zero pigeons (that was the owls’ job, scaring off the pigeons). It was cool how something that abstract could end up in a huge metro station. During our metro adventure, we were in one of the busiest stations during “rush hour” when Noah, Sam, and Mathias decided to get on the wrong train! Just as the doors were closing, Mr. Harvey grabbed them and dragged them out of the train. We all laughed and jumped on the right train. We also visited the White House. We were waiting in a large hall when the president’s dog ran through a door with several secret service men following. Apparently the dog had gone on a walk and wanted to visit us so a few of us got to pet it. We had a good, busy, day full of fun, adventures and good food.