As all good stories should go, I have saved the best for last!

Our day in Stirling was my absolute favorite, and I firmly believe the entire family enjoyed it about as much as I did. It was the perfect Scottish holiday kind of day. As in, we even saw men in kilts playing bagpipes. It was the cherry on the top of our UK holiday sundae.

I’m not trying to be all sunshine and rainbows, glossing over the struggles. This was truly one of those rare, extra joy and excitement kind of days that you cannot plan for. Days like this just happen, and you have to enjoy them when they come.

I’m not even sure which thing we did that day was the coolest. We did four things, and they were all pure joy.

I’m not even exaggerating. So let’s just begin at the beginning.

I’d booked our Stirling Castle tickets in advance. You can do that here. They have a family discount package, which is a good thing since every single place we went required five tickets, but all of these U.K. historical sites have family deals on their tickets.

After our nice Holiday Inn Scottish breakfast, we all piled into our rented SUV and drove towards the castle. We noticed a sign about Stirling Bridge and decided to take a short side quest to check that out. It was the site of a major Scottish battle about a thousand years ago.

The weather was even perfect, though only for that short time.

It was pre-storm weather, which I personally adore. The temperature is low and the clouds are so thick and full and gray they are almost blue. The wind is whipping, humidity is about 99%, and the entire Earth tells you, “Look, you got three minutes before everything is soaked.”

But even with all this warning, it feels so exhilarating outside in that cool, windiness that you just dare it to give you five more minutes to enjoy being outside in July in blue jeans with no sweating!

We frolicked about the Stirling Bridge, took a few photos, and dashed back to the car as the first drops of rain began.

But the real fun began when we arrived to the castle gates, paid for parking, and met the jolliest person we’d met yet in the U.K., a smiling, bearded Scottish gatekeeper who seemed genuinely happy to meet us. Up to this point, no one in England or Scotland seemed at all interested in meeting us. No one had asked us where we were from. This was a delightful change.

The man at the gate thought it was hilarious that we were the third car that morning with Americans from Virginia, and he’s right. That is pretty bizarre. What’s the deal, Virginia?

It kept only threatening to rain and dropping a few drops. Only Alan and Daniel had rain jackets, and we had only one umbrella. The rain held off another few minutes as we entered the castle grounds. At the gates, we met another friendly Scottish man. He asked us where we were from and what all we would see in Scotland.

We told him we were just seeing Stirling and Dumphries. He was like, “Dumphries!!??”

Laughing, he asked, “Why would you go to Dumphries? I mean I have family in Dumphries, but what’s in Dumphries?”

So I had to explain there was one castle there we would visit. Plus, it was just on our way back south. I was giving us a jump on our road trip to Heathrow Airport. The funny thing is that we heard this several times that day, “Dumphries!? Why are ye going to Dumphries!?”

This man was another jolly Scot with a red beard. Daniel was already loving this place. There were red-headed people everywhere. Plus, Daniel has always had an appreciation for a rainy day. I have many photos of him standing outside in the rain, for fun.

And Scotland did not disappoint on the rain. As soon as we entered the castle walls, the rain came pouring down.

We were still outside, so we hid under a stone archway and did our best to stay dry until it passed. Alan ran back to the car and fetched an umbrella.

The pouring rain slowed to a mist, and we walked about the castle gardens. It was the prettiest garden I’ve seen in ages, so I took a lot of photos.

Once Alan rejoined us, and the rain stopped, we walked along castle walls and explored all of the outer buildings of the castle, like the kitchens.

You know how we love to walk on ancient walls!

First of all, look at these gorgeous views of Scottish nature!

One thing Stirling Castle is famous for is being where the Highlands meet the Lowlands. You can see the hills of the Scottish Highlands in these photos, and it’s beautiful.

Then we finally made it into the castle itself, and I have photos to share with you from that too.

We spent just as much time outside as in because it was so nice there!!

The people we met were what made our Scottish experience a notch above our English experience, in my opinion.

The Scots were far more interested in talking to us. They made us feel welcome. I’ve said several times, the Scottish remind me of American Southerners.

Southern hospitality must have come from Scotland!!

Hear me out. This makes sense. Many, many of the people who settled the South were of Scottish ancestry, my own ancestry included. Did you see Gone with the Wind? Mr. O’Hara was Scottish too. I mean sure he was fictional, but still!

This man was in full costume as some kind of artisan I think. I can’t remember what he was supposed to be. What made him special is he took the time to talk to our kids. He asked them where they are from, what all we were visiting in Scotland. Then he took us to the window, and told us more about Scotland, the Highlands, and things to look for. He was friendly and helpful and also funny.

This tour guide asked the boys, “Where are you from?” And the boys had the hardest time understanding him enough to answer his questions. It was so funny. He was a great sport about it. Then he was another one to say, “Dumphries!? Why are you going to Dumphries!?”

According to the Stirling Castle website, from 1110-1603, almost every Scottish monarch either lived, died, or was crowned at Stirling Castle.

The place is so huge, we did not even see all of it. I believe we missed both the chapel and the Highlanders Museum, but we saw about all the rest.

This was the day it finally occurred to me that I could bribe my family to smile for photos. Inside the castle, I told them, “Hey! If you all smile for this photo, I’ll let you get a coke with lunch!” Boom. Problem solved, and I was only out a few pounds for cokes.

Another cool feature of the castle is these elaborately woven unicorn tapestries, hanging in the Queen’s bedchamber. These were made in modern times off patterns of medieval tapestries.

After touring the main areas of the castle, we made our way to the cafe and the gift shops.

I was a big fan of the Stirling Castle Cafe. They had a plethora of baked goods to choose from, and best of all, they had gluten free bread! We were all excited about the bakery selection!!

While we were in the gift shop, the bottom fell out of the skies! Everything and everyone was drenched.

We decided to we were happy with what we’d already seen and headed for our nice, dry SUV. Not far from the castle is the site of the Battle of Bannockburn, and we wanted to go see that too.

The Battle of Bannockburn site

When we saw the men with bagpipes, we all thought, “Ohhh yes! This is excellent!”

No one wants to visit Scotland and not see a man in a kilt playing a bagpipe! It’s such a unique trademark of the Scottish! We only had one whole day in Scotland, so this was a gift.

We headed into the visitor’s center. You need to tickets to get in.

It is not expensive. The whole family is only $25.00. There’s a full Battle of Bannockburn experience film, which we missed because we got distracted by the festivities of the day. Then there’s the park and memorials.

The thing the boys had the most fun with though, was the costume room!

We tried on everything they had in there, and they had a lot! The quality of the costumes was unlike anything you will find anywhere else! The gear was made of fine materials, and we’ve never come across anywhere like this in America.

Just as we were finishing up in the costume room, a Scottish man, complete with kilt, appeared. In the thickest of genuine Scottish accents he invited us out to the Battle of Bannockburn commemorative service. He said it was starting in ten minutes.

Turns out, we happened to be there on July 22, almost the anniversary of the famous battle that took place there on July 23 and 24, 1314.

This battle is a big deal. It was during the First War of Scottish Independence. Scottish King Robert the Bruce led his troops against King Edward II and his troops. The English had a hard time with the boggy terrain, and this Scottish victory was the turning point of the war.

We got to follow this parade into the Memorial with the bagpipes and drummer playing.

The Society of William Wallace coordinated a whole commemorative service of the battle. They did the bagpipes, a speech or two, and a few songs.

The service was stirring. You couldn’t help but feel the call to go fight for Scotland! Of all the countries I’ve visited, this one is definitely my favorite. I don’t just say that because more than a third of my ancestors were Scots. Scotland is a darling of a country. The landscape is beautiful, but it’s the friendly and down-to-earth people I like the most!

Well, what’s wonderful about Scotland is the people and also the fact that the sun did not beat down on my fair, freckled skin, making me sweat buckets. I was made for this cool, wet place!

They had a musician there, a man with a guitar, named Ted Christopher. Ted played a few of his songs for us and invited the whole crowd out to a local pub afterwards.

Ted’s music is very good. You can check it out here. We enjoyed it all so much, Alan went straight over to Ted after the service and chatted with him. As it turns out, Ted travels the world with his music. Alan enjoyed talking to him, and Ted even gave Alan a copy of his book!

I headed over to the Robert the Bruce statue with the boys to look around.

Afterwards, we headed over to the impressive and enormous William Wallace Memorial.

You can see this monument all over Stirling. It’s even more impressive than our Washington Memorial in Washington, D.C. It may be around the same height, I don’t know. The way it’s perched on top of a mountain makes it impossible to miss.

I absolutely love a good cardboard cutout photo opportunity. You can see the joy on my face! My children meanwhile……they prefer to make the funny faces, even in cardboard cutouts.

You drive uphill to get to the Monument. Then there is a shuttle to drive you up to it. We’d already bought so many tickets over our time in the U.K. We decided to settle for just seeing this one from the outside and visiting its cafe and gift shop.

This coffee shop was my favorite!!! Not only did they have delicious drinks, but they had all sorts of baked goods, and two gluten free options!! I had actual choices!! Traveling is exhausting though. Alan took a nap while we were here.

We bought a few things from the gift shop too, and then we headed to our hotel in Dumphries, a couple of hours away.

My allergies bothered me this entire trip. That’s why I was wearing glasses instead of contacts. My eyes kept itching and swelling, and I was always sneezing. So much sneezing. So I was concerned about how old this Holiday Inn looked from the front.

I was relieved to find there is actually a newer building where the rooms are.

And what is to see in Dumphries??? This castle!

We saw Caerlaverock Castle on our last day in the U.K. Then we drove down to Heathrow Airport. That was a solid six hour road trip, with lots of stops for food and such.

The rest areas we went through on our way back to the airport were large and nice. The English may be famous for drinking tea, but there were coffee shops everywhere!

Our last night in the U.K we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport, where I had the meal I’d been looking for the entire trip!

Gluten free fish and chips!!! You cannot go to England without eating fish and chips, and being gluten free had put a real damper on that for me.

Our hotel served this in their restaurant. Caleb was a good sport and went down to the lobby to eat with me. The others had pizza ordered to the room, and believe it or not, it was reasonably priced!

This was the perfect way to end our U.K. vacation.

Thank you for hanging with me through this series. Most vacations are a combination of travel struggles and triumphs, but this one was a pure blessing, hurdles and all. Navigating unknown train systems are always a pain to me, but once we left London, we had our rental car and didn’t need the train.

Family vacation is always worth the expense.

It’s the most concentrated together time you can get. I feel like it bonds the family together to go on adventures together. That’s what it’s all about, whether it’s a huge vacation like this one, or a day trip to a state park. I’m so thankful we got to do this. Our time with our children at home is so short, and I want to enjoy it while we can!!

The post Visiting Stirling Castle was My Favorite Day in the UK appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This family vacation to the United Kingdom was extra special to me because I feel like it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip.

Our time together with our children is short. The preciousness of this time became so apparent to me once our oldest went away to college. Plus, he insisted on skipping this trip. It was impossible for him to obtain summer employment if he was constantly leaving town on all my family adventures.

He was right about that. I fully understand. When you have several children, there are not infinite resources. The kids need to make their own money and build their own work experiences.

But we still have three boys at home. One is barely a kid. He graduates this year! I feel like we need to squeeze in and enjoy all of the family adventures we can get.

Our road trip to York was a huge blessing because it brought us to York, and we loved York!

We even got there in time to walk the ancient, well preserved walls of York that night! I want to tell you all about it!! We had the best time in this city.

We woke up early that morning in our hot Stonehenge hotel.

I think it was John David’s birthday. Or was that the day before? He was such a good sport about not having a birthday party because of this trip. There was no cake even. I think he received a birthday brownie at a to-go shop instead.

The hotel did provide a small grab-and-go breakfast that morning. I’ve never enjoyed a bowl of oatmeal so much. It was oddly delicious that day.

We packed up and headed out bright and early. For our road trip, we rented a Mercedes SUV. Our three youngest boys were all crammed in the backseat. They found the most comfortable seating arrangement and stuck to it the whole trip. There were many complaints on the lack of space from our six-foot-two seventeen-year-old.

About twenty minutes up the road, I realized I did not have my phone.

What’s a road trip without a problem to solve? I am notorious about leaving things behind as well as never knowing where my phone is, so this should come as a surprise to no one.

Alan was a good sport and whipped the car around and headed back to the Stonehenge Inn.

Phone obtained, we headed out for real this time.

Before our trip, we’d talked to our friends Roger and Christine about traveling through England. They’d told us England has many rest stop areas on their interstate-like highways. These rest areas are much like the ones in the Mid-Atlantic/New England areas of the USA. They have gas stations and fast food grouped together.

These rest areas are much better than most of the USA’s interstate exits, where you have to drive through many traffic lights and fight traffic to find gas and food.

Some of these rest areas were extra nifty and built the food court right over the highway. I enjoyed that.

Another English oddity we discovered was that all of the self-serve soft drinks at every single place we ate only served diet drinks. There is an up-charge for beverages with real sugar, as the country is trying to discourage everyone from drinking sugar. As an American, it was puzzling when my choices were Pepsi Zero, Pibb Extra Zero, or Fanta Zero (or something like that).

I kept thinking, “Where are the real cokes and Sprites?”

Also, they love Starbucks in England. It was everywhere.

I never saw a Dunkin’, but Starbucks was at every rest area. In fact, at the first stop, you could buy Starbucks in three different ways in one giant parking lot. There was a free standing Starbucks. Then the gas station had a mini Starbucks inside, as well as grab-and-go iced Starbucks coffees in a refrigerator.

This was a major win in my book. I do love an iced sugar-free vanilla latte.

It became apparent that if we wanted to make it to York in time to check in, we had no time for side quests.

We only stopped for lunch. Then we did a little exit off our path to drive through Warwick. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of Warwick Castle.

Though we never made it to the castle, we did drive through a small part of the town. It was still fun to look at. Towns in England look much different than towns in America. They are ever so much more ancient.

Goodramgate Apartments in York

I knew we needed to get to York and check in to the apartment I’d reserved for us before six o’clock. Goodramgate Apartments has an office, but they close early. In fact, it seemed like everything in England closed earlier than we wanted. If you don’t eat before six, good luck eating!

These apartments are super cool. It is run like a hotel, but they are all real apartments that have been renovated to serve guests hotel-style. It was much like renting a condo or beach house.

In York, you park in a car park and then walk where you want to go, for the most part.

There is also public transportation, but we stayed so close to everything we never needed it. We were able to literally walk every where. I loved this.

All day, the boys looked forward to having air-conditioning again.

Thankfully, our car was air-conditioned. I had to break it gently to the boys that I was pretty sure our apartment would not be. The English do not seem to think they need air-conditioning. Their country is much cooler than the American south. It is more like Massachusetts. However, even Massachusetts and London alike get hot enough in the summer.

Thankfully, the boys liked having our own three-story Victorian townhouse with privacy and a full kitchen so much, they actually forgave the lack of cool air.

Goodramgate Apartments has several different types of rooms to rent. We stayed at Ebor Mews, which is one hundred fifty years old. It felt like we were getting a truly local experience. Our apartment was across the street from the gate to York City Walls. I loved it because we were in the middle of everything we wanted to see.

When we first arrived, the place was every bit as hot as the Stonehenge Inn, especially on the top floor, where the bedrooms are.

Once we pulled down all the blinds, cracked all the windows, and strategically moved all the fans, it was a little better. Outside, it was nice and cool by seven o’clock each night. We stayed in York for two nights.

This was a nice place to stay. The only people who had a hot night were Alan and me. Our window, on the third floor, did not open. We had to rely on a small standing fan.

The youngest boys slept in the living room, with the biggest window, down on the second floor. They said they actually got cold at night! There was such a good breeze going in their room.

Finding food that night in York at seven o’clock was not easy.

After the long road trip, we wanted to stay close to our town house. Most places on our street were closed or converted to bars for the evening. Drinks you could find easily, but food was another story.

Thankfully, we found this American themed restaurant, Fancy Hank’s, where we were able to order delicious food for everyone.

They even had their gluten free items marked on the menu!! I was so happy. Their kitchen is not always open that late, so don’t go expecting it to be open at seven. They had a larger party with reservations that night, so we were lucky.

I ordered the BBQ pulled pork loaded tater tots. It was delicious!!!

That was such a happy night. After we ate our Fancy Hank’s take-away food, we walked across the street to explore the York City Wall.

Our townhouse was literally connected to the Monk Bar (a huge gate on the wall). The walls of York are one of the main attractions of the city, and it was right outside our door.

We loved this. If your group includes energetic boys and parents who love history, walking walls and castles is the perfect vacation.

I think it was after nine o’clock before it got dark, and the weather was perfection. We walked until we ran out of wall and then walked back.

The boys of course had to sit on top of the walls and windows in different places. There are parts where the wall is narrow and parts where it widens to look-out points and turrets. It was everything you’d want it to be.

And it was not crowded at all! Both nights there was hardly anyone out there!! How is this possible??

I think this was our whole family’s favorite two nights in the UK. We loved it. We goofed off, ran around, climbed where we could climb, read the information, and had ourselves a jolly good time.

I wish we could do this everyday!

Touring York was right up there with the Tower of London. We loved it so much. The walls were our favorite part, so we did that both nights. These photos are all from the first night.

We did so many things in York! I will tell you all about York day two in my next post.

Just know that I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to visit York if you ever get a chance. It was a blast.

The post Once in a Lifetime Family Road Trip to York, Our Favorite English City appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Before reading this article, I had never thought of it. I had actually never heard of “empty leg flights.” Today, I have a guest post to tell us all about this alternative way of travel. I hope you learn as much as I did!

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Flying is not as romantic and comfortable as it was back in the fifties and sixties when adventurous men and women not only dressed for the occasion, but even those in economy class they had plenty of room to stretch their legs while stewardesses (now called flight attendants) doted on them with fine wines and only the best, well prepared in-flight food (even steaks and lobster tails).

These days, flying commercially is more like being stuffed into a sardine can and the lid being sealed shut. No one takes pride in their wardrobe, and the food is as close to inedible as possible. In fact, I don’t even eat the meals served on commercial long-haul flights that can last upwards of twelve hours or so. I bring my own food.

But what can you do to make flying fun again, comfortable, and even luxurious for not a lot of money?

The answer is the empty-leg flight on a private jet. So then, the obvious question is how to find empty-leg flights that are relatively inexpensive?

According to a recent travel article by The Points Guy, flying private is on almost every globe-trotting traveler’s bucket list. There’s a good reason for this. Besides having the luxury of an entire plane to yourself, flying private also comes with a certain level of convenience that’s impossible when it comes to commercial cattle car airliners. You fly according to your own schedule. You don’t need to be bothered by security or boarding groups, or overhead luggage bins that are filled even before you board the plane.

If you’ve done even some basic Google searching for the most inexpensive way to attain the experience of flying a private jet, you might have come across the term, “empty leg.” It turns out, empty-leg flights are an excellent way to get yourself a highly discounted private jet charter. But, with empty-leg flights, your travel plans require flexibility (if you’re single and self-employed this is a no-brainer). There are other key details you need to know about empty legs flights. Here are just a few of them.   

Defining an Empty Leg Flight

As the term “empty” suggests, these are private charters that have already been scheduled to fly, but there are no passengers, usually due to cancelations. But the plane still needs to fly since it requires heading to a location where another charter is waiting. Empty leg flights are sometimes referred to as “ferry flights,” “repositioning legs,” and “dead-heads.” Says one charter jet company, an amazing 30 to 50 percent of all private jet charters often fly empty.  

This means you can get an empty-leg flight for a 75 percent discount over the normal charter price. And get this: some private jet membership programs offer super highly discounted flights or complimentary access to empty-leg flights. Talk about flying the friendly skies in style and on the cheap.

But because charter flights are expensive to operate, they naturally attempt to avoid empty-leg flights to begin with. This is why they’re not made available until the last minute. Routes can also be limited since there’s little way of predicting availability. Again, if you’re a free-spirit, and flexible, this shouldn’t pose a problem for you.

Downsides of Empty Leg Flights

With the good comes the bad. That said, there are two major downsides of booking empty leg flights. The first is that the flight can be canceled on a whim due to the jet suddenly getting booked at full charter price or a mechanical issue forcing the private jet to be grounded for the time being. 

Cancellations are an unfortunate reality of empty-leg flights, and like commercial airliners, private jet operators are not responsible for getting you to your desired destination.

Secondly, empty-leg flights are not round-trip flights. They are almost always one way. This means you need to find your way back home, that is, you wish to return anytime soon.

How Empty leg Flights Differ from Traditional Charters

Empty-leg flights can be similar to traditional charters in that you’ll only need to arrive at the airport a few minutes prior to takeoff. But keep in mind that empty legs schedules are stricter, which means there’s very little flexibility in delaying the flight because you’re stuck in traffic. On a good note, unless you’ve paid for just one seat, you will likely enjoy the entire jet.  

While this sounds like heaven above the clouds, note that there will be either limited catering or no catering on board. But snacks, basic alcoholic beverages, and soft drinks are usually available. Just like regular charters, empty-leg flights always list the model and type of aircraft you’ll be flying.

But again, empty-leg flights aren’t guaranteed to fly and therefore can be canceled at any moment. It’s best to have a backup option or be entirely prepared to cancel your trip. Again, flexibility is key when it comes to empty-leg travel and flying in a private jet on the cheap.  

How to Go About Booking an Empty Leg Flight

Now for the part you’ve been anxiously waiting for. How do you go about booking an empty-leg flight? While not many private charter companies advertise them, almost all offer empty leg deals. This only makes sense since getting some money for flying is better than getting nothing at all should a client cancel for one reason or another.    

Also, you can find brokers who actively advertise other private charter’s empty-leg flights. These businesses act as a sort of middleman, akin to online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia. But like flying commercially, you are said to be better off booking your flight directly.    

You can search for empty-leg flights right on your smartphone or laptop via numerous charter and travel companies. You might even ask your preferred travel agent to do the research for you if you don’t mind spending a few bucks. Your agent will likely allow you to select your preferred departure airport, and she will alert you when a deal is made available. So always have your bag packed and ready to go.  

Empty Leg flights usually mean the entire aircraft is at your disposal. But in some cases, you can book just one seat, which means you’ll get even more of a discount. Again, be prepared for the flight to be canceled.

Empty-leg flights are an excellent way to fly the friendly skies, but you must be flexible and on top of what planes are flying and which are grounded. Bon voyage.

The post Flying a Private Jet is Not as Hard or as Expensive as You Think appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

July 4, 1863 Telegraph from President Lincoln:

“The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3rd. is such as to cover that Army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen. And that for this, he especially desires that on this day, He whose will, not ours, should ever be done, be everywhere remembered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude.”

President Abraham Lincoln, July 4, 1863

Day Trip to the Gettysburg Battlefield

One of my favorite things to do is to drag my entire family out on day trips. Gettysburg was just such a trip. It’s close to our house, and it is all outdoors.

Gettysburg is such a humongous historical battlefield that it is actually a driving tour. It was a good thing too because we went in freezing weather. The wind was howlin’! But you know I’ve never been one to let a little hostile weather lock me in. It was my birthday, and we made the most of it.

Four Key Facts to Know About the Battle of Gettysburg:

#1. This national park protects the very land of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, from the American Civil War.

#2. The Union Army won this battle, and it is considered the turning point of the Civil War.

#3. Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. It effectively ended Confederate General Lee’s invasion of the North.

There were over 51,000 casualties.

#4. It is the site of President Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, which he made at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery dedication.

A lot of that you may have already known.

But did you know that Lincoln was deeply disappointed in the end game performance of General Meade at this battle?

You see, Meade allowed the Confederate troops to flee the battlefield free of pursuit. President Lincoln thought if only Meade’s forces had given them chase, they could have finished off the war altogether. At this point, the Civil War had already dragged on for two years, and naturally the President was anxious to see it end.

Lincoln actually wrote a letter of reproach to General Meade but then did not send it to him.

Tips for Touring:

#1. There is a museum with gift shop.

Visit the museum first instead of last! We goofed on that by waiting until the end of our tour. The gift shop and the museum all closed up shop just five minutes before we finished up our tour and were ready to enter. Sad.

#2. Use a self- guided tour app!

They have bus tours you can sign up for, and horse tours, and all sorts of things. We just downloaded the app on our phone and toured in the comfort of the minivan. There are actually several apps to choose from. The apps work with your GPS. They know where you are and will give you the history as you drive.

I think we used this app.

Unfortunately, we were still figuring it out at the beginning and completely missed the cemetery area. This was disappointing because the cemetery is where the Lincoln statue and information are. Don’t skip the cemetery! See, you really do learn more from your mistakes…

Otherwise, the app was awesome. It told us history about each place we visited and explained many of the monuments. We used Bluetooth on my phone to play it through the van speakers, so everyone in the car could hear well.

#3. Plan for this whole tour to take a few hours.

You will stop and get out a lot. There are even tall look-out pavilions to climb and get views.

#4. Devil’s Den has lot of rocks that children like to climb on.

My kids passed on the climbing when we went though. It was too windy and FREEZING.

#5. If you have access to ancestry.com or family history, look up what grandfather you may have had that fought in this battle.

I was surprised to discover I had many grandfathers who fought in this battle, and so did my husband. Try to find which unit they fought with and if they lived to tell the tale.

The Gettysburg Address

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. “

“We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.“

Alan says my brooch looks like a sheriff’s badge. Ha!! I still think it’s pretty. Long live the brooch.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. “

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion —

“…that we here highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“

President Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

For more information, check out the Gettysburg website.

I hope you get to go. It was fascinating. I have one last group of photos I MUST share with you. This isw my favorite picture and sighting from the trip. How cool is this?

This barn was there before the battle, and it still stands. It STILL bears the cannon hole from the Battle of Gettysburg!

Closing Thoughts from Lincoln

If you are a history lover like me, there is nothing better than reading commentary from the people who lived it and lead it.

Lincoln noted in his second inaugural address that he believed the war dragged on so long so that our country might pay for every drop of enslaved blood that had been shed. Here is his exact quote:

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’

~Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address

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Alan pleasantly surprised me a couple of weeks ago when he announced that he had cashed in our hotel points and made reservations for us to spend July 5th in Ocean City.

Say what?? Granted, Alan can be very spontaneous, but this was even better than a last minute trip. This was a PLANNED vacation surprise! Wahoo! I had not even suspected that he was planning something like this. We have been basically stuck here. You see, not only is there a pandemic which we respect and take precautions for, but Alan is in the military. He is not even allowed by the government to travel beyond some specified radius for now. Don’t ask me what the radius is exactly. I haven’t bothered to look it up, but all I know is we are required to basically stay in place.

Alan and I went to Ocean City seven years ago, for a marriage retreat, but it was in winter. We have never been to their famous boardwalk. The children have never been down there at all. So this was something to get excited about!

John David actually said, “Well, I am excited because of staying in a hotel, so yeah!”

I was a little nervous about pulling off social distancing in such a crowded location. Catching coronavirus is certainly not on my summer bucket list.

In fact, I have only two items on 2020’s summer bucket list:

1. Do not catch coronavirus, and do my best to ensure the family does not catch it either.
2. Go to Alabama to visit our family.

So is it possible to pull off social distancing while taking a beach vacation?

Yes, I mean, not perfectly, but just as well as we do at home anyway. We ate out once and got take-out twice in twenty-four hours. Normally, we would not need to venture out for food or eat out as frequently as that.

I think anytime you go out and especially eat from a restaurant, it is a risk. Right? But I mean obviously, some risks are going to have to be made. Even going to the store carries some risks, but people do have to eat.

Before we left, I looked up Ocean City’s current COVID numbers.

Their numbers were even lower than our own county, so that was a plus. There just comes a point where you need to get out of your own house for your mental health, and we were definitely at that point.

Bathroom stops

I am happy to report that bathroom stops are possible. Royal Farms abound at every turn in eastern Maryland and Delaware, and their restrooms were open, so this was not a problem. I cannot say what level of cleanliness they were because the kids and I did not take any bathroom breaks. The trip from our house to Ocean City was only around three hours. Did you know that I have a bladder of steel? It’s an attribute I’m quite proud of. Once, in high school, I held it for thirteen hours, from Alabama to Texas. You see, public restrooms give me the eebidy-jeebies.

Our entire family is pretty crazy about Sweet Frog. This is a frozen yogurt place that lets you add all kinds of toppings of your choosing. It is also a Christian company. We were delighted to discover it was right next door to our hotel!

Hotel Stays with a Family of Six

Hotel stays have to be planned out very carefully when you are trying to room six people together. This requires that you book a suite that has two queens and a pull out sofa, or two rooms of almost any description joined together. This time we had two joined rooms, and it was so spacious and wonderful. Both rooms had queen beds, pull-out sofas, and full kitchens. Plus, one room was handicap accessible, so it had about two feet of extra width everywhere. Home 2 suites is also pet friendly, or at least this one is, so we highly recommend this hotel!

We originally booked a pet-friendly hotel, thinking we would bring Rosie with us, but in the end we decided to send Rosie to her boarding place. She stays at a doggie daycare that is run out of the owner’s house, so I can assure you, she probably has more fun there than she does at home. Rosie loves getting to go play with the other dogs.

The Golden Age of Parenthood

We are smack dab in the middle of the golden age of parenting. It is glorious. No one is in diapers, needs bottles, or needs help using the potty. Everyone can bathe themselves and wash their own hair. Meanwhile, no one can drive yet, so we always know where everyone is and what they are doing. This is our golden age.

I should also mention that we also left ALL video game devices at home so we did not have to settle any fights over turns.

Our Biggest Obstacle: Feather pillows!!!!

There are only a few things that could allergically ruin our vacation: cashews, peanuts, fire ants, peas, or feather pillows. Thankfully, our boys know how to avoid their food allergies with excellent accuracy and very little anxiety. Fire ants do not live this far north, so that only leaves the nemesis of at least FOUR of us….feather pillows.

It never even occurred to me to be worried about this, but it brought great distress and a little bit of asthma to our evening. Thankfully, I never travel without adult and children’s Benadryl. Several of us had to make make-shift pillows and switch beds, but I am happy to report that we did not end up at the ER. I cannot BELIEVE I was careless enough to forget to bring an inhaler. It has been a year since anyone needed one, so it never crossed my mind.

Yes, the beach was still somewhat crowded. It was Sunday, July 5th.

That did not mean we came into contact with anyone at all though. We set up our blanket about twelve feet from the nearest group, just as we normally would anyway. I did have to try harder than usual to stay away from other people in the water.

John David and Daniel were ALL about the ocean. I loved watching them enjoy it so much. That was another golden age of parenting moment. No one was so small that I had to worry about their every step. I stayed close to them, constantly scanning of course, but it was nothing like those years where Caleb would take off running in the opposite direction or J.D. thought he could just plow right into the deep waves with no fear whatsoever. I was made to be a big kid mom!

You may be thinking, “It’s not as pretty as Florida.”

Well, no, it is not as gorgeous as the Gulf of Mexico. It was fun though. Really it was exactly what we needed.

Daniel told me early on, “I got pinched on the toes by a crab!” Isn’t it sad how we naturally think kids are wrong sometimes? That is exactly why I FULLY deserved that very real, quite startling, pinch I got on my big toe an hour later from a crab that I could not see in that dark water.

We saw many crabs, of all different sizes that day. Maryland is not known for its crabs for nothing. In fact, their prevalence makes me wonder why it costs so much to eat them. Ha!

Alan buried the boys up to their knees, per their request, and then headed back out for some swimming. Why do kids love to be buried in the sand so much? Ick. It is not for me.

Pool Time!

According to the CDC, you are not at risk of catching coronavirus from swimming in a well maintained pool or hot tub. I think it is the chlorine that we have to thank here.

Home 2 Suite’s pool policy was that you sign up for an hour at a time for the pool. No more than ten people in the pool at any given time. The great thing about this was that we had the entire pool to ourselves for most of the time. We thoroughly enjoyed our pool time. It was badly needed. The only swimming we had done this summer was the day the boys swam in the stream at Rocks State Park.

Longboard Cafe

This restaurant was next door to our hotel, so it was an obvious choice. We lucked up and got seats right away, and the food was delicious. I am quite pleased to say that everyone was on their best behavior. It went much better than last week, when the boys had not been out in forever.

Childhood Problems

We noticed at dinner that Daniel looked all pouty, so Alan asked him what was wrong. Caleb said, “He’s just mad because he didn’t get to push the buttons on the elevator.”

I laughed. Kids do not like it when you laugh at their problems, but it is so hard not to laugh!! We worked extra hard to make sure Dan got to push elevator buttons on the way back to the room.

Home 2 Suites Breakfast

They did still have the free breakfast. You just had to pick it up and carry it to your room. I had one of those microwavable sausage biscuits, and we made coffee in our room. The kids, as usual, all ate cereal, and everyone was happy.

The Boardwalk!

Ocean City’s boardwalk is famous. I have heard people talk about it ever since we first moved to the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia area) nine years ago. The boys did not care one way or the other. They are funny like that, but I could NOT wait to check it out.

However, locals advised us to steer clear of the boardwalk at night this trip. There has been violence in recent weeks. Not ones to ignore sound advice, we decided to do the boardwalk on Monday morning rather than Sunday night. We enjoyed Sweet Frog by our hotel instead, and no one was disappointed really.

It looks so fun, doesn’t it? But the amusement park was not open when we went. Arcades did not seem like a good idea during the ‘rona either, and we weren’t hungry because we had eaten the free breakfast at the hotel. Plus, the sun was beating down on us with very little shade available. I can see where normally it is actually more fun at night.

We stayed at the boardwalk all of thirty minutes and then headed back home.

I would have been perfectly happy to remain in Ocean City all week.

But then you know how much I LOVE the beach. Like everyone else, I am tired of staying in my house all the time. I officially miss regular life. Yesterday, I was so sad to be back at my isolation island full of people fussing about their video game controllers, I just sat down and watched reruns on Netflix all day. That left me feeling even worse, so today I am aiming to be more productive.

I am already starting to daydream about our next getaway. Alan has resubmitted paperwork to take leave to visit family in August, so now we wait to see if it will be approved. Here’s hoping!

The post Overnight Trip to Ocean City, Maryland During the Pandemic appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

June is always a dizzyingly busy month. We have two family birthdays, Father’s Day, and the end of school. For 2019, 2018, 2016, and 2014, we were also in the middle of a big move. So you can imagine, that the children are all completely bewildered at spending June stuck in our own house. Not just stuck in the house, but in the SAME house as last year! What???

Haaaa! The military life has been quite chaotic for us the past few years. I am so thankful to have a summer off from moving.

But I am about done with hanging out in my kitchen with no end in sight. Watching the boys play video games was only fun for about a week, and I have already finished binge watching all my Netflix shows.

So we have found ourselves in need of ADVENTURES!

Well, I have anyway. Alan must be too because he is the one who booked Ocean City for July 4th!

However, we want to do this responsibly. Catching the rona is not our idea of a good time, and we do respect the pandemic. We have our masks. We wear those indoors, and for the most part, we just stick to the outdoors and keep our distance from others. It’s working so far. Maryland coronavirus numbers are down, and that is a good feeling. We aren’t throwing caution to the wind, though, friends. Don’t worry.

Havre de Grace is located in our side of Maryland, and ever since we moved in, I have heard of the boardwalk there. It turned out to be even more pleasant than I expected. We ate outside at a very casual restaurant called the Promenade Grille. Then we took a nice stroll on the boardwalk, stopping to see the wildlife, read the information signs, and take photos as directed by Mom. This mom likes to take a ton of pictures.

Daniel was assigned an entire nine week’s worth of reading a history book about our county.

The book is called Sailing Through Time with the Roberts. Most of that history happened to center around Havre de Grace. It was a long book, and it was read during “distance learning,” so I got to read it right along with Daniel. Each week, we would take turns. He would read a page, I would read a page, all the way through the twenty-plus pages of each chapter. It was the longest, most in depth local history book I have ever read. However, the author kept it somewhat interesting, as it was told through the eyes of a time traveling brother and sister. Their time travel instrument was a model skipjack, perfect for the Chesapeake Bay area.

Since Daniel and I read that historical book, our Havre de Grace boardwalk tour made a lot of sense to us. Several times I said, “Look, Daniel! Like in the book!”

“John O’Neil! Like in the book! Remember, he fought the British single-handedly!?

-hehehe- Daniel spent most of the walk saying, “Yeah. Yes, I remember.”

The boys have only left the house to go to a state park and this board walk excursion since March 13th. I have noticed that in the South many sports have started back up, but that isn’t really the case here. We are still almost always at home. They get to see neighbors, and that’s it.

I definitely felt like the youngest fella had completely forgotten how to behave in public. He has always been spirited and uninhibited, but he was a handful at dinner….a loud handful… I think we need to take him out more often to remind him how to behave. We still had fun though.

So our pandemic-style days out are definitely more solo than usual. Outdoor excursions are my favorite anyway, so this is not a bad deal. However, now that we have begun to get out, we want to do so more and more. Next weekend we are off to Ocean City, but just for one night. I feel like it will be a little harder to keep our distance in a place known for being crowded, and it will be our first hotel stay since the rona. It does make me a touch apprehensive, but we will be careful. I ordered new masks so that we will have enough for this weekend, just in case.

Here is a link to where I order our masks, from my friend Kristina in Tennessee. She does a wonderful job. She puts a nose grip piece on them that helps with fit.

I looked up coronavirus numbers for Maryland today. We are doing so well here. Alabama has three times the number of cases we do here per day, and Maryland has two million more people than Alabama. Florida, of course, is even worse. That is one reason we are sticking to our plan of waiting until August to visit Alabama and Florida. We long to see our family though. Come August we promise to pile up in the car and come visit!! I am just hoping by then the military will be granting leave so that Alan can come with us. We need numbers to go down for that to happen. Stay safe, friends!!

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Amber and I were so excited to take time out of mom life and go exploring together. We knew what a treat this was!! Meanwhile, we both heard the same comments when our family members heard that we were going to go to New York City together, just the two of us.

“You and Amber are going to New York…….by yourselves?”

“You and April are going to go to New York…by yourselves??

This was always spoken with a questioning tone and probably raised eyebrows.

Amber and I laughed about it. We acknowledged up front that it isn’t perfect. Right. We have no sense of direction. When you add our direction senses up together we are combined a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, with Amber maybe being a little better off than I am.

But do we know the city?

No. Amber had never even been.

But do we have a stellar plan, complete with subway maps or an Uber app?

Also no. Neither of us have those apps.

What DID we have?

Well, we had optimism, bus tickets, and money. Yes, we obviously have just what we needed for a day in New York City.

Bus tickets. I feel like all great stories begin with the sentence, “we decided to take the bus.” I’m sitting here laughing at my own joke, but the bus TO NYC was probably our best decision of the day. It was getting to the bus that proved to be tricky, and don’t even get us started on the impossibility of catching the TopView tour bus once inside the city.

Let me tell you the story of our day in the Big Apple.

At 8 am, once we’d had our coffee and gotten ready, I realized my driver’s license wasn’t in the little driver’s license slot of my wallet. Then I remembered putting it in my coat pocket the day before, when Amber and I were touring D.C. Also I recalled that things kept falling out of said pocket. Before I even wasted the time hunting around sheepishly, I knew exactly where my license was. It was on the streets of D.C. somewhere, maybe even buried under dead leaves or in a trash can.

I no longer had a driver’s license. Now this isn’t so big of a deal if you live in the state where you are licensed to drive, but of course with this lovely complicated military spouse life I lead, that is not the case. I had a Georgia driver’s license. Getting a new one would be tricky.

Alan did his best to convince us that Amber should drive to the bus station, which is a solid 20-30 minutes away. You could tell he was nervous about this. He packed my extra shoe cushions in my bag (which I was extremely thankful for), checked up on us throughout the day, and stuck all sorts of extra things in my bag.

We took a photo of Amber driving, but I didn’t want to make Amber drive, so we pulled over before leaving the neighborhood and switched drivers. Don’t worry. I drove super slowly. We almost missed the bus I drove so slowly. In fact, I missed a turn, as usual, and we were the last 2 to board the bus. Go figure.

You’ll all be happy to know that I am now officially a licensed Maryland driver. My new license came in the mail Thursday.

We were the very last people on the bus, which meant we couldn’t sit together. The bus ride is over 3 hours long, and Alan had made sure we’d brought phone chargers with us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the actual plugs, and these seats required electrical plugs not USB ports, so we had to be sparing of our battery usage. Altogether, it wasn’t a bad ride though. Amber sat right in front of me.

We arrived in Manhattan around 12, starving, so we quickly found a Five Guys and ate there.

There really was no trouble until we couldn’t figure out where our Top View bus pick-up was. We purchased tickets for one of those double-decker hop-on-hop-off type tour buses in advance. I’ve always wanted to do one of those in New York City.

It took us probably 20 minutes to find the bus stop, but it felt longer because we were in an uninteresting section of the city called the Garment District. We passed 5 fur stores in a row.

People were friendly to us all day though. I gotta say, after having done a trip with Alan and a trip without him, people, and I don’t mean men, I mean all people in general, are nicer to women traveling without men than to a family traveling with an intimidating looking man like Alan. Alan’s really tall and has a serious face. I guess when it’s only Amber and me we just seem more approachable.

We finally found the bus stop we were looking for, but I was still learning to use the Top View app, so I didn’t know what time it would arrive. We stopped in a pizza restaurant to use the ladies’ room, and that’s when I saw on the app that the bus was arriving in only 2 minutes. Panic!! We RAN from the pizza place to the bus stop, only to watch the bus pull away and not wait for us at all.

Disappointment and despair. There we were, basically lost, and the next bus wouldn’t be around for another 20 minutes.

At that point, we decided to switch plans. We walked to the nearest subway station, and rode it to the Staten Island Ferry stop. The subway was very easy to use, if you know what stop you are going to, and thankfully the Staten Island one is obvious because it’s the end of the line. It’s hard to mess that up, so that was our saving grace.

Ticket salesmen for other tours harassed me from the moment I stepped off the subway until we were safely in the ferry station doors. No one said a word to Amber. For a self-proclaimed “small-town girl,” she is far better at not making eye-contact with people than I am. I absolutely must work on my walking straight forward technique.

The Staten Island Ferry was even easier to get onto than the subway. It’s a free ride. You just walk in the building, wait for the next boat, walk on, and pick a seat. It drives right past the Statue of Liberty, so you take your photos, get off on Staten Island, wait for the next boat and head back over.

People hog the windows, so we learned that positioning yourself well is very important. After missing out on the best windows on the way out, we glued our feet to the best spot we could get on the way back and refused to move until we’d gotten all the photos we needed.

After the ferry, we were hoping to still catch one of those Top View buses we’d already paid for.

The app simply would never update us on when the bus would be arriving. We waited for quite a while, grew impatient with it, plus it was freezing, and headed back down to the subway. After all, the other thing Amber had on her short list of must-sees was the World Trade Center museum and memorial, and it was close by. It’s close by enough to walk to if you’re good at making correct turns, but we decided the subway would be a safer bet for us.

Subway Problems

There’s always some kind of problem. Always. Amber slid her card, and it didn’t let her through, but it took her money. She slid it again. Double charged her and still the door didn’t open. Grrrr! So now Amber’s stuck on the other side, having double paid, and I’m already through. Thankfully, a hip looking twenty-something girl had stopped to ask me directions.

Pause a minute. haha! She asked ME for directions. Too funny. I couldn’t help her, but she did reach over and open some kind of emergency door off to the side, so Amber walked through onto the platform without losing even more money. We thanked her, wished her luck, and moved on. New York City is a tough city to navigate.

We proudly managed to get on the right train and found our stop easily.

One World Trade Center

Time was beginning to run short, but the museum and memorial were important to us, so this was our last real stop.

First, we found this beautiful subway stop. Look at this place.

We even hit a little GOOD luck at the 9/11 museum. Lines for the museum can be long, but we arrived only a couple hours before closing, so lines were almost nonexistent. Tickets are around $26/person, but it was worth it.

The 9/11 museum and memorial did NOT disappoint.

The 9/11 museum is every bit as emotional as you’d expect it to be. We teared up a few times, and the more you stop and take it in, the more it gets to you.

This museum was so powerful. They have a photo wall, where you aren’t allowed to take pictures, of every single 9/11 victim who died. I was struck by how many faces were firemen and police officers. Not only did people die from these acts of terrorism, but we lost some of our best people.

As I looked at the images around us, I thought of how many of us sent our loved ones to war as a result of this day. How many of our brightest men and women never returned. I thought of the souvenirs my husband found (when he was in Iraq the first time, in 2003) of goods celebrating 9/11. Yes, they were selling cigarette lighters that lit up the towers when you’d open it and had Bin Ladin’s picture on them. The U.S. was in mourning. They were laughing and selling souvenirs. It’s beyond maddening.

I’m going to tell you much more about the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in a future post. Between Amber and me, we took a billion more photos of the museum.

After we exited the 9/11 museum, there was the memorial. The memorial is two giant square fountains where the towers once stood and with all the names of the victims on the fountains. It’s a beautiful tribute.

We left with a sense of satisfaction and urgency. What was important, we had seen, and now we were hungry and not wanting to get left by our bus back to Baltimore.

We got onto the train platform without drama, but then I panicked. Nowhere had it said which subway stop to use to catch the bus on 38th Street. Or was it 42nd? I’ve already forgotten. Amber and I froze, staring at the open doors to a train, not knowing whether or not to go in.

And that’s when we met her. Our NYC guardian angel, complete with nose ring and puffer jacket. She jammed herself between the doors and held them back with her arms, making me feel downright silly about that time I thought I was dying because I got stuck in the subway doors. Haaaa!

“Where are you going?” she demanded.

“Oh! Uh..uptown..”

“Yes. Get on this one! This is the one. Get on.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Amber and I shuffle ran onto the train.

We thanked her profusely, and then she asked us where we were going specifically and told us exactly what stop to get off. I honestly do not think we would have made it to our bus on time if she had not helped us. We barely made it as it was.

I run into these kind of people who help me all the time! You will never convince me they are coincidences. God watches over us and nudges people and helps where he deems necessary. I’m one of those people that require constant intervention too. If there’s an angel assigned to me, he’s a busy one!

Once again, Amber and I didn’t get to sit together, but we were right across the aisle, so we were almost sitting together. It was 11 or 12 by the time we made it home that night. Everyone was asleep. My own dog barked and howled up a storm at us for coming in so late. I love what a good guard dog she is.

All in all, New York City turned out to be a fairly stressful adventure. Amber and I might would rather see a waterfall or a state park next time, or maybe that’s just me. I wouldn’t trade those days of getting to hang out with my cousin for anything, though.

We joked all day long about what our mothers and grandmother would say if they could see us now, traveling through New York City on our own. Oh, how they’d laugh. We were both so thankful we got to do this, craziness and all.

Our only advice: Don’t bother with TopView Tour buses.

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