Civil War, Day 3

Day 3 of the tour started where the Civil War began in July 1861 at the Battle of Bull Run.  Here Union General Irvin McDowell faced Confederate General Gustave Beauregard, starting the Civil War.

*Ps, I'm taking these words straight from my itinerary, is that plagiarism??  How about I just tell you upfront most of these words are Alan McKay's, not mine.  All better?  All right, let's move on.*

There stands Jackson, like a stone wall.

Mom and Marlene at the Bull Run Battlefield 

One of the casualties of the artillery fire was Judith Carter Henry, an 85-year-old widow and invalid, who was unable to leave her bedroom in the Henry House. As Ricketts began receiving rifle fire, he concluded that it was coming from the Henry House and turned his guns on the building. A shell that crashed through the bedroom wall tore off one of the widow's feet and inflicted multiple injuries, from which she died later that day.

Stone Bridge near Bull Run

Stone House near Bull Run.  During both battles of Bull Run, Federals turned this former tavern into a field hospital.  Although most houses became crowded with wounded men, many diaries of soldiers mention this particular structure.

It's hard to notice, but there are two different canons still lodged in the building.  There is one just to the right of the door.

Then it was lunch at Arbys where mom had the worlds longest curly fry.  

We then visited Harpers Ferry, one of the most beautiful and well preserved antebellum (don't know what that means, it's an Alan word" towns.  Harper's Ferry is situation in the Blue Ridge Mountains at the northern tip of the Shenandoah Valley.  (That sounds like it should be in a song...oh wait, it is.  Way to be there John Denver.)  

Here in an old armory in Harpers Ferry, abolitionist John Brown and his raiders started their rebellion against slavery in 1859.

 Such a neat little town!

In front of where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. 

Jefferson Rock

On October 25, 1783, Thomas Jefferson visited Harpers Ferry.  He viewed "the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge from a rock which is now named for him.  This stop took place as Jefferson was traveling to Philadelphia and passed through Harpers Ferry with his daughter Patsy.  Jefferson called the site "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature."

View from near Jefferson Rock 

We spent a little more time in the wind and rain, exploring the fun little town of Harpers Ferry before calling it a day.

Civil War Tour, Days 1 & 2

In March, I joined my parents and Marlene for yet another Alan McKay adventure.  Our destination this time was a Civil War Tour, starting in Richmond, Virginia and then to Fredericksburg, Manassass, Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Gettysburg and Washington DC.  One of the reasons I was so excited was we were SUPPOSED to be in DC for the cherry blossoms!  In all the times I have been back, I have never seen the cherry blossoms so I was very excited....but we'll get back to that later.  It was a VERY informational/educational tour and I learned so much!  (Should've done more homework before I left so I was prepared for all that information!)  

There is so much history back there and I'm thankful I have been able to experience so much of it.  I will break the trip down into day posts otherwise it would be one extremely lengthy post.  Buckle your seatbelts and keep your hands inside the ride at all times....here we go!

Day 1 - Fly, Fly, Fly.  We flew from SLC to Richmond with a layover in Detroit.  When we got into Virginia we found Marlene, some dinner and called it a night.  No sleeping in on Alan tours!

Day 2 - Bright and early we were loaded on the bus with our happy faces.

See, these are our happy faces.

Our first stop was the Virginia State Capitol, which served as the capitol of the Confederacy during the war.  

It was inside the Old Senate Chamber where Robert E. Lee accepted the command of the Army of Virginia.

A monument for George Washington.  The bottom part is an empty tomb that was intended for the burial site of George.  It is empty because he chose to be buried at his home in Mount Vernon.

Next stop was the Hollywood Cemetery, not the California Hollywood, still in Richmond.  This cemetery is a burial site for several Confederate commanders.

In 1869, this 90-foot high granite pyramid was built as a memorial to the more than 18,000 enlisted men of the Confederate Army buried in the cemetery.

Also buried here, the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis.

And two Presidents of the United States, James Monroe...

...and John Tyler.

Our next stop was Fredericksburg, Virginia.  We first stopped to see this auction block from Civil War times, from which slaves were sold.  Eerie. 

*Side note, one day I WILL own a Lexus and I will purchase it from LINDSAY LEXUS of ALEXANDRIA.  

It's been my plan for years and one of these days it will work out, you just wait and see!

Then it was onto the grounds of the Battle of Fredericksburg.  Here many Union soldiers lost their lives trying to protect Prospect Hill.

Stone Wall along Sunken Road....this part of the wall is original

Fredericksburg Cemetery

And that completes days 1-2, stay tuned for more history lesson.  Take notes, there will be a quiz at the end.

Hey shorty, it's my birthday....

I'm gonna PARTY like it's MY BIRTHDAY! Nothing like a little 50 Cent to start a blog post, eh?

Bear with me, this is gonna be a long one, but oh so good!  SO for my birthday, I had my heart set on going to Hawaii.  I went 8 years ago for the first time and FELL IN LOVE (no literally, with a Samoan at the PCC, I gave him my number but he forgot to call...no worries, I'm still waiting), I also fell in love with Hawaii itself.  I went again 4 years later and in case you didn't notice the pattern, it's time for me to go back.  UNFORTUNATELY, Hawaii and my pocketbook weren't getting along and I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford this is time around.  But just because Hawaii didn't work, I didn't back off of the idea of spending the last birthday of my 20's at the BEACH.  Lucky for me, I have a WONDERFUL cousin with a beach house in California that was SO NICE to let me go back and stay for the big *BEACH BIRTHDAY BASH*!  Stacey and my best cousin friends, Tyso, Kars and Maxi, joined me for the weekend getaway.

BUT FIRST, Erik and I celebrated our birthday dinner at Sonora Grill (because I'm in the birthday club and eat for FREE). 

Erik, the bday boy, and Kris 

Me, PZ, mother dearest and Senor Happy Pants Bean 

 Faja and P

And then, the moment we had long been waiting for - we were off to Cali.forn.I.A!

My fun little party goers surprised me at the airport with a gift, followed for one a day for the entire weekend.  They are too good to me, they really are!  (Cable Guy quote for ya) 

And then I surprised them when we got there with party favors for the trip.

Treats, flip flops and a beach ball and one amazing card! ;)

After staying up talking til almost 2, we decided to hit the hay.  Not long after we went to "sleep", I started hearing this really weird noise.  At first it was quiet, but it kept getting louder.  I thought it was coming from outside and I thought it sounded like a kazoo.  Weird.  Since it was the wee hours of the morning, I was TERRIFIED.  I had my own room, so I got the courage (as I was frozen stiff) to get my phone and call Ticey...no answer.  Meanwhile the "kazoo noise" continued to get louder, and more aggressive if we can be real honest.  Called Karl, no answer.  I quietly yelled out, "hey guys, can you hear that?"...no answer.  After mustering up all the courage I could, I hurry and ran towards their room only to discover they were not there.  Those little terd heads had snuck back downstairs and decorated the house!  They were the violent kazoo players!!  I came down and they sang to me and we all had a good laugh!

Next day, it was MY BIRTHDAY!!  Wahoo!

Unfortunately, mother nature hates me and the weather all weekend was cloudy and rainy and chilly but by golly, I went to go to the beach so to the beach we went!!

It wasn't the warmest it, but we made the best of it and played around and even got a glimpse of the sun for a minute!

 Then it was off to the heated pool to swim some "laps", ha ha - yeah right!

After going home and getting showered and cleaned up, we went into Huntington Beach and did some shopping. 

When we decided we were famished, we hit up ISLANDS FINE BURGERS for dinner, and yes, they were oh so fine.  Next up was my birthday treat, SPRINKLES cupcakes! 

We got the tasty little morsels to go and made a quick stop at the Newport Beach Temple on our way back to the house. 

And then we of course, snarffed down the cupcakes.  The Red Velvet was YUM.TASTIC! 

We woke up Saturday to the wind trying to blow us away and then came the downpour so we had a lazy day with naps and endless hours of America's Next Top Model.  We eventually got brave and ventured over to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  And then what did we do?  What else, brought back cheesecake to devour!  (A LOT of eating took place over the weekend, whoopsie.)

While on a sugar high, we decided to play a little trick on my facebook friends.  Karl is laying on the couch behind me under the blanket.  We posted this pic and pretended I had dyed my hair.  We then spent all night laughing at all the comments, we had everyone fooled! 

(Ps, I would NEVER go that dark.  I am way too much of an albino to pull the black hair off)

Sunday was flying home day so we spent the morning packing and cleaning up and playing Phase 10. 

There is a tattoo parlor around the corner from the house so I told everyone we weren't going home without a sweet tat.  And of course I had to keep true to my word, so Stacey and I bought some Paul Frank temp tattoos at Target and before heading out, we tatted ourselves up!  Pretty hard core, right?

Don'tcha just LOVE Max?

And then home we went...first we had to post a follow-up pic on facebook to show all the believers it was a joke!  Ha ha, we so funny!  

I had SUCH a fun birthday weekend, regardless of the weather!  I feel SO BLESSED to have such wonderful friends!  I also received several messages and texts from my party people back home, I totally was feelin the love. 

 And the celebration didn't end there, no birthday would be complete without the annual decorating of the office!  This was my surprise Monday morning.

Andrea made the amazing cake herself...the theme for the year, not necessarily Rapunzel, but her hair.  I am trying (unsuccessfully) to grow my hair out, so my AWESOME present was horse shampoo and conditioner because she knew it was next on my list of things to try!

It was definitely a birthday to remember!! How in the world will I ever top it next year??