Fantastic Four: Petersburg.

When Jim asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I really had to give it some thought.
I have everything I need and I want what I have...I was stumped.
I got thinking.
A massage? A trip to the hair salon? A night away? A trip to the theater?
As luxurious as a night by myself with room service and cable TV sounded, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to use my birthday as a reason to take an adventure as a family.
I geeked out and narrowed it down to either Petersburg or Appomattox Courthouse.
Since there will be big happenings at Appomattox later next year, Petersburg it was.

Frankly, the first part of the trip was rough. Traffic was terrible, the kids fought in the car, didn't nap and were grumpy. Caroline was instigating the boys something fierce. With the boys being boys, it's impossible for them to ignore her. After dragging the kids around Petersburg National Battlefield for the afternoon practically kicking and screaming (except for Sam, who was being exceptionally good to make his siblings look *even worse*), I was DONE with adventure. We ended up eating dinner at Denny's where Benjamin dumped a whole container of maple syrup and that was the proverbial icing on the cake.
It was only Jim's level headedness that prevented us from driving back to Maryland that night.
Everything would look better after some sleep.
As usual, he was right.

After a decent night of sleep, we decided to wander about the Battlefield and trenches again after Mass. The kids did well during Mass (God heard our pleading and the kids realized what needed to happen if they wanted to be let out of the house within the next 4 weeks).
We got a good chuckle at church.
Listening to the lector, she had a definite Boston accent. South Shore, I thought - by the way she pronounced "shepherd", "guard" and "Lord", I pegged her being from Dorchester. Jim heard Melrose.
After Mass we tracked her down to ask her. She looked at us incredulously when we told her where we thought she was from, "I've been here 50 years and I try so hard to hide my accent! I'm from Quincy."
Nice to know we still have the ear after being gone for 3 years.

We headed off to the Battlefield. It is really an amazing place to be. Looking at the landscape, the trenches are still everywhere and the Earthworks constructed were mindblowing. The Crater was one of the places I could not stand to be for long, thinking of what happened there made me sick to my stomach. The kids enjoyed it, mainly because they got to learn about things blowing up.
We heard there were artillery demonstrations and set out to find them. There were three reinactors at Battery 9 who were doing the demonstrations. The park was really quiet because of the upcoming holiday and cool temps, so we sat with the reinactors around their fire and talked with them as a family for well over an hour. It was fascinating. I bit my tongue more than a few times, as one of the gentleman still was fighting the War. Having not heard "facts" extensively from a Southern perspective, he certainly got us thinking. His "Proud Infidel", "If the Confederate Flag offends you, it is because of YOUR ignorance," and "Don't blame me, I voted for an American" bumper stickers gave us some insight into his reasoning, but the pride he took in his heritage and knowledge of artillery were impressive.
The kids enjoyed the artillery thoroughly. Again with the blowing up stuff.
It explains so much.
Sam left us speechless when we were talking with the Confederate Soldiers. They brought over their rifles to show us. Sam said, "That's an Enfield Rifle. Your rifle is a Springfield Rifle. I can tell by the ...*stuff that I have no idea about and no hope of understanding*..."
We asked Sam how he knew that and he replied, "I read books."
Dang.
The Olders were able to earn their Jr Ranger Badges, which was a learning experience for all of us. Because the Visitor Center was slow, the Ranger putzed around a Civil War veteran database and with information from us, was able to locate Jim's great-great-great grandfather who fought in 70th NY and enlisted only days after Fort Sumter. His regiment was engaged heavily at Williamsburg and then again in Fredericksburg. He deserted the army when in Falmouth, VA in early 1863. The regiment would go on to be involved in Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. Our lives may be very, very different had he stayed.
Good stuff.

Day 2 of the Adventure ended up much better than Day 1, thank goodness.