Gettysburg

Today was a very hectic day, but also very exciting. I learned so much. First we went to Gettysburg. My favorite part was when we went on top of Little Round Top. The view was so amazing. We stood on the same battlefield that hundreds died. It gave me chills. After that we drove to Washington D.C. and went to the Arlington Cemetery. It was shocking how many gave stones there were. I know that a lot of people passed away, but I never actually thought about it. It hit when I saw how many people were buried there. My favorite part of Arlington was the Unknown Soldier's Tomb. There is a guard there 24/7 keeping an eye out. Marybeth told me that the guards stayed through a hurricane, denying the option to leave. That is real loyalty. We saw the changing of the guards, too. They switch out the guards every half hour. It was complete silence. I didn't dare make a sound, it was so intense. I loved the words engraved on the Unknown Soldier's Tomb, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier. Known But To God." Then we went to the Iwo Jima statue. This is when I started crying. We got there and we were read an e-mail from the son of one of the men. In the e-mail he started to describe the each man in the statue, there are six. After that we went to the Pentagon Memorial. All I can say is that there are no words for the amount of emotion that flows through everyone. It was a great day for everyone, even thought there was a lot of emotion.

Suzy