Day 5 – Today started with another great breakfast at the B&B. Scrambled eggs (fresh from their chickens!) with ham and cheese, toast, baked oatmeal, and fresh fruit. Kelsey ran outside to help collect eggs before we headed back to Gettysburg for another day.

Our first stop was the visitor’s center so we could see what programs were going on for the day. We found out that three living history programs were being presented at three different locations around the park. We found out where they were and headed off. Oh, did I mention that it was a lot more hot and humid than it had been the prior part of the week??

We arrived at Spangler’s Spring and quickly drank a lot of water while we waited in the shade for the New Jersey Infantry to be ready for their demonstration. They basically explained what a Union Army Infantryman would be wearing and fired off their rifles on the battlefield. What was so cool about this was the fact that they were reenacting right on the battlefield where men were fighting 145 years ago! While this all was happening, Kev and Matthew were talking to a gentleman who reenacts with the 20^th Maine Company E.

On our way to the next living history demonstration, we stopped at the top of Culp’s Hill. We climbed up to the top of the Observation Tower to look out over the full battlefield. It seemed like we climbed up about 8 flights of stairs to the top. The view from the top was incredible. There were panoramic photos at the top which pointed out the different locations around Gettysburg and the battlefield.

Then we headed over to the Pennsylvania monument for another demonstration by another New Jersey Infantry unit. They basically presented the same information as the previous group, but this time, the field was a lot more open and you could see General Lee’s statue across the field.

Our last living history stop was at General Meade’s Headquarters where they had tents set up for the Christian Commission Campaign. The commission was set up to present the Gospel to the soldiers. After this, we headed over to Subway for $5 footlong sandwiches for lunch.

After lunch, the plan was to stop at some different stores and some additional tour sites. We stopped at General Lee’s Headquarters, a living history set up at the American Civil War Museum and a civil war diorama with a 30 minute narration of the battle. The diorama is the largest of its kind and has over 20,000 hand painted individual pieces. It was definitely an incredible thing to see.

Matthew wanted to go to Little Round Top once last time before we left Gettysburg. We started driving that way and made a wrong turn somewhere, so we ended up at the memorial for Major General John Reynolds again. We stopped to take a few more photos then headed over to Little Round Top. A couple of people were walking up that way so we were able to ask them to take our picture at the 20^th Maine memorial.

We planned to go to Boyd’s Bear Country for dinner, so we found our way to the freeway and headed south. We followed the signs and found the entrance. The sign at the entrance said the hours were 10am – 6pm. Boy, we (I mean, Kelsey and I) were disappointed. After two days roaming all over Gettysburg, the tears fell down Kelsey’s checks. She was really looking forward to the Boyd’s Bear place.

Once we cheered her up a little by looking around the outside of the building, we headed back into Gettysburg to find some dinner. We found a little café by the Abraham’s Lady (which I ended up buying a few more things at) which served a pretty good dinner.

After dinner, we went through a couple more shops on our way back to the car and headed back to the B&B. It ended up being a very long day and a pretty late night. We quietly got into our room about 10pm.