Norton travels, USA and beyond: Baltimore, Gettysburg & Amish country

Our friends we visited, Ed & Judy Bush, have a beautiful house in the countryside west of Baltimore. I went with Judy to visit her neighbor whose farmhouse, built in 1780, is on the National Historic Houses Registry. We also fed and groomed her horses and had a nice walk through the woods. On Saturday we went into Baltimore and saw Fort McHenry. The flag flying over that fort was the inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s writing “The Star Spangled Banner” after a battle during the War of 1812. After that we walked around the inner harbor area followed by dinner in Little Italy. We finished off the day at Camden Yards to see the Orioles play the Minnesota Twins. It was a good game, even though they lost. Orioles fans are very enthusiastic supporters of their team. There are more pics of our time with the Bushes on Judy’s blog: http://whistlingprairie.blogspot.com/

On Monday we drove 40 miles north into Pennsylvania to visit Gettysburg. The Visitor’s Center has an excellent movie, museum and Cyclorama (an enormous painting that is over 100 years old). We were impressed before even going to the battlefields. Then we took the driving tour around most of the battle sites. They encircle the town on three sides, and are full of cannons, monuments and markers to show the location of each brigade of soldiers during the three days of battle. The rolling hills surrounded by woods make it an awe inspiring sight, you really can feel that it is hallowed ground.

Before we ended our visit with the Bushes, we enjoyed vocal and harp solos by their daughter, Amanda. It had been about 14 years since we’d seen these dear friends, and it was nice to catch up and also enjoy the talents of one of their three daughters. From Maryland we headed into the Pennsylvania Dutch country. The local farms and green rolling hills in this area are so peaceful. On Wednesday we took a buggy ride with an Amish farmer on a “cookie run” where he took us to his farm and we enjoyed cookies made by his daughter. We shopped in towns named Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse. The quilts were so beautiful they almost made me cry; the prices made Chuck want to cry. But they are locally handmade, not on machines in China. We also enjoyed a buffet of Amish cooking, yum!

A few miles to the north is the town of Hershey. We went there to the Hershey Museum and the World of Chocolate. We enjoyed their corporate PR but did not visit the amusement park that isn’t open midweek this time of year. We finished up the week winding our way to the quaint town of Lititz. The historic parts of these towns are so different than western towns that we are used to. But the suburbs are like anywhere else. We went to some new theaters and saw “42”, and excellent movie we highly recommend to all.