Weekend Trip to Gettysburg with Veronica

If you get a chance to go to Gettysburg for a weekend or longer, I would highly recommend making the trip.

Veronica and I visited this past weekend from Friday to Sunday, staying at a great “Bed and Breakfast” in the area called Lightner Farmhouse. We enjoyed getting some quality time together and exploring the area.

Gettysburg has so much history that it would be almost impossible to see every site or do everything that’s recommended, but almost anything you do can be worthwhile. I had some basic high school background information about Gettysburg, but I left feeling like I gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom.

So why visit Gettysburg?

Well, Veronica and I only did a tidbit of everything you can do there, but here are some of our personal highlights and recommendations.

1- Go to the National Park Visitor Center and get tickets for the film/cyclorama/museum. This was most of our Saturday morning, but we are happy we paid for this. The film was narrated by Morgan Freeman, the cyclorama is this massive panoramic image of the battle, and finally we spent over an hour in the museum because of how much information there was to read.

2- Explore the battlefield landmarks. You can sign up for a tour from a battlefield expert or do a self-guided tour, but after spending so much time at the museum, we decided to pick some landmarks on our own. We drove to some different spots and enjoyed the freedom to pick and choose what seemed most interesting to us.

3- Walk around the town center and eat out if you can. We visited different stores and shops and ate out both nights, one night at an Irish pub and the other at a local restaurant. Both meals were excellent.

4- Try a “Bed and Breakfast” if you want something other than a typical hotel experience. The Lightner Farmhouse had a lot of it’s own history and the food was delicious both mornings.

5- Take the free cemetery tour at 5:30 pm. This was Veronica’s favorite part as a licensed guide led us around the cemetery and shared inspiring, gut-wrenching, and informative stories from the battle and what happened afterward with the cemetery.

I think many of us today, myself included, have a hard time imagining just how brutal and hellish war can be. One thing that stuck out to me was that for every soldier that died in battle during the Civil War, two died from disease. This points to the horrific conditions at the time and offers some insight into just how life-changing wars can be for everyone involved. I find it difficult to ponder on all the families that lost loved ones and all the soldiers who were wounded significantly and what life after the war must of been like.

Wedding Reception and DMR Recap

Last Saturday, July 31, Veronica and I got to fully celebrate our wedding with family and friends.

We were married on October 24, 2020, and delayed our reception until July due to COVID restrictions. We had a fun smaller gathering after the wedding in October, but knew that we wanted to have our bigger celebration.

Overall, we ended up having quite the day.

We started off the afternoon with the Distance Medley Reception, which was a relay race that followed the format of a typical DMR. Basically, the race goes 1200m (3 laps), 400m (1 lap), 800m (2 laps), and the mile (4 laps).

We tried to make the teams as even as possible going into the race, but obviously that can be hard to do with a wide variety of people. However, the race ended up being fairly competitive. Thankfully, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and enjoyed the atmosphere. The Wheelers, Veronica’s immediate family, set everyone up very well, providing food and refreshments following the race. To anyone reading this who ran, helped, or watched the race, thank you so much. We were really looking forward to the event and had a blast.

There would be too many people to highlight from the race for their performance, but a few stick out. The two Calhoun kids, Maura and Colin, crushed their respective legs and set up Nick Dudek for an impressive anchor leg to bring home the victory. Jamie Hartop received the baton in 5th place and ran a crazy fast final mile in 4:48 to get his team second! James Newman (recently engaged!) clocked the fastest 400m in 81 seconds, while Jonah S ran the fastest 800m split in 2:48.

Standings	1200	400	800	Mile
1	Luke S- 3:44	Maura C- 1:37	Colin C- 4:04	Nick D- 5:15
2	Josh C- 4:31	Carrie K- 2:05	Steve K- 3:21	Jamie H- 4:48
3	Andreas Q- 4:11	Angelo Q- 1:22	Rick S- 3:48	Aidan Q- 5:25
4	Simoncini- 4:37	Bridget C- 2:19	Tim S- 2:56	Drew M- 5:29
5	Veronica S- 5:16	Newman- 1:21	Jonah S- 2:48	Rudy- 6:08
6	Johnny W- 4:39	Karen W- 1:50	John W- 3:38	Larry D- 6:16
7	Bridget W- 5:39	Brittany V- 1:37	Gary D- 3:57	Vince F- 5:42

The reception took place at The Buck Hotel in Feasterville, where we received excellent service from stellar hosts.

The cocktail hour, introductions, speeches, dinner, dessert, and dancing all made for a fabulous time. Looking back, I smile with gratitude thinking back on one of the best nights of our lives, getting to celebrate with many people who are close to us. While we wish some more of our family members could have come, especially my Mom’s side in England because they could not come back in October, we were thankful for everyone there.

To pronounce and bind your love with someone else in front of family and friends is truly special. Our actual wedding may have been in October, but to experience all the love from everyone last Saturday, nine months later, added a unique wedding/reception experience we will remember fondly, knowing this all took place during crazy times with COVID.

On a final note, the MVPs of the dance floor would have to go to Vince F, Nick D, and Sophie S.