Eisenhower National Historic Site - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Yet another rainy and cold Saturday we ventured up to Gettysburg to see the Eisenhower house and farm in Pennsylvania. The Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the home and farm of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, and his wife Mamie. It is a total of 690.5 acres located just outside of Gettysburg. Purchased by then-General Eisenhower in 1950, the farm served as a weekend retreat for the President and a meeting place for world leaders, and became the Eisenhowers' home after they left the White House in 1961. Some of the more notable of Eisenhower's guests were Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, President Charles de Gaulle of France, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain, and Governor Ronald Reagan of California. He selected that site for his home because of his adoration for the Civil War generals and the significant history of that region.

Thanksgiving 2018

We hosted Thanksgiving this year with Colton and Adrienne with their kids and George, Cindy and Jack also came up.  It was a lot of fun.  We did a little table for the boys to eat and Adrienne made them some adorable table decorations.  Damon ran the 10k for the Turkey Chase and got 63 out of 2,411. Owen did the Turkey Trot where he seemed to get what was going on, but then slowed down to a walk once all the other kids started going.  It was a very cold morning, but he had fun once he got there. All the food turned out well and fun was had by all.

Philadelphia Marathon 2018

We drove up to Philly for Damon to do the marathon and also visit Kory. His overall placement was 219 out of 9529.  Then in his division of males 35-39 he was 20th out of 710.  Then of males overall he was 192nd out of 5377. His time was 2:54:52 which is a good time for him.  Owen was being super adorable when we were checking in and the front desk lady gave us a free upgrade to a bigger room.  It was a very long line with all the marathon people coming in so there were a lot of grumpy people.  It is a poor choice of hobby if people don't like being around large groups of people! Philly has a fun Christmas display that the put out that included a carousel that Owen wanted to ride a million times.  After Damon's run we went to Kory's house for some lunch and for the kids to all play.  Owen and the girls play wonderfully together.  Milton was having fun too, just a bit grumpy because he had a ripping case of butt rash.

Wheeling, West Virginia

Our first visit was the West Virginia Independence Hall which was built in 1859 as a federal custom house. It has served as the home of the pro-Union conventions of Virginia in 1861, the capitol of Virginia from June 1861 to June 1863, and the site of the first constitutional convention for West Virginia. The Renaissance Revival-style structure is a National Historic Landmark. Our second visit was the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum. It has thousands of toys and trains dating back many decades. There are operational train layouts where the kids could press buttons to get them going and some toy layouts where you could play with the layouts and trains. Owen and Milton had a lot of fun. Owen loved the real train outside the museum. We also visited the childrens museum in Wheeling itself which was just toys for the kids to play with, another kit with the boys. The bridge out of Wheeling spans the main channel of the Ohio River and was the largest suspension bridge in the world from 1849 until 1851. It was part of the National Road. Also running through Wheeling was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. We stayed at the McLure Hotel which was built in 1852. At least 11 presidents have been guests, including Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon. The original building was demolished, and an extensive renovation of the hotel was completed in 1985. It was once managed by the Ramada hotel chain, but that has since been removed. You can still see the weathering outlining the old hotel name on the front of the building. The hotel has definitely seen better days. Driving home we stopped at the Cabelas store which was enormous.  The center of the store had a 2-story taxidermy animal display and the back of the store had a play shooting range.