Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Valley Forge National Park - Day 1 of our Journey

A very exciting first day....we have started our study of the American Revolution.  So we were excited to get the opportunity to visit such a historical park in our Country's history.

 With our morning stop at Hershey World, we didn't get to Valley Forge until about Lunchtime.  Well, we had run out of lunchmeat and so after getting to the park, we found their snack bar.

 Now that we were energized we started our driving tour of Valley Forge.
 This is the George Washington Memorial Church.  It was not here when they were camped at Valley Forge, added much later.
 The is the Grand Parade grounds where troops were trained.  Now remember, that this was farm land and the army was borrowing it.  Well into the spring season.  When I said Parade, Lydia's ears perked up...lol.  I just reminded her what it actually meant.
This was General Von Steuben's house.  He was a Prussian-born officer brought in to train our troops, and with much animosity the troops had for him.  He was training a group of farmers and volunteers.  These were not career soliders, like the British Army was.
 The statue of Von Stueben.
This arch was built around 1911 in honor of the soldiers and family that lost their lives in the Revolutionary War.
The next stop on our tour....George Washington's Headquarters.
 George Washington did not take this house from the farmer and his family.  The US actually paid rent to this family for it's use.  About 25 people lived in this house at any given point during the camping at Valley Forge.

 The parlor where battle plans were drawn.
 Sleeping quarters....even Martha stayed here at some point.

The Garret....



 Another sleeping quarter.
 The kitchen area.  Not a completely separate building.  Still connected via a walkway with the rest of the house.
 But as was usual in this time period, the cooking area was big enough to stand inside.
 Commander's quarters, within walking distance to where George Washington was staying.

The Visitor Center was packed full of artifacts recovered from the land of Valley Forge.  This was wonderful.....

Brayden hamming it up with daddy.  
 Powder horn
 Money....
 Weapons....
 Medical devices...
 Lots of weapons.....the kids all thought the swords looked awesome (can't tell they are Joe's kids....lol)
 Ammunition and weapons

 More medical
 More medical

 Food information....

 The kids played colonial games
 Dressed in costumes







We saw some really neat items from the past.  We stood on the training "parade" grounds.  It was a very neat experience, and the kids jumped up and down when they saw the episode of "Valley Forge" on Liberty kids.  "We've been there....We've been there!!" is all  I heard.

Then it was on to our next adventure in Philly during our short stay.....

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