Friday, March 24th

Trenton, NJ; Valley Forge; Harrisburg, PA; Gettysburg

Today we went as far north as we're going this trip - to Trenton, New Jersey.  The capitol building must hold some very precious secrets because getting in or around it is nearly impossible.  And the building is simply buried in a hodge-podge of attachments and add-on buildings.  Some day perhaps we'll see the inside but for now, time is short and we have a full day ahead so we'll satisfy ourselves with the pictures of the outside.

Since we had a little extra time from our Trenton visit, we decided to add Valley Forge to our list of stops.  It was yet another place we visited this trip that was touched by George Washington. 

From here we dashed on to Amish country for lunch.  The place is really quite amazing and a bit confusing too.  The Amish can be seen plowing the fields with teams of horses and mules, riding in their horse-drawn buggies, and drying their clothes on huge clotheslines strung from the house to the barn.  AND, they can been seen driving forklifts and welding.  Apparently, there are a lot of loopholes in the Amish plan for life. 

The farms are interspersed with a lot of tourist traps and we found one that suited us well.   After stuffing our fat little tummies, we headed west to Harrisburg.

The Harrisburg capitol building was build around the turn of the century and claims to be the most beautiful in the nation.  If it's not, it's hard to imagine what is.  The rooms are gilded and paneled in rare marbles.  The size and scale is stunning.  We had a great tour of the building and then headed south to Gettysburg.

The battlefield has returned to it's former character as farms, fields and forests.   But everywhere the land is dotted with memorials of the nearly 50,000 casualties including almost 7,000 deaths from the 3 day battle.   We wished we had more time to explore the huge park, but it's time to head back to D.C.  There will be much more to see tomorrow.