Vacation....Part Deux

After a brief pit-stop at home we headed up to Maryland on Thursday.  This was Andy's first time going up there and I was excited to see some more!  There is so much to see and do up North it is impossible to cover it all in one trip, but we were excited to do as much as possible!  That night we went over to Frederick.  It is the coolest little historic (1745) town in Maryland, and the former residence of many famous people in American History.  (Including Francis Scott Key and Patsy Cline!)  I seriously love this town and hope to live there one day!  As we were sitting in front of the Town Hall the kids and I enjoyed our first-ever experience with fireflies!  It was like magic!

 Random old homes:

You can see some of the fireflies surrounding Shelbie.  So cool!

The next day we headed over to Harper's Ferry, WV.  So much history in this town, too!!! I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the town blew me away!  Tucked in the mountains at the junction of the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers, it is such a beautiful place!  Thomas Jefferson said it was: "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature", and I couldn't agree more!!!!  This was the site of a United States Armory, chosen by George Washington himself, and in 1859 that armory became the site of the famous raid by John Brown.  I have lots of pics of the town, and the engine house that John Brown and his posse locked themselves in before they were overtaken by the Marines and tried for treason.  For those of you that don't know, that was the spark that ignited the Civil War!!!

The engine house.  Now known as "John Brown's Fort".  This is the back.

You can stand on the railroad trestle that spans the Potomac!  The whole thing shakes like crazy when a train is on it!

standing on the trestle looking down the Potomac.  You can see the remnants of the old trestle that was blown up during the Civil War.

Lock house along the old Chesapeake and Ohio canal.

The train comes straight out of this tunnel and onto the trestle!

my mama!

We had to dip our toes into the Potomac

Looking across the Potomac and up the Shenandoah river.  You can see the remnants of that old bridge too.  Also destroyed during the Civil War.

Crush doesn't even BEGIN to describe it!  Le sigh.....

lol.... had to take a pic of this!

The front of John Brown's fort....

Hey, check it!  More famous stuff!

random house.  the architecture is crazy, looks like a puzzle, lol!

We had fun there, and I will definitely go back!  There is still so much to see!!!!  We did so much on this trip that it will take a few more posts to cover it all!  More to come!  =)