After spending most of Friday stuck at O'Hare Airport in Chicago due to multiple United Airlines flight delays and gate changes, I finally arrived at the Harrisburg, PA airport to visit Clayton and Katie May and their family in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he is attending medical school at Penn State. Yesterday their family and I visited the Hershey company sponsored "Chocolate World", whose motto is "The Sweetest Place on Earth". As good as Hershey's chocolate is (and I definitely consume my share), I think that spending time with Clayton and his family will definitely be the sweetest part of this special long weekend. I am proud of Clayton for his success with his family, his hard work and perseverance in his career preparation, and the compassion and caring he demonstrates through giving service to others. Here are a few of the photos I've taken so far.
I have enjoyed two different light shows. First, on the flight from Chicago to Harrisburg we flew above and around some lightning storms that were very entertaining. Here is actual video of that flight.
Secondly, I was pleased to once again see some fireflies around Clayton's home. We enjoyed chasing and trying to catch fireflies as kids when we lived in Michigan and Ohio. If was fun to see them again. It brought back pleasant memories. I wanted to videotape them, but there weren't enough. Here is a link to somebody else's firefly video:
On Monday, Clayton and I drove to Gettysburg to tour the National Military Park there. We got an early start and after a drive of less than an hour we arrived shortly after it opened. Their new Visitors Center has been opened only about 2 months and it was very, nice. Lots of displays and several videos. The museum is composed of 3 sections: the first about the causes of the war and the part of the war prior to the battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Gettysburg itself, and the part of the war after Gettysburg and the post war era. We completely or partially skipped numerous exhibits and still spent four hours in the museum. Then we drove around and stopped at various parts of the battlefield while reading about them from a Visitors Guide brochure. We gave ourselves a 2-1/2 hour limit to view the battlefield and had to skip some sites and hurry at the rest. We returned back home by 4pm and enjoyed some dinner with Katie May and her girls.
Here are some photos I took during out trip to the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
http://picasaweb.google.com/CameronHess/June2008GettysburgTrip
http://picasaweb.google.com/CameronHess/June2008GettysburgTrip
