Gettysburg 2012
So, this year, we booked our B&B a little too late. Usually we stay at the Farnsworth, fount of weirdness and haunted dolphin frescoes. This year we stayed at the Battlefield B&B on Emmitsburg Road, which turned out to be absolutely lovely.
Let me sing its praises:
-- The breakfasts provided every morning, restauraunt-style, were OUT OF THIS WORLD. Their chef is unbelievable. Day 1 was French toast with bananas foster a la mode, muffins, ham, hash browns (which were like crack, seriously), coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Day 2 was scrambled eggs, hash browns, melon slices, tomato, apple streusel, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
-- The rooms were well-appointed and very clean. The common rooms were cozy. Coffee, tea, cocoa, and freshly-baked cookies were available around the clock.
-- We had access to most of the 26 acres. This includes a lake, a swing, a random headstone in the middle of the field. The B&B is also a working farm. There were horses, donkeys, goats, roosters, chickens, and about 30 barn cats. The owner is into rescue, and at some point (terrible, horrible) people just started to dump cats on her property, knowing she'd trap them, fix them, shelter and feed them. One of those dumped was pregnant-- the recently-delivered kittens are the only cats allowed inside, in a specific area, so they can be socialized and adopted out. There were about 7 or 8 of the adult cats who were very social (and she said totally open for adoption if someone wanted them, as the shelters around are over-full), and several sat right on my lap after a little convincing that I was not going to eat them. Unsurprisingly, a large number of the cats were black.
-- A giant haunted barn that also hosts weddings and special affairs. The barn was used as a field hospital during the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, and the wood floor is still original.
-- 8pm free ghost stories on Friday nights, 8am free history talks on Saturday.
-- It was a very "our house is your house" kind of place. Very cozy.
So, we will be going back. I mean, I like the Farnsworth, but the Battlefield B&B wins when it comes to comforts (unless you're going for the all-out weird, which has its own appeal). Plus, ever since the Farnsworth's walk-in attraction opened, it's just gotten... tackier. I mean, the Mature Tour is a staple of our yearly trip, and we LOVE the Tavern, but... enh. The increasing artificiality does take away some of the charm.
The major theme of the trip was "EAT AND DRINK ALLLLLLL THE THINGS." We hit the Ragged Edge, the Dobbin House Tavern, Sweney's Tavern, the cupcake shop (um, multiple times), and then of course, Jason needed to stop to eat every two hours because he's Jason. We also did some shopping, and picked up some candles and decorations to cozify the house as we get closer to the Holidays. I picked up some bags of Snickerdoodle coffee from Habitat, and bought myself some earrings from Studio 30 because they were put together in a way that I found brilliant. Also spent $50 in their new bead shop. Ooops.
We made friends. Frank & Nikki are an Italian couple from Jersey, and stereotypes in all the best, kindest ways. We hung out a fair bit, did tours together, ate together. I need to email to make sure they weathered Sandy, as they live 1 mile off the ocean, but I wonder if they even have power. They left a day early to get a jump on sandbagging their home.
We also did the audio driving tour on our last day, before the rain came in. I'm fairly familiar with the history of the battle, day by day but I'm glad we did for some of the human interest stories we picked up along the way.
Herein begins the photo dump, a mix of my photos and Jason's. ETA: Flickr is being a pain, so here is the photo album.
As for ghostybusiness, there wasn't a ton this year. The Mature Tour was entertaining, but they have been downplaying Elizabeth's story due to crazy people being threatening to one of the guides. Mike (one of the two guides) did privately tell me that they've been experiencing something else that they haven't decided if they're going to talk about or not, and then took my card. They did ask us to confirm parts of the story they were telling, as we were there for part of it when it happened, and that was neat.
Though there was something really weird on Friday night. The Battlefield B&B does not have staff there at night. We all get a passcode that lets us in and out, but on Friday, there was one staff member still around: the storyteller. At no point did he leave the common room where we were all assembled and go upstairs. One of the stories he told was about Rebecca, a little ghost girl often seen around the property. When we went upstairs afterwards, I heard Nikki chattering excitedly, so Jason & I peeked our heads out. On their window, on the inside pane, on the second floor, was a child's handprint. A seriously tiny handprint.
The next morning, Nikki asked the innkeper when the last time was that a child stayed in their room. It had been several weeks, by the inn ledger. She asked when the last time her windows were cleaned, noting that she hadn't seen the handprint earlier in the week. She was told that they're cleaned after the last guest checks out, and at least every week.
So. Creepy.
Anywho, it was a good trip.
Before I go, check out my cute Halloween hat, from WitchesNStitches!
Hope you had a great Halloween!
Let me sing its praises:
-- The breakfasts provided every morning, restauraunt-style, were OUT OF THIS WORLD. Their chef is unbelievable. Day 1 was French toast with bananas foster a la mode, muffins, ham, hash browns (which were like crack, seriously), coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Day 2 was scrambled eggs, hash browns, melon slices, tomato, apple streusel, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.
-- The rooms were well-appointed and very clean. The common rooms were cozy. Coffee, tea, cocoa, and freshly-baked cookies were available around the clock.
-- We had access to most of the 26 acres. This includes a lake, a swing, a random headstone in the middle of the field. The B&B is also a working farm. There were horses, donkeys, goats, roosters, chickens, and about 30 barn cats. The owner is into rescue, and at some point (terrible, horrible) people just started to dump cats on her property, knowing she'd trap them, fix them, shelter and feed them. One of those dumped was pregnant-- the recently-delivered kittens are the only cats allowed inside, in a specific area, so they can be socialized and adopted out. There were about 7 or 8 of the adult cats who were very social (and she said totally open for adoption if someone wanted them, as the shelters around are over-full), and several sat right on my lap after a little convincing that I was not going to eat them. Unsurprisingly, a large number of the cats were black.
-- A giant haunted barn that also hosts weddings and special affairs. The barn was used as a field hospital during the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, and the wood floor is still original.
-- 8pm free ghost stories on Friday nights, 8am free history talks on Saturday.
-- It was a very "our house is your house" kind of place. Very cozy.
So, we will be going back. I mean, I like the Farnsworth, but the Battlefield B&B wins when it comes to comforts (unless you're going for the all-out weird, which has its own appeal). Plus, ever since the Farnsworth's walk-in attraction opened, it's just gotten... tackier. I mean, the Mature Tour is a staple of our yearly trip, and we LOVE the Tavern, but... enh. The increasing artificiality does take away some of the charm.
The major theme of the trip was "EAT AND DRINK ALLLLLLL THE THINGS." We hit the Ragged Edge, the Dobbin House Tavern, Sweney's Tavern, the cupcake shop (um, multiple times), and then of course, Jason needed to stop to eat every two hours because he's Jason. We also did some shopping, and picked up some candles and decorations to cozify the house as we get closer to the Holidays. I picked up some bags of Snickerdoodle coffee from Habitat, and bought myself some earrings from Studio 30 because they were put together in a way that I found brilliant. Also spent $50 in their new bead shop. Ooops.
We made friends. Frank & Nikki are an Italian couple from Jersey, and stereotypes in all the best, kindest ways. We hung out a fair bit, did tours together, ate together. I need to email to make sure they weathered Sandy, as they live 1 mile off the ocean, but I wonder if they even have power. They left a day early to get a jump on sandbagging their home.
We also did the audio driving tour on our last day, before the rain came in. I'm fairly familiar with the history of the battle, day by day but I'm glad we did for some of the human interest stories we picked up along the way.
Herein begins the photo dump, a mix of my photos and Jason's. ETA: Flickr is being a pain, so here is the photo album.
As for ghostybusiness, there wasn't a ton this year. The Mature Tour was entertaining, but they have been downplaying Elizabeth's story due to crazy people being threatening to one of the guides. Mike (one of the two guides) did privately tell me that they've been experiencing something else that they haven't decided if they're going to talk about or not, and then took my card. They did ask us to confirm parts of the story they were telling, as we were there for part of it when it happened, and that was neat.
Though there was something really weird on Friday night. The Battlefield B&B does not have staff there at night. We all get a passcode that lets us in and out, but on Friday, there was one staff member still around: the storyteller. At no point did he leave the common room where we were all assembled and go upstairs. One of the stories he told was about Rebecca, a little ghost girl often seen around the property. When we went upstairs afterwards, I heard Nikki chattering excitedly, so Jason & I peeked our heads out. On their window, on the inside pane, on the second floor, was a child's handprint. A seriously tiny handprint.
The next morning, Nikki asked the innkeper when the last time was that a child stayed in their room. It had been several weeks, by the inn ledger. She asked when the last time her windows were cleaned, noting that she hadn't seen the handprint earlier in the week. She was told that they're cleaned after the last guest checks out, and at least every week.
So. Creepy.
Anywho, it was a good trip.
Before I go, check out my cute Halloween hat, from WitchesNStitches!
Hope you had a great Halloween!