(Disclaimer: I knew very little about the significance of Valley Forge and the Winter 1777-1778 encampment of the Continental Army. The lessons might be a little too basic for you. Nonetheless, this is what I took away from our day at Valley Forge.)
Lesson 1: Valley Forge (like some battlefields) is kid-friendly--hills to climb, space to roam, big cannons and people dressed up in period clothing. And it's dog-friendly, too, but we chickened out on taking our husky visitor Sasha.
Lesson 2: Digital photography makes it possible to take the museum home with you. I read every display after arriving home this afternoon thanks to the six dozen snapshots I took while I was going at the pace of my toddlers through the museum. (Here are a few that summed up the big ideas I learned--you have to read them.)
Lesson 3: War was not nice for families and for relationships and for the health of anybody. And eight years (the length of the Revolutionary War) is a long time to have problems with those things. I'm pretty sure I would have been a laundress to support my family. Still people did their best--wives helped husbands, children pitched in, things worked out.
Lesson 4: George Washington was human. I'm pretty sure I thought he was superman, so asked one of the interpretive rangers about him and she said she feels like he recognized that this was his moment for greatness (that the new nation needed him to be his best version of himself) and he rose to the occasion. I feel good about that. Still he was human. For example, he exaggerated just a tad--the evidence is even on the giant Memorial Arch.
Soldiers weren't naked or starving, but food was scarce and their clothing was ragged. The truth is that one of George Washington's strengths was getting things done and he knew what he needed to say to get Congress to give him the resources he needed. This arch is beautiful in person, by the way.
Lesson 5: I am hopelessly curious about the insides of people's homes. My favorite part of the park was going inside the re-creations of the soldier's homes (fourteen by sixteen foot log huts) and then into General Washington's headquarters and home.
It was too dark inside to get good photos of the details of their survival, but in those little spaces twelve (sometimes!) men slept on bunk beds, their clothing hung to dry, and they kept all of their stuff. And that's mud to keep out the wind.
Washington was very fair and paid the fair price to use this home. This is the actual home, the very one where he stayed for seven months. About twelve people stayed inside.
No mud in this house, but one hundred times as much light inside coming through those beautiful windows. There were just as many details that caught my eye including this built-in china cabinet.
And a few more photos:
Cute A marching
E's favorite part of the visitor center: the musket
J, also with musket at the ready, on the outer embankments.
Silliness encouraged.
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