November

No sooner had October flicked over to November on the calendars than the Halloween decorations were down and the Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations were going up. 

The kids had the day off of school on 1st November but Russ was business at usual. He had a 6am start at college for a day trip to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

Russ's trip to Gettysburg was all about studying the strategies used by the Union and the Confederates during the US Civil War. The US Civil War waged for 4 years during the period 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865 in the Southern and Eastern United States, with naval battles in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. It was the US's deadliest war with an estimated 750, 000 people killed.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest and most deadly battle, with over 51,000 killed or wounded. The Gettysburg battle was also the last major Confederate sortie in the North and marks a turning point in the war, with the Union successfully preventing the Confederates from capturing key Union cities like Washington and Philadelphia and stopping the Confederates momentum. The Union victory in Gettysburg lead to President Lincoln's famous Gettysburg address. 

This map depicts the individual battles that comprise the Battle of Gettysburg. 

The town of Gettysburg

One of the many monuments in the region

...and another

The college split into a number of small groups for the day, and with aid of whiteboards and maps discussed some of the strategic consequences of specific battles with the Gettysburg theatre.

Towers like this are all over Gettysburg enabling a bird's eye views over the various skirmishes and battles 

The Battle of Little Round top. The Confederates were near where the busses are in this picture, and were trying to capture this hill. The Union successfully defended the hill, thus preventing the Confederates from capturing key terrain, and potentially winning the Battle of Gettysburg.

On the Sunday Russ and I visited Bluemont Vineyard which was situated about 80km west of us for a lovely lunch and wine sample. The weather was still lovely and the view was spectacular.

The view

Admiring the view. This area filled up with a group of very rowdy elementary school teachers shortly after the pic was taken!

November saw the changeover of school sport for Laura from cheer (fall sport) to gymnastics (winter sport). Not wanting to give up cheer after enjoying the season so much, Laura joined an All-Star club which is completely separate from school sports. Little did we know just what a commitment this would turn out to be (foreshadowing). Gymnastics training was Monday and Wednesday and cheer training was Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. 

Ben continued to spend his free time hanging out with his mates and mountain biking. Three of them had an interesting ride one afternoon when one of his friends unsuccessfully attempted a jump, went over his handlebars into a tree and briefly knocked himself out. Ben and the other friend that was with them walked him home (fortunately they weren't too far away) and have been hesitant to try that particular jump again. 

The second Saturday in November Russ and I ventured into DC again to finish off the National Museum of American History (which we first visited in August) and have a walk around the National Mall to see some more sights. Unsurprisingly both kids opted out of this activity!

After the museum we walked past the White House

.....visited the Thomas Jefferson Memorial https://www.nps.gov/thje/index.htm

..... the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial https://www.nps.gov/frde/index.htm

FDR

Eleanor Roosevelt

and finally, we visited the Martin Luther King Jnr Memorial https://www.nps.gov/mlkm/index.htm

We rounded out our walk by watching a game of kickball which was basically baseball played using soccer balls. 

*Stock image

Adding to our list of backyard visitors, we had this little guy stroll in one day.  He wandered in through our slightly wonky side gate and then couldn't find his way back out until I went outside to try to help him. He didn't want to be my friend!

We had a very exciting day on 22nd November when it snowed for the first time. It didn't last long and certainly didn't settle on the ground,  but it was fun nonetheless. Both kids sent messages from school to let me know it was snowing.

Laura had first hand experience of the US medical system in the last week of November when she managed to break a small bone in her foot at gymnastics training on the Monday night. It has to be said that the system works extremely well as long as you have great insurance, which we are lucky enough to have courtesy of the Australian Embassy. A trip to urgent care (a clinic which sits between a GP appointment and an emergency visit) on Tuesday morning provided a referral to a walk in radiology centre for x-rays, with a follow up phone call from the referring doctor within a couple of hours. Our only out of pocket expense was $7.50 co-pay for crutches. 

The timing for the injury was unfortunate as we travelled to Quebec City in Canada for the Thanksgiving long weekend on the Wednesday. 

We were flying out of Ronald Reagan National Airport which we can access very easily using the Metro, however given that Laura was on crutches we decided to drive and park at the airport. Transit through the airport was quick and easy as Laura was given a wheelchair and also priority boarding for the trip.

Our flight was via Toronto, and Russ captured these lovely photos of the family on the first leg of the journey:

The closest thing we got to a Christmas photo this year:

Cheers! Waiting for our next flight in Toronto

Flying into Quebec. It had snowed the day before we arrive so it looked like a winter wonderland.

We stayed at a lovely little hotel in Old Quebec called Hotel Manor Vieux-Quebec, and although we had been practicing our French phrases in the lead up to the trip (Quebec is a predominantly French speaking area of Canada), after the initial "hello, how are you" with the hotel receptionist I panicked and resorted to English! We arrived late afternoon and it was already dark, so we went to an Italian restaurant for an early dinner and had a quiet evening. Russ went for a wander and took some lovely pics of Old Quebec at night.

The stunning Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Looking down Rue St-Pierre

The next day Laura was still pretty hobbly, so after breakfast Russ and I headed out to explore Old Quebec.

Fairmont Le Château Frontenac by day

View of Fairmont Le Château Frontenac from the roof terrace of our hotel.

We decided to do a bus tour in the afternoon to see some sights without requiring Laura to walk too far.

First stop was the stunning St Anne Basilica and Shrine https://sanctuairesainteanne.org/en which was located about 20 minutes from Quebec. St Anne was the mother of Mary, grandmother of Jesus. On the way to the Basilica the bus driver was telling us that there have been many miracles attributed to St Anne, including curing the sick and disabled.

The three front doors are made of copper and took over a year each to make.

Hoping for our own miracle. There were so many crutches and other medical paraphernalia attached to these columns.

A chapel underneath the main basilica.

From the St. Anne Basilica we made our way to the Albert Gilles Copper Art Studio https://www.albertgilles-copper-art.com/ for a demonstration on how copper art is designed and embossed. This was the studio responsible for the doors of the St. Anne Basilica. We then stopped at a cute little chocolate shop - Chocolaterie de I'lle d'Orleans where we all got a sweet treat.

Finally, we called in at the Montmorency Falls https://www.quebec-cite.com/en/businesses/parc-de-la-chute-montmorency which are absolutely stunning, however due to the time of year we couldn't access the majority of the site.

This is as close as we could get.

On the Friday, which was our last full day in Quebec, Laura managed to get around without her crutches. She was a little slower than normal but much more mobile than the previous few days. We had our heart set on ice skating and set out to the rink closest to our accommodation. Unfortunately it wasn't open until 4pm so we decided to explore the area again.

A pile of snow (actually ice removed from the ice skating rink). There was a snow ball fight.

A beautiful mural which pays homage to notable figures in Quebec's history

View down one of the main shopping streets

Not sure what's going on here!

Another pretty street

Finally got to the ice skating. We skated for about two hours and it snowed a little while we were there.

The area the rink was in was stunning, all decorated for Christmas.

After the ice skating we strolled through the German Christmas markets https://www.quebec-cite.com/en/what-to-do-quebec-city/why-visit-german-christmas-market and then found somewhere to eat dinner.  Being a Friday night it was extremely busy, much more so than the previous nights.

Christmas markets

Beautiful and very busy.

The most stunning toy shop.

We flew out of Quebec on Saturday morning, transiting via Newark in New Jersey. While at Newark airport we had to catch the skytrain between terminals. The skytrain was quite full and while we were figuring out which carriage to try to squeeze into, Ben got in but the rest of us did not. The look on his face was priceless as the train pulled away! Fortunately he knew which terminal we were heading to and waited for us to arrive on the next train.

This is how Russ spent the flight home.

What we've learned:

Although not an uncommon name, Leanne seems to cause issues for baristas, specifically the spelling of it. The most common spelling I get is Lian. I've also have Leighann (the person kindly asked if I was hyphenated or not). Lean has popped up too. My favourite is at our dry cleaners where I am known as Laenna (Laenna Houliham to be exact!).