A trip back in time...

There are several time-honored traditions in my family: we always have my aunt’s lasagna on Christmas Eve, we always play a board game after Thanksgiving dinner at Kathy and Sean’s house, and if you find yourself with a few hours to kill on a Saturday, you take a drive to a far away restaurant. It’s very simple - we Burkes get cravings for certain foods, and distance will not be an obstacle in obtaining said foods. My aunt and uncle had been at the beach all week, having left Chris at home all alone to fend for himself, so he and I decided to take a trip to Gettysburg last weekend.

Okay, actually we decided to take a trip to Fazoli’s Italian Restaurant in Hagerstown, MD, and if you have ever been to a Fazoli’s you’ll know why we decided to drive 75 miles for dinner. The breadsticks are divine! Well upon further investigation we discovered that Fazoli’s had closed, which gives me yet another reason to take a trip to St. Louis where Fazoli’s are plentiful… but I digress. So after hearing about the demise of the Hagerstown Fazoli’s, we decided to go to Thurmont, MD, where there exists a restaurant called Cozy, which has cinnamon raisin bread so delicious it made Chris say (and I’m quoting him) “DAMN that’s good!” and where I fell in love with a special cake frosting made by an up-and-coming baker named Duncan Hines. Thurmont is only 20 minutes from Gettysburg, so after our coma-inducing meal at Cozy we decided to take a drive up there and see what all the fuss is about.

I had heard that Gettysburg is one of the most haunted areas in the US, so we also decided to take a nighttime ghost tour through the Jenny Wade house. Jenny Wade was (cue the spooky music) the only civilian killed during the Battle at Gettysburg and her restless soul is said to roam the house where she died. She was also the only animal-friendly ghost we could find, and since we had Chris’ Bassett Hound, Maggie with us, Jenny would have to suffice.

Let me just interject a funny tidbit here: it was warm out, and while we were eating dinner (at 4:30pm) we had to leave Maggie in the car but because she is a princess, Chris left the car running with the air conditioning blasting while we ate dinner. It’s tough to be a pet in our family, let me tell you.

So we drove to Gettysburg and found the Gettysburg museum (it’s like 6000 acres so it’s hard to miss) but no Jenny Wade house. I found an information booth at the museum and asked where I could find Ms. Jenny. The guide looked at me like I was Pee Wee Herman asking to see the basement of the Alamo. She kindly informed me that Jenny Wade’s house is next door to the Holiday Inn in the CITY of Gettysburg. We were at the Gettysburg battlefield… very different than the city. So Chris, Maggie and I got back in the car and drove to Gettysburg proper, which was much more my speed: quaint little shops, adorable tree-lined streets filled with old houses. It’s a shame that one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War had to take place there because otherwise it would be a very livable community!

We walked around the town until dusk when we had to meet up with our tour group. Our tour guide (replete with spooky lantern!) informed our whole group that we were very lucky because we had a special ghost hunter on our tour this evening! She then pointed to Chris and Maggie (who I believe at the time was busy chewing on her paw) and explained how dogs have better ghost-finding abilities and senses than humans do, so perhaps we would experience even more paranormal activity! Not likely.
We walked to a haunted football field where Jenny and her two best guys friends would hang out a lot and where their ghosts are often seen. Some of the tour group was still convinced that Maggie would lead us to the ghosts, but as we listened to the stories of ghostly activity that has taken place at the football field, Maggie barked at a plastic bottle and ate a stick. I think they gave up on her after that.

After the walking portion of the tour, we put Maggie in the car and toured the house where Jenny died. It was actually her sister’s house - Jenny and her mom lived up the street and had come down to bake some bread. Why they needed to bake bread in the middle of a war is beyond me, but it was a different time back in yesteryear. Jenny was standing in the kitchen behind two wooden doors, and an errant bullet managed to penetrate both doors and hit her while she was kneading the dough and she died. We went to the cellar where they kept Jenny’s body until they could bury her and where the ghost of her dad is said to live. I sat next to Chris on a bench in the corner until the tour guide told us that Jenny’s dad liked to sit in the corner and he gets mad when girls sit in his seat. I stood from that point on.



So we made it through the whole tour without seeing one ghost, but I’m not giving up on Gettysburg. The Travel Channel is filming a special about the Jenny Wade house in October, so maybe they’ll find some ghosts. Until then, I’ll continue to visit my baker friend Duncan at the Cozy in Thurmont. DAMN it’s good!

PS – I also want to mention how old this trip made me and Chris seem. We took a tour of Gettysburg… on a Saturday night… after eating dinner at 4:30pm… and as we were walking up the stairs into Jenny Wade’s house, Chris’ knee gave out on him. Just sign us up for the retirement villa now.

Gotta love Georgetown on a Friday night.

I've always been one for keeping up with the lingo the kids are using these days, and on Friday night I learned a new phrase. On Friday night I was driving home from feeding assorted cats and dogs all over DC, and I was about to cross the bridge from Georgetown to Arlington when I saw two vehicles stopped at a light across from me. They seemed to be minding their own business, but the two girls walking across the street saw the vehicles and yelled a very interesting phrase... "Yo, hit them switches!"

Now I've always been very good at deciphering languages, but this phrase didn't seem to make any sense to me until... the vehicles began to raise up and down. Apparently they were equipped with some kind of hydraulic device that rendered them able to lift various parts of the vehicle into the air. "Yo, hit them switches" must be another way of saying "Excuse me, gentlemen. Would you please activate the component that lifts and lowers the vehicle?" I will be adding that to my vernacular!

I love commotion.

So yesterday I was on my way to feed the dog that I'm watching, and the house is across the street from Rock Creek Park. I guess we had a quick, strong storm come through yesterday afternoon, and when I got to the house I saw that a large tree branch had fallen on top of a BMW parked along Rock Creek Park. Upon further inspection, I saw that part of the branch was actually driven straight through the windshield. Well, most normal people would just see the car and think "That sucks." and then move on with their lives, but for some reason I was so mesmerized by the incident that I wanted to see the owner's reaction when they got to the car, or at the very least share the awe of the misfortune with some random passerby.

I lingered near the car, glancing at it and then looking up at the tree the branch had come from, shaking my head and quietly mumbling "Wow." when people walked by. But not one person even glanced at the car. It was like these jaded people had seen cars all over town with tree branches sprawled across the hood. It was a real letdown. Jerks.