Marilyn kept us busy today. On our way to the D-Day Memorial at the neighboring town of Bedford, we stopped by their son, Chris's, State Farm office and met him, then drove by his house (his wife Jenny wasn't home).
Our next stop was the D-Day Memorial. It is located here in Bedford, Virginia-
-"the community suffering the highest per capita D-Day losses in the nation. The National D-Day Memorial honors all Allied forces that participated in the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944 during WWII. . .
On the morning of 6 June 1944 were 44 soldiers, sailors, and airmen from the town and county of Bedford, Virginia." A total of 20 of these men lost their life that day.
This next monument is "Homage"
"a symbolic piece, emblematic of those communities across the country that nurtured those who went away to war and grieved for those who never returned."
There was also a plaque depicting the location of the beaches we landed at that day, and other plaques recognizing select regiments. (Uncle) Marlin Butler was part of the D-Day invasion. He was one of the paratroopers with the 101st Airborne Division so that one had special meaning to us.
There were statues of all of the commanders, including Eisenhower. The main part of the exhibit was of soldiers wading through the water to the beach, and spouts of water, with noise, would intermittently shoot off, depicting machine gun fire. This was a really nice memorial. There was also a depiction of soldiers climbing over the cliffs at Normandy.
Our tour lasted just over an hour, and our tour guide was excellent, he really made this historical event come alive. We left here and had lunch at an old train station in Bedford -- nice place and great lunch.
On the way home, we drove past Jimmy and Sarah's house, but no one was home.
Next we got a tour of the "townhouse" where Aunt Nellie stays when during the summer when she comes to Virginia. A really comfortable house, very nice.
We stopped back by Chris and Jenny's and this time the family was home, so we got to meet Jenny and the kids. Then we headed back to the house and started working on the Family Tree again. Marilyn had been up until 1:00 a.m. last night, organizing her notes (I had given her that homework assignment), so we spent a couple hours getting that information into the Tree. Ken was home when we got home, so he and Joe spent some time on the patio, then walked out to the garden. We had been watching two deer playing out there, then Ken discovered this varmint (we decided it was a woodchuck or groundhog) up in a tree.
About 8:30, we all went out for Mexican food to a place they like, but it was really noisy, food was good though. By the time we got home, it was close to 10:00 p.m. -- a long day. But we saw a lot, so it was a good day.
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