So I am not sure why, but they asked us to be there at 7:00 pm and the bus didn't get there till 8:00 pm and we weren't leaving till 9:00 pm, so the boys were running around getting out some energy. I guess it was a good thing because it was going to be a ten hour bus ride. Yes you heard me right, ten hours!
Here are the boys on the bus getting settled in. Michael with his pouty lip as always! We ended up switching so Michael was with David and AJ with me. The boys were able to get a bit of sleep, the parents on the other hand, not so much. AJ is such a wiggle wort that he kept waking me up throughout the night. But that is okay. We ended up at the campsite at 7 am and it was raining. They gave us 30 minutes to get everything off the bus and of course we were trying to get the tents set up, get the food area set up and all the gear and food off the bus. It wasn't easy at all. We finally managed it though.
It was pretty cold and wet, so we brought our breakfast into the tent and ate it in there. The boys were so excited about camping and sleeping in sleeping bags! It was great!
I decided to get in on the action! It was raining all morning and we didn't have anywhere to go until after lunch, so we stayed in the tent, played some games and tried to stay dry.
After lunch the rain finally stopped, so we decided to go out and explore a bit before we headed off on our first sight seeing trip. Here is David and AJ outside our tent for the weekend.
This is where our cooking was done. Not as good as main camp at the ocean with my family, but it was ok.
This shows how many tents we crammed into a little area. One great thing about camping at Omaha instead of Portland is that Portland was under 3 inches of water when some scouts were setting up their tents. We were marshy, but not any standing water thank goodness.
We headed down to Omaha beach to see what we could find. I put the boys in bright green hats so they were easy to find. :-) It took us about three minutes to walk down to the beach. It was awesome!!!
Here David is telling the boys a little about what happened on D-Day and why it was so important.
We basically had the beach to ourselves, it was so peaceful and beautiful.
These were the shells we found while walking the beach - I thought they were very cool especially the big one with all the stuff growing on it.
This was one of the bunkers on the way back up the hill.
After getting some hot chocolate we headed out for our first tour. We were heading to Sainte Mere-Eglise. I am not going to go into a ton of history because there is so much. But of course it is not one of my posts without history. :-) So Saint Mere-Eglise was a pivotal location for the 82nd and 101st Airborne to take. It is said that it was the first town liberated as a result of D-Day invasion. A significant number of buildings in the town were on fire which resulted in a brilliantly lit night sky, exposing the men as they descended.
David in front of a Sherman tank
AJ in front of a "Liberty Ship." There were 2,710 of them made and they carried the name of citizens having left a brand in the history of the United States.
German Wilhem Falley, Commander of the 91st infantry, was killed by paratroopers on June 5th and not found for 48 hours. The event slowed the reaction of the Germans with all the potential consequences.
This is one of the most famous photos from the war. He was a 2nd LT with the 82nd Airborne Division. He landed alone in a field and so nervous and frightened that he cut his parachute harness and with that his bag of rations, socks and underwear. He went on to fight many other battles until he was wounded.
Some of their rations they had back then. A lot different from MREs now a days.
I was told that the paratroopers painted their face and cut their hair in a Mohawk as a talisman to keep them safe during their jump. Also the first paratrooper in America was started in 1940, before that America didn't have any.
Medical kit and I would not want to have those used on me if I could help it at all.
My boys in front of a bulldozer.
So AJ, Michael and I thought this book might have been important to soldiers in WWII, check out the book's title. It says Don't Get Killed by Mines and Booby Traps.
Even though the civilians of France took heavy casualties as well, over 30,000, they were so excited to see the allied forces because it meant they didn't have to live under German regime any more. They welcomed our troops with open arms, feed them, housed them and helped them whenever they could.
One thing we are collecting as a family are coins from wherever we go. Here the boys are squishing a .05 euro for our souvenir.
Outside the museum with old propellers.
John Steele was famous for falling on the church steeple in Sainte-Mere Eglise during the night of June 6, 1944. He stayed for a long while hanging on the steeple, was shot in the foot and realized it was safer for him to play dead. He was captured by the Germans and then taking advantage of the general confusion during the fight and escaped.
This beautiful stained glass was in the church where John Steele was hanging. It has the emblem for the 82nd and the 101st and fourteen years later paratroopers came back to check on the town. This shows how important we were to them and them to us.
I am not sure if AJ can see through those binoculars. :-)
As you can see they have soldiers everywhere in that town!
The boys playing on these that were once in the ocean trying to keep the allied soldiers from landing.
When we got back we headed down to the ocean again. :-) One of the other scout's dad showing some interesting things on the beach.
AJ being so sweet and helping Rikki across the rocks without being asked.
Guess where we are?
AJ contemplating all he has learned.
This was a national guard monument, with one of the guns underneath.
AJ and Michael enjoying their dinner.
David and Michael enjoying the sunshine!! Trying to get everything dried off also! :-)
We headed back down to the beach after dinner and the tide was really far in, so rock throwing was the fun for the evening!!!
A look at the cliffs the rangers had to climb - more about that in the next post. :-)
Looking back at Omaha beach - or lack there of because of high tide.
My boys- I sure do love them!!!
Michael hamming it up and wrestling with Daddy
AJ exploring the beach. We had such a great first day and the weather turned so wonderful for us!! I was so glad too, it would have been miserable to be out in the rain all day long. We headed for bed after this and the wind really started howling. I was really glad that we had all our stuff and our four bodies to help keep our tent down. I was afraid it was going to blow away. The rain started again around 3:30 am with a vengeance and kept up the rest of the night.
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