If I'd Known I was Going to Shake Hands with the Governor, I would Have Dressed Up More!

Today is Memorial Day, and Kent and I went to the Fredericksburg National Cemetery, where the Governor of Virginia gave a speech and laid a wreath. Fredericksburg is 15 miles from where we live and was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War in 1862. It wasn't very crowded--there were only about 400 people in attendance. I don't think it was advertised very well. We talked to the head park ranger afterwards, and he said they were pleasantly surprised when Governor McDonnell accepted the invitation to speak at the ceremony, since Fredericksburg is such a small town. I like the above shot because of the Marine bugler standing in the background. He played taps at the end of the ceremony. The shot below shows the entire statue, and the color guard holding the flags throughout the ceremony. Governor McDonnell's speech was great, and I couldn't see him looking at his notes at all. It was a wonderfully patriotic and non-political speech, and it seemed to be extemporaneous.After the speech, Kent and I were among the first to go up and shake hands with Governor McDonnell. Here we are after the crowds had cleared.
Governor McDonnell stayed for almost an hour after the ceremony shaking hands and talking with people. We were very impressed that he did that.

The podium was still up, so Kent took the opportunity to see what it's like to be a politician.

There were flags next to all the 15,000 graves in the cemetery. Last year we went to this same cemetery during the evening when they had each grave lit with luminaries. We blogged about it last May, and put in several pictures.This cemetery is only for Union soldiers. There's a Confederate cemetery in a different part of town. I'm grateful to all the people who have served or are serving in the military, including my dad, Kent's dad, and our two sons.