Uncle Sam

This post is picture heavy, so indulge me.  First a couple of miscellaneous things.

Cute pic of the kids and daddy loving the Wii.

Do you have a song you sing to your kids in the tub?  

Here's our bath song:

Rub a dub dub Mr. Gabe is in the tub.

Gotta get him clean

Gotta get him clean

He's splishin' and a splashin'

Movin' and a groovin'

Shakin' and a makin'

He's cookin' (kid fills in the blank, ie: bacon)

Ewww gross, (bacon) in the bathtub.

I know, I know, I should be a professional song writer, I'd probably make millions.  Don't know why I shared that now, but the picture of Gabe in the tub made me think about it.

The kids watching it snow!
We only got a skiff, but they were excited to see it coming down!









Now finally to the Uncle Sam stuff!
Did you know that Troy is the home of Uncle Sam?
Neither did we, but if you look at the blue sign, you'll know.
Did you know he was a real person?  Neither did we.

So here's the story.  

Sam Wilson of Troy, New York sold meat to the United States Army during the War of 1812.  The barrels of meat were stamped property of US, but the soldiers joked that it meant it came from Uncle Sam who had supplied the product.  The name stuck and anything marked US became Uncle Sam's. 

Here we are at the Uncle Sam Monument in Troy.

Next we went to Oakwood Cemetery.  I know it seems like we visit a lot of cemetery's.  We went to Oakwood because that is where Uncle Sam is buried.  We also wanted to hike to some of the waterfalls located within the cemetery.

Here's one of the churches in Oakwood.

 I found this sign a little confusing . . . 

This church is also the crematorium.  

Look close, you can see an oven through the center window.  Strange.

Porter puts his penny on Uncle Sam's Grave.

 There were a lot of other neat graves in the cemetery. 

I love the top of this one - it's for a ship's captain. 

There were also some amazing mausoleums.  

Even in broad daylight these things give me the hibbie jibbies!  

I don't mind looking at them, in fact, I think they are cool, but it takes all the guts I have to walk up to one and look inside!

  The kids ready to start hiking!

(Check out the amazing view of Troy behind them.)

 There are five waterfalls located in the cemetery.

We only found three.

 Another church  

 Sunset means it's time to go home.

We are not the Addam's family.  We don't stay in cemeteries after dark : )