Day 3 – the wander

We’ve decided that we are going to alternate between a day of activity and then follow that with a day of “let’s just play this by ear” and take it easy. The previous day was filled with activity – meeting my sister, mom, niece, and nephew at a dinner theater. So, today was all about taking it easy and wandering around.

We wandered around Frederick itself, just us.

We started the day getting our bearings from the parking garage. We wandered a bit toward the shops and restaurants – knowing that when we get to that area we’ll be rather hungry for some lunch.

Sometimes making a decision is difficult – we all want to be deferential to the other and so the conversation can go like this:

“What do you feel like eating?
“It doesn’t matter.”
”It doesn’t matter to me, either.”
”Want to try this place?”
”That’s fine.”
”Or we could walk down here and see what’s available.”

And so on … This afternoon wasn’t much different; but, we settled on trying this second-story tavern looking place: Quynn’s Attic.

And what a GREAT lunch we had! Everything was fresh and tasty and just plain good tasting! (The boy has declared that we will be returning to this restaurant another day to sample more of their menu!)

With our bellies full and moods reset to good, we set out for more wandering and came upon the Civil War Museum of Medicine. Admittedly, I wanted to visit this place – being the Civil War buff that I am. The family were very accommodating and we entered.

It is actually a well planned and displayed museum … beginning with the age of “heroic medicine” as it was called to how medical advancements in both knowledge and techniques contributed to improvements in medical care for all. According to the museum at the outbreak of the Civil War the mortality rate among the wounded soldiers was well above 90%. By the time the war was coming to a close, the mortality rate plummeted to just under 10%. 
And the museum chronicles this entire period of time and how things improved. The upshot, too, was that as medical knowledge and treatment improved for those who fought the war, these improvements came into civilian medical care, too.

The displays included actual artifacts either discovered on or near Civil War battlefields or donated by individuals and organizations. The artifacts were then incorporated into displays that portrayed the various components of treatment. Above you can see an actual kit used to perform amputations, an example of an ambulance wagon, a doctor’s tent setup within a regimental encampment, and an example of an amputation being performed at a field hospital. (By the way – the wooden table in the last photo was indeed used for amputations during the Civil War. You can see the blood stains still in the wood!)