La Vie Est Bonne: Bayeux Day 1 (Part 3 for today)

Let me just say that we both had tears in our eyes pretty much all day today. Seeing all the veterans, the banners and flags, and the innumerable memorials dotted all over every town was pretty overwhelming! I'm so proud to be here and to be an American! This is more powerful than I ever could have imagined!

After St. Mere Eglise, we drove to Utah Beach and its museum. This museum is built inside a huge German bunker that was captured on D-Day.

The museum's very compelling displays focus on both the Germans who were defending the bunker and the Allies who fought nearby and captured it. In addition to the small personal displays of items both donated and recovered, there's a B-26 bomber in a hanger and a Higgins boat (landing craft).

Of course, Easy Company and the paratroopers played several starring roles in the exhibits. It was an informative and overwhelming experience to walk through all of the displays.

We walked out onto the beach and got lucky enough to be there at low tide and saw the beach just as the troops saw it on June 6, 1944. Up on the dunes there are several memorials that sit on top of smaller bunkers. In addition to the re-creators who were everywhere, we saw real soldiers, too. Dutch and German troops who came to learn about the historical site.

Watch Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan and imagine these beautiful beaches covered in hedgehogs, landing craft, wounded and dying soldiers, and the soldiers who were still alive racing up the beach to escape German machine gun fire.

Then in the next few days after D-Day, imagine these beaches covered in tanks, jeeps, and other kinds of supplies, ammunition, and equipment as the Allies prepared to press further inland. Awe inspiring!