Vacation Day Three: The Museums

Today was Museum Day. We started at the Ben Franklin Institute. We arrived with a zillion school groups, but we still managed to have fun. We started in their brand-spanking new Star Trek exhibit, which was really cool. They had memorabilia from all the Star Trek movies and shows. No photos allowed, but they took pictures of us on the bridge, in the captain's chair, etc, and then gladly sold them to us. The rest of the museum was equally cool - pendulums, flight experiments, a giant human heart - very cool stuff. We spent most of the day there. After the Institute, we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences, which had lots of dinosaur stuff. After dinner, we went back to the Ben Franklin to see the new Star Trek movie on the IMAX screen. It was a domed screen and the movie played almost directly overhead. If I hadn't seen the movie before, I could not have kept up with it. But it was cool.

Vacation Day Two: Gettysburg and Lancaster County

Today we drove from Hershey to Gettysburg, then through Lancaster County to Philadelphia.

Gettysburg was much bigger than I expected - lots of monuments and lots of history. The one thing I really wanted to see - the site of Lincoln's address - we never found. But we saw lots of stuff.

Amish Country was something to see. Really, really lovely countryside. We got off the beaten path and went through Intercourse (tee-hee) and White Horse (or maybe White Path. Or White Oak. White Something.) The weather did NOT cooperate - it rained on us the whole time. Didn't get really good pictures, but we saw lots of neat scenes. Two little boys pushing a wagon down the road in the rain was my favorite, followed by an Amish man on a plow pulled by five HUGE pack horses. Very different way of life.

And then we drove into Philly and got to the hotel. The boys love the rooftop pool, and we had Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner. Quite night and early bedtimes tonight, and then we hit the museums tomorrow. Good times.

Vacation Day One: Hershey

We spent a lovely sunny day in Hershey Park, Hershey Chocolate Works, and the Hershey Story museum downtown.

At the museum, we got to attend a "chocolate lab" where we learned about the Mayans, and about a chocolate drink they made. We then made it ourselves.

Ben and Daniel got to be factory workers at Hershey Chocolate World:

We found a "ficus benjamina":

Daniel rode this with about 20 Amish girls (not pictured) who squealed the whole time in German:

A really, really good day, and a great start to our vacation!

Honors Day (and Night)

School wrapped up this week, and Ben and Daniel were both recognized at their schools for being the sup-a-stahs they are.

Ben's school had 6th Grade Honors Night on Tuesday Night. Ben was recognized for making the honor roll every nine weeks this year. We had crap seats, so I didn't get any decent pictures during the program (unless you count the numerous shots of the heads of the people sitting in front of us.) And Ben was late for a ball game, so he wasn't interested in sticking around after for me to get pictures of him and his teachers, him and his locker, him and the water fountain, etc. So the only picture I got was very much after the fact:

Daniel's 4th Grade Honors program was Thursday morning. Daniel racked up the awards: Perfect Attendance, Academic Excellence (Straight A's), Accelerated Reader (335 points) and Creative Writing. He was also chosen by his classmates as the Outstanding Male Student of the Year (based on conduct and character). AND....we got pictures:

DP and Mrs. C - the greatest 4th grade teacher of all time.

DP and Dad - the greatest dad of all time.