Vacation Day Four: Liberty Bell and Independence Hall

We saved the best for last! Thursday we walked down to Independence Square, by way of Reading Terminal Market. We saw the Liberty Bell, and toured Independence Hall. We visited Franklin's Grave, the Betsy Ross House, and went back to Reading on the way back to the hotel, where we all had the most delicious snacks of all time (I think they will have fudge-covered strawberries in heaven). The weather was lousy - cold and misty all morning - but it didn't really rain hard until we left Reading for the second time - we ended up sprinting back to the hotel, where we learned that if we checked out by 2:00, we wouldn't be charged for the night (it was 1:35). Since we had nothing left to do except outdoors stuff, and since we were wet and cold and didn't want to be outdoors, we agreed to head out early and get a hotel room halfway home. Mark's man gene kicked it somewhere beyond DC and he decided to drive the whole trip. We got in about 12:30 am. This morning we woke up in our own beds, and just had bacon, eggs, and toast with raspberry jelly (from a delightful Amish man in Reading Market). Thanks Dad!!

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.