PA was a wonderful place to vacation for spring break. The PA schools were on break the week before Easter so most of the tourist spots were relatively less crowded than we expected, which was a bonus! Any children we saw were from other states or on field trips. We ran into a family from our area at Hershey World!
Upon leaving our home, we headed to Pittsburg which took about 9 hours. We stayed with my aunt and her husband (Helen and Dave) in their home and had a wonderful time, although we kept very busy!
We all enjoyed the Carnegie Science Museum in downtown Pittsburgh, and followed up a day there by staying for the Pirates vs. Cardinals game. My team won! (go Cards!) but it was very cold (37!) and the game went into 12 innings...argh! But, we survived and were able to view most of the fireworks on returning to our cars. We were thanking God for fleece jackets & mittens! Usually Pittsburgh has temps in the 70's this time of year so it was fairly cool for that area.
On Wed. we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo which Courtney had seen before but Claire had never been. She was most excited to see the elephants and they came as close as they could for some great viewing and pics! It is a wonderful zoo and well worth the trip. Some of the animals were not out due to the temps, and the polar bears were at the vets so we missed them! But we all had a great time and learned that maybe we DON'T want to hike in PA as we discovered that the state has copperhead snakes that are in the wooded areas! shopping in the gift shop took a while as each child wanted to purchase a special stuffed animal. They had been saving their money just for this! After the zoo, we decided to have a restful evening of movies and lying around the house.
Thursday was our travel day and we headed east to south-central PA which took about 4 hours.
We arrived in Hershey and had some fun that afternoon at Hershey Chocolate World. This is a simulated chocolate factory with free admission and a free tour in little cars that took us through the "factory". The girls had a great time here watching the melted chocolate turn into yummy candies and then watching how they are packaged up neatly, ready for sale! We were even tossed some free samples....yum-yum! The part that was NOT free was the gift store and oh my, did our girls ever have fun shopping here! Each came away with a special souvenir. Courtney chose a pink Hershey kiss shaped pillow and Claire chose a Hershey milk chocolate bar pillow. They are adorable. Of course my wonderful husband found me the perfect mug to add to my collection! (I didn't need to buy a mug in Pittsburgh as I had bought one in 1997 when we were there!). Hershey Chocolate World is the type of place where we only recommend one visit...not a place to go back to although Courtney and Dave will be back in July with the youth group for Hershey Park which is similar to our Great Escape. But....if you have children under the age of 15, I highly recommend at least one visit to Hershey!
After Hershey we headed a bit south to York and stayed with relatives of my husband's side of the family. (his dad's cousin and wife, Ron and MaryJo) It was sunnier and warmer in that part of PA so we really enjoyed the activities without needing so many layers. Apple blossom trees are in bloom there as well as tulips, daffodils and other flowers. Much warmer and sunnier so we all were happy because Friday, Ron and MaryJo took us to Lancaster Co. We stopped at some great stores where we were able to purchase items homemade by the Amish. At one store, the lady noticed Courtney figuring out how much money she would need to buy some cute buggy/horse earrings. The lady decided to bless us with a free pair for Courtney! That was very cool. We went to an amazing place called the Kitchen Kettle,(I think that was the name!) which was over 100 little shops many of them selling Amish items. Courtney and I loved that! Again, we purchased some items and then after eating some lunch, we took an authentic buggy ride! The various Amish groups are identified by the color of their buggy tops. In that part of the county, the tops were black. There are also yellow and green tops. I believe the yellow are predominately in Ohio. The girl who was driving the buggy was a real Amish girl about 18 years old. Amish children only go to school until age 15 (PA law says they can attend their own Amish schools but they must meet certain requirements until age 15). They are very hard workers and it was the favorite part of the entire vacation. (for me and the girls). The girl took our money and the 4 adults climbed into the back of the buggy and Courtney and Claire were allowed to climb into the front. At one point she even let Courtney drive! Then she let Claire drive but Claire somehow got the horses to gallop so the girl had to help her slow them down. It was great fun! We had been told most of the buggy rides were actually done by non-Amish so it was a special thing to have an actual Amish girl drive us around the village and talk with us. Again, if you head towards that part of PA this is highly recommended. We learned so much! After the ride, we headed towards Lancaster proper and visited the Amish House and Farm. This was awesome. A small admission charge gave us the chance to have a guided tour of the house and then the farm part was self-guided. The girls were thrilled to have the woodcarver make them a little trinket (for free!) and claire even got to keep a tiny carved flower that he carved right there in front of us. It was special. We even got to pet baby goats (triplets) that had been born just the previous Monday! It was thrilling. Of course we followed that up with a stop in the gift shop where I purchased some handmade items to give as gifts, along with a wonderful book about life as an Amish child. Our children think we have alot of chores? They have no idea until they see how the Amish live! It was actually refreshing to be in an area where there are no computers, email, gameboys, etc. There was so much that we learned in Lancaster County that we plan on going back someday...it is the type of trip where you want at least 2-3 days to really explore the area.
On Saturday we heard about a storm coming up the coast so we decidedthat after dinner that nite with Ron and MaryJo, we would head back to NYS. Ron and MaryJo stayed at their home for the day so just the 4 of us headed out. It was the best day of the entire week, weather wise. Sunny, warm, just a slight breeze, good hiking weather! (They live about 45 minutes from Gettysburg)
Gettysburg was incredible. It was probably Dave's favorite part of the trip and Claire's least favorite. (I recommend that if you bring children to Gettysburg that they be at least 11 or 12). There is soooo much history there and it was worth the trip but again, we only had 1 day when we really could have used 3. We ended up just going to Gettysburg National Military Park where we did the electric map talk and then toured the museum. The charge was nominal so we decided to purchase the cd for a car tour. Basically, it was a 3 hour tour, by car, and listening to a man on cd talk about the battle at Gettysburg. There were 16 stops and we got out for most of them for pics and to look at the sites, memorials, etc. The girls liked it when we got out of the car! We even got to hike to Little Round Top and that was great for me. (no, we didn't see any copperheads....probably too cold as it was only in the 50's). There is just so much more there we would have liked to do but we ran out of time! It was a powerful trip, emotionally, to think about just how many lives were lost during that battle. I hope to share some pics with some of you after I get them downloaded and printed out. It was a great vacation: educational AND fun.
For those of you who prayed for us: thank you! We had no mishaps on our driving to and from, although we have decided that the entire state of PA is always under construction! It was nice to get back here where most of the construction is done at night! We also discovered that most of Pittsburg drives like maniacs....worse than Boston and Albany! Ron and MaryJo have no computer (THAT was neat....first time my children have met a family with no computer!) so I will be writing them a letter the old fashioned way! For those of you who are reading this: thank you for your prayers, thank you Aunt Helen and Dave for the hospitality and good food and if any of you plan a trip to PA, let me know and I can give you some pointers!
No comments:
Post a Comment