We stayed near the town of Hershey - "the sweetest place on Earth". The first day we visited Chocolate World - YUM!! We went on a ride that explained the entire process from harvesting the cacao plant to packaging the chocolates. We purchased a few chocolates we have never seen in the stores, along with the yummiest cookies n cream cappuccino ever!! Hershey did a great job of putting together such an educational and fun family attraction. Oh, and I'm positive they mentioned that chocolate is nutritional!
Once we were finished at Chocolate World we headed south to Gettysburg to tour the battlefield and National Cemetery. This was my favorite part of the trip. I'm not a huge history buff, but it was amazing to stand on the ground where such an important part of history took place. I could almost see the soldiers fighting as I learned what happened at each stop of the tour. I expected just a large field that would take 10 minutes to view, but we spent 2 hours driving to each tour stop and getting out for a closer look. The background in this picture is the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
The following day we drove through Amish Country, which is a part of the state with a large population of Amish communities. It was so neat to see them out working in the fields, their clothes hanging out on the clothes line and their roadside stands full of handmade items. We passed many horse drawn buggies and stopped in one Amish town to do a little shopping....where my husband bought more than I did (in fact, I didn't buy a single thing -- that is so unlike me)! We did go into a furniture store where all of the tables, hutches, etc were made from barn wood and we both fell in love!! James has been planning to make a dining table out of our barn wood and this little shop was just the motivation he needed!! I can't wait to see how it turns out!
After our visit to Amish country, we decided to drive towards and up into the Pocono Mountains. What a beautiful drive this was!!! We stopped to hike into the woods a little bit and view a pretty waterfall. James could have walked further into the woods and gotten lost on purpose (that's how much he loves the woods), but I was ready to head back as it was starting to get dark. It was raining lightly too, but being under nature's umbrella we barely got wet -- it was a very neat experience!
For most of our trip we drove on the back roads; this was the best way to see Pennsylvania in my opinion. It wasn't like Iowa where you can drive for miles and see nothing but fields. Driving the back roads in PA, we were constantly in a new town without even realizing we ever left the previous town. Their fields are part of their towns (as opposed to being "out in the country")...or rather, their towns were part of the "country". It's hard to explain. I didn't see any typical cities and businesses were located inside of houses within residential areas. So many of the houses and barns were made of beautiful stones and very well taken care of. The roads were so curvy too, as the terrain there is definitely not flat like Iowa. It was just beautiful!
The people were very friendly too. I felt at home everywhere we went. I told James I could live there if it weren't for leaving my family behind (though my mom would just follow us, so that would be nice). Speaking of my wonderful mama -- HUGE Thank You to her for suggesting that James and I get away for our anniversary this year and offering to watch my kids. Getting to spend 3 days with 2 of her favorite little people was just as much a treat for her as getting a break from them was for us.
Yeah, so we were supposed to be spending our trip enjoying each other and getting a break from our kiddos......but we were constantly talking about them and quoting Rylee quite frequently. We love those little boogers so much that no matter how many miles are between us, they are still right there with us. It was very nice to get away though and we did enjoy being together.
This was the first trip I have ever taken where I wasn't super organized and had a down-to-the-minute agenda. In fact, I was so relaxed about this trip that I had no idea which airline I was on when I got to the airport (James was already in PA for work, so I flew solo on the way out there). Of course I couldn't find my itinerary email either, but instead of panicking like the normal Emily would have, I didn't have an ounce of concern. And when I got to PA and James asked what all I wanted to do, I had a few suggestions of things I wanted to see, but didn't care when I saw them or what kind of schedule we were on. It was so nice to sleep as long as I wanted to in the morning (which was never past 7 of course), and just get in the car and drive and decide "on the fly" what we wanted to do. It was very relaxing and just what I needed!
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