Hard to believe that today was our last day of vacation. It has flown by. But we did want to squeeze just a bit more vacation out of this week… so after crushing the Holiday Inn Express Breakfast, we packed the car and headed to the only 2 places our feet just could not make it to yesterday: Solider’s National Cemetery and Culp’s Hill.

We started off at Solider’s Cemetery to see the spot where President Lincoln gave the the Gettysburg Address. The plaques explained that it only took President Lincoln 2 minutes to read the address and he did so almost like a prayer without any gesturing or grandstanding. When he finished everyone was silent. President Lincoln believed it was because the crowd was so disappointed. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Now one of the best things about traveling with Mike (besides the fact that we love him) is that it’s like having your own tour guide.

In case you were wondering, I’m here too – cue the mom-selfie-inclusion 🤪

(Yes, it’s that cold!)

Soldier’s National Cemetery- check!

On to Culp’s Hill, and wait a minute! What’s this? A real-life re-enactment!!! Yes, please! This is the 2nd Infantry Battalion from Maryland who come to Gettysburg every year at this time. They camp out and march through Gettysburg. Some years, it’s nice, some years it has snowed. This year they went to sleep at 45 degrees and woke up at 1am to 28 degrees!!! Brrr😬 They loaded their guns and fired which the Brown boys (all 3) thought was awesome!

They bring big bags of coffee beans and cornmeal and eat just like the troops did

This battalion had just gotten paid so they gave the boys some Confederate Money, and let them hold their sword and pistol (don’t worry, it wasn’t loaded) 😀

We said goodbye to the 2nd Battalion, and headed up to the tip top of Culp’s Hill – a lookout tower – 😳 Then we said goodbye to Gettysburg

We started the long drive home, but remembered that Kim & Jimmy told us that Appomattox was that far out of our way. So… off we went😀 – as a side note, i must have set my Mapquest for “obscure country road” setting because other that the 2 hours we spent of Interstate 81, we drove on tiny two lane roads the whole time to Appomattox. Pretty sure we heard banjo music in the background 😳😬😳😬

Back to the trip, in case you have not spent the last week immersed in Civil War History, Appomattox is where General Lee surrendered to General Grant, ending the Civil War. This happened on April 9th, 1865. Today is April 7th, 2018, almost 153 years to the day. And guess what was happening when we got to Appomattox – another Re-enactment!!! It was pretty cool to walk the streets of Appomattox with folks dressed as confederate and union soldiers, and their families.

Our favorite building was the jail Look closely at the middle window

Don’t worry, he got a pardon when we went in the tavern 🤪

Well, that’s it. It was such an amazing week. I hope the boys will remember this time and all the things we have seen this week. And now, we are home with a whole lotta memories ♥️

and whole lotta laundry 😫

Okay, so there is no way for me to accurately explain how excited Mike Brown is about today… think Ralphie from A Christmas Story going to the Red Ryder B.B. Gun plant after drinking 10 cups of espresso. Seriously, we were up at 6:15 so we could have breakfast and be at the Visitors Center when they opened the doors at 8am! And you know what? We were! (all I could think was the Clark Griswold line “First ones here, first ones here”)

There was a reason for our prompt arrival – they have a tour you can take where a Park Ranger will ride in your car with you and drive you through the park/battle. BUT it’s first come first serve. So guess who got the first tour today? You guessed it! These folks right here

Oh my word it was chilly this morning, and the wind is just whipping on the battlefields. I will admit, I was not looking forward to today – dreading it is more like it. But our Park Ranger, Alan, was great and really explained things in a way that kept the boys and I interested. It was really cool to be able to stand where these battles took place, and see where rock walks built by men 150 years ago still stood! We spent 3 hours with Alan going all over the battlefields and getting a better understanding of why this battle was so important.

The boys favorite parts were the cannons, which they learned how they worked – and how to pack without losing your dominant arm – and the giant rocks for climbing on Little Round Top and Devils Den.

After our 3-hour tour with park ranger Alan, we went back to the Visitors Center and museum for their Film, and exhibits. Also ran into this guy, so boom! Photo op!

The museum was very thorough. There was a section about every aspect of every battle of Gettysburg.

And while Leo and I could have covered the museum in an hour or less, these 2 read and watched EVERYTHING!

We finished up the museum, grabbed lunch there and swung through the gift shop for our travel tree ornament. And then we were off!

Mike has said for months that he wanted to walk the battle, and Michael needed to create a 3-mike hike for a Cub Scout requirement, so we made it all happen today! I cannot begin to explain how much walking we did today… we walked Picket’s Charge, we walked Little Round Top, we walked Devils Den, we walked the Peach Orchard, we walked The Wheatfield, we walked the Valley of Death, we walked Cemetery Hill, we walked Seminary Hill

We walked and walked and walked and walked… but we can say with all honesty that we understand now what happened at Gettysburg and why it was so important.

I also thoroughly impressed the boys that I could still recite the Gettysburg Address from 5th grade (thanks Mrs. Ramona Miller 😉)

We grabbed dinner on the way in at Gettysburg Eddie’s and had our first “average ” meal. It wasn’t bad but nothing memorable either – of course, our sheer exhaustion could have played a role in that as well 🤷🏻‍♀️ The Boys spent an hour in the pool to make sure there wasn’t an ounce of energy left in them, and as I write this, they are snoring in rhythm 😴 💤😴 💤

Tomorrow we are headed to Solider’s National Cemetery to see exactly where Lincoln made the Gettysburg Address, and then we are going home to NC. We may swing in a stop by the Appomattox Courthouse if the weather cooperates.

But for now, I’m going to join the snoring chorus of Brown Boys 🎶💤😴💤😴💤 🎵

It’s Thursday and time to say goodbye to Hershey, but we need breakfast (because it’s been 5 minutes since we last ate 🤪) And lookie here, there’s a Duck Donuts right here in Hershey!

We all loved this sign in the restaurant – so if you are negative around us, we’ll be calling you donut hole from now on 😉

Anyway, if you’ve never been to a Duck’s donuts, ordering is a process! You start with a base, then add a coating, then a topping, then a drizzle. Seriously, here the order form

We thoroughly enjoyed watching them create our dozen

I know we created these, but I think this is a pretty impressive dozen

Tummies full, we headed to Stoystown for the Flight 93 Memorial

This was a last minute addition to our itinerary but we are so glad we added it. This was the flight on 9/11 where the passengers fought back, and the flight went down in a field in Pennsylvania instead of the Capital or White House.

In case you can’t tell, it is freezing! Like 28 degrees with 20mph is wind freezing😬

It was a very simple Memorial, but we all thought it was perfect. Some of the tributes left were extremely touching, and we were each a little choked up at times. (It was probably good that it was so cold because you were distracted by your own chattering teeth.)

As we started away from the Memorial and toward Gettysburg, we passed a little cafe, so we turned around and headed to Lincoln’s Cafe in Bucktown for lunch.

It was a really cute cafe, with portraits of Abraham Lincoln made of pennies

The owners, Jeff and Paula, are husband and wife and from the area. It was interesting to talk with them about how things happened that day, especially from folks who were right there.

We left Bucktown with very full bellies (again… all we’ve done is eat), and drove 2.5 hours to Gettysburg. Boys spent a few hours in the pool and then we ordered pizza from a local pizzeria, Tommy’s Pizza (again with the eating) It was delish!

Now the boys have mapped out our Gettysburg Trail tomorrow and we are ready to start the last leg of our vacation. I hope Mike can sleep tonight. He’s like a kid on Christmas Eve about going to Gettysburg 😊

Disney may be the happiest place on earth, but Hershey, Pennsylvania is definitely the sweetest 🍫🍫🍫 Every time we turned around someone gave us a piece of chocolate or a chocolate bar! We literally have a bag of free chocolate for the rest of the trip.

Mike had been torn about what he was looking forward to most on this trip: history or chocolate. Needless to say he was very excited about a day all about chocolate 🍫

We were a little disappointed that Hershey Park wasn’t open during our trip (only open on weekends until May), but Hershey World was open – so off we went for our Day of Chocolate

We started with the 4D movie – a 3D movie with the extras like wind, water spray, something making your seat rattle and feel like there’s something running past your feet. It was cute. Someone on staff went around interviewing folks while we were standing in line, so during the show a computer generated Reece’s cup interacted with the audience. He had a good time picking on the folks from NJ.

Our next stop was a chocolate tasting class, where we got to taste the cacao seeds before sweetening – like eating the middle of a pecan shell. And different kinds of chocolate – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, organic chocolate and a “smokey/woodsy” chocolate (it was not something I want to eat again😝)

We voted on which flavors we found in each chocolate. We also learned that Hershey actually employs “palleteers” – so your job is to literally taste chocolate all day!!! Talk about job goals 😀

Then we moved on to what we were most excited about – making our own chocolate bars! Check out these good looking people 🤣😂🤣… well, at least 2 of them are cute in hairnets (here’s a hint, it’s not Mike and I)

So we each scanned our tickets and started creating our bars. We had to decide on what kind of chocolate, what would go inside and whether we wanted to have sprinkles on top. Everyone worked on their on computers and we couldn’t see each other’s choices. The funny thing was the Michael and Leo created the exact same bar: white chocolate with Oreo cookie crumbles inside covered with milk chocolate and sprinkles! We got to watch our bars through each step…adding the ingredients Watching it be covered in chocolate and then shake off any extra…

And then patiently wait as our bars went through the cooling machine…

and then ta-dah! The first ever Michael Bar…

And Leo Bar (Heidi and Mike bars too)

We finished up our day at Hershey with a Trolley ride through Hershey. It was really interesting, and every 3-5 minutes they passed around a tray of… you guessed it, Hershey Kisses 😘 That’s when I heard Mike say something I never thought I’d hear him say: “I can’t eat anymore chocolate.” 😳🤭😳

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for some time at Water Works. We loved the Ninja Warrior part 🤪

And the water-basketball-court

And we even ran into a giant KitKat before we headed back for showers and dinner

A lady at the check-out at Hershey recommended we have dinner at Fenicci’s in the town of so off we went.

In our continued tradition of trying to eat at local restaurants, and always seeming to find the most delicious dinners – WOW! Everything was delicious! We ate until we were almost sick. It was that good!

We waddled back to the hotel, with $5 for the arcade burning a hole in our pockets 🤪… we earned some tickets, spent 10 minutes picking which worthless toy we would buy, and were then surprised when they broke within 60 seconds!

It was a fun day, but were wiped (which is why I couldn’t write the blog last night… I fell asleep holding my phone)

Off to the last leg of our trip – Stoystown andGettysburg

I have wanted to visit the Amish in Pennsylvania since I first saw Witness with Harrison Ford forever ago, and it was just as cool as I thought it would be. We spent the day in the little towns of Bird-In-Hand, Ronks, Strasburg and Intercourse (insert giggles 😂 On a side note, I still have the card Daddy mailed me in 2007 from Intercourse, PA to Climax, NC – I can hear him laughing when I called him about it 🤣🤣🤣).

Back to today’s adventure, we started the day on the Strasburg Railroad riding a steam engine around the Amish countryside.

For $5 extra each, we could ride in the Presidential Car – and since Mike doesn’t care much for the public, it was $20 well spent 🤪

Our attendant was great and recommended some places to eat and visit. She also answered unlimited questions from you know who…

The boys made themselves at home (seriously they took off their shoes for the ride) and loved checking out every part of the car… especially the tiny bathroom (ugh boys 🙄)

And they managed to work in some wrestling 🤼‍♀️

We hopped off the train to explore the station and pick up a few mementos

And then off we went to find the Good and Plenty Restaurant for some of this famous Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking we’ve been hearing about…

Okay, now we had heard all about the Amish food and their style of eating – family style at long tables with strangers. We don’t miss meals so despite our reservations about eating with strangers (remember Mike doesn’t like the public), we gave it a try. WOW!!! They weren’t kidding about Amish cooking – just WOW! We had fried chicken, roast beef with gravy, and Amish sausage (it wasn’t Two Boys Pork, but it was good 😉) plus homemade mashed potatoes, corn, peas, and homemade bread! Seriously, I had a big ‘ol food baby by the time we were done!

But wait! What about dessert? Homemade cherry pie, Shoo Pie, and homemade ice cream 🍨. We also tried an Amish dish called cracker pudding made from saltines. It wasn’t bad. Think snow cream flavor with different consistency. I don’t think I’ll ever find myself wanting a big bowl of cracker pudding, but we gave it a try 😀

We shared our meal with 2 ladies from Argentina and their tour guide from New York. He was originally from Ecuador but came to US and became a citizen 13 years ago – he knew EVERYTHING about the United States, and not in a know-it-all kind of way. He knew it all in a I’m-so-proud-to-be-a-citizen kind of way. His job was to take people on tours around the Northeast US. He was really an interesting guy. One of the ladies he was with today was a Judge in Argentina, so we had a great time talking about differences and similarities of US and Argentinian courts. When we got back in the car, we got tickled about how cool it was that we just had an Amish Family lunch with an Ecuadorian immigrant and an Argentinian Judge in Bird-In-Hand Pennsylvania?!?!? As Don King would say “Only in America!”🇺🇸

With our bellies full (and I mean FULL) we set off to find an Amish tour. We decided to stick with the recommendation of our train attendant, and went with the Amish Experience. My only regret was that we didn’t have more time to do more. We had to choose 2 things due to time, and we picked the movie and buggy ride 🐎 but seriously, aren’t these the cutest Amish ever?

It took a while to get the buggy ride going…

These Amish really need some bossy southern women to organize their stuff… but when we finally got going, it was great! Our driver (who i think was named Brittany but Mike says was named Laurie) was fun. Her boyfriend was Amish who decided not to live Amish after runshpringa (see below 😉). She has lived among Amish her whole life and really knew her stuff. The Amish believe community over self and find the positive in everything. To distribute weight, Leo rode in the front with Brittany-Laura, and was fascinated by the different color the velvet turned when you rubbed it (good thing we spent $10 for that ticket 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Then we headed to the theater to see the movie “Jacob’s Choice” – a 30 minute movie about the choice that all Amish adolescents face at 16, called runshpringa. The theater was really cool and the movie taught us all a lot – boys thought the special effects (water spray when they talked about ocean, cannon fire when talked of war, etc) were awesome.

We didn’t know that being Amish was a choice. But apparently during your runshpringa, you get a time to go “not be Amish.” You can drive cars and go experience life. Then when you’re ready (there’s no time limit on how long your runshpringa can last) you can then become a member of the church or not. If you choose not to be a member, you can continue to have relationships with your Amish family and community . If you choose to be become a member, then you will marry Amish and live as an Amish person. The whole shunning thing happens when you leave the Amish Faith after you become a member. We had no idea this was even a thing! But it’s a big deal for Amish teenagers. They said about 90% eventually choose to be Amish. The whole day was a really cool experience for all of us.

Finally, we left Amish Country and headed to the sweetest place on Earth 🍪🍫🍪 Hershey, PA!! This place is so fun! The Hershey Lodge is like a Walt Disney hotel except it doesn’t cost a kidney to vacation there, and instead of mouse ears everywhere, there are Hershey Kisses! On the windows, the wallpaper, the soap, even the sheets !

But the best part of tonight for boys was the indoor water park!

Think of it as a mini-great wolf lodge. The boys thoroughly enjoyed every part – especially the basketball court in the water!

We shut it down, showered and got in the bed.

And as I am typing this, there are some loud snores coming from the other bed… and Praise the Lord! We have 2 beds tonight 🎉

Off to bed for us – a full day of chocolate is ahead tomorrow! ♥️🍫

Oh my, today was just a dreat day! The weather started off a little messy with rain and snow ❄️ but it worked out just fine, we even saw some sunshine.

We started the morning a little blurry eyed since Mike and I had to share a king-sized bed with Michael. (When we checked in last night, we had to take one of the last 2 rooms in the hotel due to high school volleyball championship in town. Yes, we had reserved a 2 queen room but since we arrived late, we got what was left. We had one rollaway bed, and after a coin toss, Leo won to get 1st night. Now sharing a king-sized bed wouldn’t be a problem if Michael slept like a normal child. But Michael sleeps like an alligator in a death roll… so we hit the coffee section of the breakfast bar hard this morning!) Anyway, after a big ol breakfast, we were off!

We started off at Independence National Historical Park. It is just cool to get to stand in the rooms where the most important documents of our country were signed! The Park have a really cool program for kids. Michael and Leo had their own workbook to complete during the tours, so they were really listening to the Rangers. The Rangers did a great job keeping everything interesting and funny.

Mike and I both geeked-out a little listening to all the history of forming the government and drafting of Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and Constitution.

The Park had another program where the boys could collect trading cards from Park Rangers. The only 2 requirements were that the boys had to go talk to the Rangers, (not the parents), and they had to answer questions about what they were learning. Now you know my overly competitive children went nuts with this 🤪😀

One poor Ranger asked Michael who was Pennsylvania was named for? He answered “William Penn.” The Ranger said “Correct,” and was about to start explaining something else when Michael went on to tell him that Pennsylvania actually means Penn’s forest. The state was named for William Penn and silva means forest in Latin so Pennsylvania actually means Penn’s forest. 🤪🤣😀 (thanks Mr. Cobb). Poor Ranger 😉

We saw the Liberty Bell. The real-life, actual real, the bell that really rang, the bell that really real cracked, Liberty Bell! Because until we answered all these conditions, Leo didn’t believe it was the REAL Liberty Bell 🤣😊

Now, that we had completed our work books and collected all possible trading cards, we were ready to be sworn in as Independence National Historical Park Junior Rangers

After Independence Hall, we jumped on the Big76 Hop-On Hop-Off bus. A few friends had told us about this, and I am so glad we listened to them. This was such a fun way to see the city!

The double decker bus made a huge loop around the city hitting all the spots famous in Philadelphia – a lot of which we had never heard of including the Philadelphia Food Market. This is a HUGE warehouse-type building with so many different vendors for food, groceries, flowers, spices, oils, meats, whatever. They say if you can’t find something to eat here, then you won’t find it anywhere – and they are right!

We picked the Hatville Deli – it was fantastic! But there was still room for ice cream 🍦

Bellies full, we hoped back on the bus for views of Philadelphia City Hall

The Rodin Museum- with my own personal “Thinkers”

And the Philadelphia Museum of Art… famous for Rocky’s run! (Cue the Rocky theme music 🎶)

Unlike the movie, the Rocky statue isn’t on top of the steps anymore. The statue was donated to the Museum but the “artsy” folks said it wasn’t art, it was a movie prop. So they moved the statue to some city park, and guess what, the visitors followed. So the artsy folks brought it back, creating a special spot just for Rocky 🥊🥊

The boys (all 3 of them 😉) loved a nearby statue/fountain in Eakins Oval

We hopped back on the bus, and tried to catch one more tour before everything closed at five. As we were listening, we glanced around for Michael… found him

Hahahaha! We have Griswold’d Philadelphia- time for a break…

We rested for an hour or so and then headed to find some dinner before the NCAA Championship. We had planned to make the trip to South Philly to make the choice between Pat’s and Geno’s but the hotel suggested we try a place nearby. I’m so glad we did! Pandora’s Lunchbox was less than a block from the hotel, and was ahhh-mazing! Hands-down the BEST Cheesesteak Mike, Michael and I have ever had! Yum!!!

Leo said the pizza was great too

The only way to top this day off would be some delicious just baked cookies… oh, wait! What’s around the corner from the hotel – Insomnia Cookies 🍪

Now we are showered, eating cookies and milk, and ready to cheer for Philadelphia’s own Villanova!

Perfect Day 1… check!

Onto the Strasburg Railroad and the Amish tomorrow🚂

Sunrise service, Alive service and Sunday school so we could leave by noon for the Mapquest projected 6 hour and 59 minute drive… perfect for a 7:30ish arrival and dinner. Perfect except that no one told all, and I mean ALL, the traffic!

But there weren’t wrecks, or construction, just one guy hits his brakes and then everyone else did the same for miles and miles and miles… I better not ever hear another person say southerners can’t drive 😬😳😬

So my arrival plan was kaput! Our 7pm arrival was pushed to 9:45, and our sit-down dinner in Philadelphia became Wendy’s in Dover, Delaware. Aside from some hunger and traffic-fueled grumpiness, we made it! Two more states – check and check!

Happy to be out of the car 😀🤪

Here we go again! We are headed to the Keystone State of Pennsylvania to mark two states off our quest (yes, it’s no longer a vacation, it’s a quest. A quest for fun 🤣) to see all 50 states. We are counting the bit of Delaware that we drive through because I don’t think we will make a special trip just to see Delaware again.

Gas tank is full, bags are packed, iPads are charged and loaded with movies, and my Clark Griswold itinerary and folder are ready to go! Bring on the fun 🎉

First stop, the city of Brotherly Love, Democracy, and Rocky Balboa – hey yo Adrian! Here we come ♥️ 🛎

🎶 Holiday Roooooaaadddd 🎶