Philadelphia Freedom

Location: Cheesequake State Park, NJ

Continuing the theme of our trip, "The National Parks and Monument Tour", we thought it only fitting to spend a day in Philadelphia. What a better way than to head right for Independence Square. (The last time I saw this was with my family in 5th grade.)

We had about a mile walk there from where we were parked and got absolutely drenched in a downpour. Yes, I was glad to see the Liberty Bell and yes, I was glad it was in a covered building. You can see Independence Hall in the background.

 

By the time we headed for a tour of Independence Square the sun had come out. It was just a hop, skip and a mud puddle or two away. We took a tour and saw the original room that housed the Supreme Court from 1791 to 1800.

 

 

Across the hallway was Independence Hall, originally called the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. This is where delegates met and created the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

 

Good thing about being short is I get to be upfront with the school kids:). Great for taking pics and learning a thing or two.

 

 

 

Next on the tour was Congress Hall, where both houses of Congress met from 1790 to 1800.

Here's the House of Representatives...

 

And here's the Senate. Yep, these are the original colors of the room.

Some Interesting facts: the Senate and Congressmen only got paid when they actually showed up so there was never a gov't shutdown. Also, there was never a seating chart. All members sat together, unlike today where they sit along party lines. Wow...what a concept. And look how much they accomplished!

 

The skies had turned sunny and blue so we used the opportunity to walk a bit around town. Here's Betsy Ross' Home.

I liked the entrepreneur who had an international flag shop across the street. Good one.

 

 

Here's the oldest residential street in the U.S. - Elfreth's Alley. It was established in 1702. It was very charming with the brightly colored doors and shutters, brick walk way and cool lanterns, but I couldn't imagine living here with everyone peeking into all the windows and courtyards.

 

 

 

 

We had fun walking around the different neighborhoods.

 

 

Ned embracing his inner Rocky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the best parts of the day was exploring Reading Terminal Market. Wowza, it's about a football field size old train depot crammed with every type of food you could imagine. Delis, bakeries, Dutch, Indian, Thai, Amish, Jewish, Italian foods to just name a few.

 

Every nook and cranny is used from diners to cookbook stalls. The longest line was for the hand rolled donuts served by Amish girls. And no, I didn't have one.

 

Perhaps you'd like a whoopie pie

 

 

 

Or a pretzel dog?

 

 

 

Ah...a Philly Cheesesteak!! Of course.

 

Thanks Philadelphia for a fun day.

 

 

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Pennsylvania - Land of Chocolate and Pretzels

Location: French Creek State Park, PA

Today we felt like a sell out. None of this handcrafted, small batch artisanal chocolate. We went right to the industrial behemoth -- Hershey's Chocolate World!! Oh NO!

I remember being about 6 yrs old and visiting here with my family. My memory was driving down this quaint street with big Hershey kiss lampposts. I also remember taking a tour of the real chocolate factory. Afterwards, my folks bought a ton of chocolate. They put it between them on the front seat. My brother Gary and I hung over the front seat and stuffed our faces with chocolate until we were sick. Great memories.

Today's Hershey's is nothing like that (except for the eating chocolate till I was sick part). Now it's a huge amusement park, theatre, sports complex, train trolley, and chocolate extravaganza candy store.

 

Ned, getting ready to embrace the chocolate onslaught.

 

The first thing we did was take the fake chocolate factory store. It's now an amusement ride, complete with singing cows, animated chocolate bars and fake equipment making chocolate.

 

Here's our ride...let's do this!

Think of this attraction as riding "It's a small world" at Disneyland, but with animated talking chocolate bars explaining the process. Ned particularly enjoyed the pumped in fake chocolate smells. I was laughing too hard to notice.

 

 

After this warm-up, and getting our free Hershey bar, we signed up for the Chocolate Tasting Experience. We weren't expecting much, but we're actually pleasantly surprised.

The class started out with how cacao is grown and chocolate is made. Very factual, interesting and felt a lot like the beginning of our chocolate classes. Nice job Hershey!

The oddest thing about the class is that dark chocolate was not only down played, but expected to be a bitter, unpleasant chocolate to eat. Go figure.

Here's Ned tasting the nibs. The facilitator actually warned everyone to only eat a tiny bite. Ha! We roast them and sell them in 12 oz bags. Hershey's is definitely not playing to the dark chocolate crowd.

Here's us proudly holding our Hershey's Palateer certificate.

A cool feature in the class, was that as everyone tasted the chocolate they voted on a real-time touch screen what flavor they were experiencing. The results were displayed on the screen at the front of the class. Loved that! I'm going to try and find a way to plagiarize that for our chocolate classes. Stay tuned as I put on my techie hat and figure that out.

We opted not to take the "make your own bar" chocolate experience. We got that down. However, I did get a kick out of seeing what things little kids were putting on their chocolate bar. Red, white and blue sprinkles anyone?!

 

 

If the chocolate tasting wasn't enough we topped things off with a Hershey's Special Dark Cappuccino and a cookie. Yum!

Believe it or not, Hershey's actually had a theobroma cacao tree growing in the middle of their Food Court. Well done Hershey.

 

We decided to leave the amusement park, chocolate world craziness and go into downtown Hershey. Good choice. We found the best part of exploring Hershey Chocolate - it's the Hershey Museum called The Hershey Story.

Here I am reliving my experience of 50 years ago and feeling a bit sick on all the chocolate I've eaten. Time for more chocolate!

 

This museum was awesome!!! It was all hands-on. You got to experience what it was like to work in the factory during the early 1900's.

Here's Ned roasting beans.

 

Here I am experiencing what it was like to push a 900 lb. bathtub full of chocolate. (Minus the chocolate).

 

 

Ned trying his hand at demolding the chocolate bars.

(In reality, I think Ned has demolded about 20,000 bars in the 3 years we've been in business. He had this down.)

 

This museum did a nice history of Milton Hershey from caramel maker to philanthropist. I have a lot of respect for what he accomplished. His school for underprivileged kids continues today. Listening to the students personal testimonies was quite moving.

I also really enjoyed seeing the old packaging and

the vintage posters.

 

 

We continued East thru Pennsylvania driving thru the Amish country. The farms, barns, buggies and rolling hills were so beautiful. We came into the town of Lititz. Oh look there...the oldest hard pretzel making company in Pennsylvania! How could we pass this up!

 

As luck would have it we were just in time for the late afternoon tour. Here's Ned making the most perfect pretzel ever. So jealous!

 

 

 

I have a very distinct memory of taking a pretzel making tour when I was younger. I think this was the same place, in the heart of Amish Country.

 

Ned getting his second certificate for the day. A very productive food science day it was.

 

 

Great tour. Hard to believe the amount of hand labor involved it took to make pretzels. This company used the same hand labor process until the 1950's. Kill.me.now. The room temperature was well into the 100's, people had to hand twist 60 pretzels a minute and they started at 2:30 in the morning.

Dinner this evening? Wine & pretzels. Not my healthiest eating day.

 

 

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Gettysburg - Civil War Days

Location: Caledonia State Park, PA

On a 2009 road trip we stumbled into the Gettysburg Museum late one afternoon. We thought it was one of the best museum experiences, and not having enough time to enjoy it, we vowed to come back. Seven years later, we finally planned an entire day around Gettysburg. It did not disappoint.

 

An admission ticket gets you a movie narrated by Morgan Freeman about the battle of Gettysburg, the Cyclorama Experience, a trip thru the museum and access to the battle grounds. So what's a cyclorama? It's an oil painting, 360 degrees that tells a story. This particular cyclorama is the largest in North America. Imagine standing in the middle of a vast round room with floor to ceiling painted walls illustrating the story of the last battle at Gettysburg. (Unfortunately, my camera can only take a snapshot of a very small section).

 

As the room goes dark, a narrator tells the story of the battle. Lighted effects on the canvas give the illusion of movement.

 

 

 

There's music and sound effects that really bring it home.

Before the era of "moving pictures", this was a very effective way of telling a story.

 

 

It's such a great way to understand the intricacies of the battle and the movement of the troops.

 

One can easily spend all day in the museum. It goes into detail about the 3 day battle, breaking it down day by day and skirmish by skirmish. There's also a lot of detail about the Union & Confederate soldiers, from what they wore, ate, felt and experienced to the broader ramifications of the war. Of course there's a lot of emphasis on the politics of the time and Lincoln too.

 

It was quite interesting, but also made me a little sad. It's a bit heartbreaking to be so immersed in the details of the loss of lives and the affect this had on our nation.

This plaque especially hit home...

"Americans fought one another over three fundamental issues: The survival of The Union, the fate of slavery, and the common rights of citizenship - What it means to be an American. The war resolved the first two issues. The nation struggles with the third to this day." SO TRUE!!

 

The area around the town of Gettysburg has statues of the Generals and officers who fought in the battle and where they were stationed.

After reading several books on the Civil War and this battle in particular, Ned was fascinated to see so much of it come to life.

 

After this long day, we took a stroll thru downtown Gettysburg. Goodness sakes...look what we came upon! Hey Big Bro how could I pass this up?! Yeah, Mr. G. I had a scoop for you.

 

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Tonight we have a campground all to ourselves, about a half hour from Gettysburg. Nice place to unwind and take it all in.

 

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Washington D.C. - Day 3 - Out and About

Location: Greenbelt National Park, Maryland

We walked our butts off today. No other way to put it. We walked from Foggy Bottom to Georgetown, Georgetown to The Capitol Building and then all around The Mall, again. The biggest surprise was the predicted thunderstorms never arrived. Instead we had overcast skies, heat and humidity. It was so hot even the birds were getting in a swim when they could!

(So lucky to catch this shot of this little bird in action!)

 

 

 

 

We started our day walking around George Washington Universtiy enjoying this college vibe and neighborhoods.

 

 

From there we walked along the river walk, enjoying the breeze from the Potomac River.

Loved seeing the Pirate Ship make a stop and pick up excited little kids dressed as pirates. Aye matey...adorable.

Lots of joggers and brunchers, too. Very Sunday morning feel.

 

 

We also enjoyed walking the streets of Georgetown. It was fun to walk along the canal,

 

quaint streets,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and tony shops.

We walked by the infamous Watergate Towers, The Kennedy Art Center and along numerous city parks. As we walked from one end of The Mall to the next, it was fun to take in the Sunday vibe. There was beach volleyball, kids running through fountains, and of course monuments & statues at every corner. We took a stroll thru the sculpture gardens too.

Ned says, "He's feeling better since his past mistakes have now been erased." Funny guy.

 

Yeah, pretty much sums up our feelings about Washington D.C.

 

 

We spent ALL afternoon in the Newseum, by far my favorite museum of the trip. Being the News Junkie I am, this totally fed my addiction.

Ned and I on the top floor of the Newseum looking down on Constitution Avenue. There was a "Fiesta Asia" going on.

 

 

 

I really enjoyed all the exhibits, but my favorite was participating in the interactive polls and playing with the CNN "John King prediction map". So fun!

 

 

As if we hadn't walked enough today, we decided to take in the Fiesta Asia too!

If we can manage to climb up to the top deck on Winnie, I think we'll sleep well tonight.

 

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