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Vacation 2010, Lifetime friends

We then drove to St. Louis, to visit the friend I have had the longest. A lifetime friend. It is hard to top that. We don't get together often enough.

I should of taken more photos of her adorable kids. My kids and her kids got along great. We ate pizza, which pleased Jared. Two meals worth of pizza. His kind of people.

Again, what this made me feel, is we really do need to get together more often. It only took us five hours to get home. That is proof to me. We must not wait so long to see each other.

11 states. 3500 miles. 13 days. Many, many memories.

Next year? We're heading west. Glacier National Park. Yellowstone. Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Grand Tetons.

Vacation 2010. Mammoth Cave

Our original plan was to stay two nights, camping, in the park. However, the weather forecast was predicting a downpour for those three days we were planning on camping. We'd been on the road for almost two weeks, we were tired. Did we really want to camp, in the rain? No. So, we canceled those reservations, and got a hotel room for one night instead.

It turned out not to rain as much as was predicted, but did rain some.

We did some hiking above the cave.

Then we went into the cave.

We went on a two hour, two mile historical tour. All five of us found it very interesting. Photos were pretty much impossible to take in the cave. Although many people took photos, flashing their flashes and blinding us, I chose not to. It was a very good tour. We had a great tour guide.

While at Mammoth Cave, we tried Cracker Barrel for the first time. The next day we ate there for the second time. It is a new vacation favorite.

We bought the peg game to have at the house. We're all genius, how could we not buy it?

Vacation 2010. Shenandoah

So, on this day, we drove 10 hours. We should of stayed more than one night here. There was much more to this park than we expected. We arrived, just shortly before park closing, to be told by the ranger, that the boys would NOT be able to do the junior ranger program. They have done probably 20 junior ranger programs. This was the first time any ranger had discouraged them. I bought them patches, and we moved on. We did some hikes. We were pretty tired by this point.

We then started awarding "points" to the boys for good attitude. They just needed 20 points to go swimming when we got to the hotel. They chippered up fast!

It was a lovely park, we just didn't have the time or energy for it.

It was on this day, that Alex saw the world's funniest bumper sticker.

Vacation 2010. Valley Forge and Franklin Institute

We started our day in Valley Forge. We watched a quick movie, went through the museum, and then set out to learn about the Revolutionary War, and George Washington.

We saw the actual house where Washington lived.

Walked on the grounds Washington walked.

Then, decided that was all the history we could handle. We headed over to the Franklin Institute for some Science fun.

That last photo, was an interesting exhibit. One for the adults. It was a cell phone wall. You stood in front of this wall filled with dim red lights. You then pulled out your cell phone, and made a call. Depending on your kind of phone, your service, and how far away the antenna was, the wall would light up. Some people made the wall go crazy. Some made it just blip. It was fun, and a bit addicting, to make it light up.

Well, in the city of brotherly love. We needed a photo of the brothers.

Vacation 2010. Nerd Fest.

We nicknamed this day, Nerd Fest. Oh the nerdyness. We loved it. Down town, historic Philadelphia. To think, who must of walked on these cobblestones. The history surrounded us. I could feel it as I walked down the street.

It was a hot day, record heat this day. This, however gave us the excuse to go inside many buildings we may of otherwise skipped.

This is Carpenters Hall. It is where the first continental congress met in 1774.

We saw where Ben Franklin's house was. We saw his actual privy. We saw how a printing press worked. Then, we saw Ben Franklin!

We dined at City Tavern. This is where Ben Franklin dined. Where George Washington dined. The staff was dressed in period clothing. They served period drinks and period food. The prices were current though. It was a very delicious meal.

We toured the Mint. It was not a tourist attraction, if we hadn't researched, and known it was there, we would of never seen it. It was not on the tourist map, it was not well signed. But, we saw them making pennies.

We walked over, to see the Delaware.

We toured Independence Hall.

Here, I could really feel the history. Our guide was wonderful. He brought the history to life.

We took a tour of Betsy Ross' house.

This was another good, well put together tour. It was self guided, but had great signs to read. At one point, they had Betsy Ross herself there to talk to us.

Our historic portion of the day was done. We soaked up a lot of information. Time to enjoy some Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. Five Wiz Wit. MMMMM good.

Vacation 2010. Day ??, I’ve lost track. The Civil War

On this day, we went to Gettysburg. We were planning on a quick stop, and learned it was much much more. It was an impressive sight. The boys learned quite a bit about the civil war.

They got to join the union army. They learned how to dress, they learned what to eat, they learned how to load a musket. They learned how to fire a musket.

They got into line, a formation, and learned how to march. Alex was the drummer. He asked "anyone play the drum", no one raised their hands. "Anyone play a musical instrument", Alex raised his hand. "What do you play?" Alex replied, the accordion. "Close enough."

They lined up.

Loaded their guns, and charged the enemy.

I made a movie of this.

Jonas told me later, he was not using a musket, he was using a semi automatic. Where does he get this obsession from?

They got us.

We then toured a museum. We got to see a Cyclorama. It was an oil painting, that surrounded us. It lit up, and told the story of the battle. It was excellent. While going through the museum, we found this small display. A soldier who fought, named Caleb May.

I found it a bit strange, but no one else thought much of it. Something about seeing my own child's name in this museum, was very interesting.

This stop took more of our time than expected, but was very very interesting. We all enjoyed it.

We traveled on down the road to King of Prussia, PA. What is here, you may ask?

Legos. Lots and lots of them.

Vacation 2010, Day Seven. Chocolate everywhere

Giant, walking, soft, huggable candy bars. What could be better?

I don't even like York Peppermint Patties, but I was happy to see this guy!

Who doesn't love a kiss?
We had to ask where this guy was, and hunt him down.

I didn't get a single complaint from ANY of the boys, when asking them to pose with these giant characters. What good kids.

There were rides, of course.

I was told by the boys... "Don't drop your phone!" when I took this one.

There was a waterpark that was included with the price of the ticket. This ride, was a roller coaster, that you shot water at, and the riders then dumped water in retaliation. We spent a LONG time here. It was a hot day, and this was a cool spot.

There are two of my boys on the ride. I was just about to go up and check on them, because they went and waited in line by themselves... they had to wait in a longer line than I thought.

We did a sky ride.

We stayed pretty late on day two of the park. We then walked over to Chocolate World. It was like a giant commercial for Hershey's Chocolate. We saw how the candy bars were made, and were given a free bar. Then, we were dumped into the world's largest candy store.

I really enjoyed this park. Caleb and Jared both thought it was not as great as Cedar Point. Alex loved, loved, loved it.

Vacation 2010 Day 6, The Office fans

We love The Office. Love it. So much so, we drove two hours out of the way, each way, to visit Scranton, PA. Oh, boy, was it ever worth it. Ok, maybe it was a bit out of the way. There was this sign, and a tiny little kiosk. Apparently not many fans come to Scranton. Weird.

We then drove to Hershey, PA. I could smell the chocolate in the air. We checked into the campground, pitched our tents in record time, and rushed over to the park. They have a preview time, where you can go to the park for 3 hours the night before, if you purchase tickets. It was great. Lines were not too long, it was a cooler evening, we were not rushing, it was all bonus time. We stayed until 10, went back to the campground and crashed in our tents.

Vacation 2010, Day four. Cuyahoga National Park

Our first park of vacation. We do love our national parks. This is a "small" park in Ohio. It has the waterfalls, and beautiful nature, but it also has the history of the canals, and has locks that were used many years ago, to help the canal boats go up and down the canals. The ranger put on a great demonstration of the locks for us, and we all have a very good understanding of how it works at this point.

We did a couple small trails. We had to explain to the ranger, that we did Cedar Point the day before, and were all exhausted. She recommended two trails to us. Maybe she recommended more, but we did two. It was a harder park to drive around.

Alex was so happy to be here, he hugged a tree.

Caleb always wonders why there are not as many photos of him from vacation.

We saw some interesting sights. This area was cooler than the rest of the park.

There were some stairs to climb out of this cooler area.

It's enough to tucker people out.

This day, we also ate at the fanciest McDonald's I've ever stepped foot in. It was in a two story building, that looked like a southern mansion. It had chandeliers. The food was still the same though.

Vacation 2010, Day three. Roller Coasters

Cedar Point.

The Mecca of Roller Coasters.

We've been waiting YEARS for this. We drove up, and Alex panicked a bit. The rides were a bit taller than he expected.

I stole this photo from Jared, Caleb getting ready to get onto his new favorite ride.

Here is the video. Sorry, you can't see their faces, but Jared and Caleb are in the front seat.

Alex, Jonas and I rode some tamer rides, while Jared and Caleb waited to ride Top Thrill Dragster. We rode the Sky Ride thing.

We rode slower, tamer coasters...

and we got sno cones....

We "did" the park from 9am to 11pm. We walked and walked and walked some more. We saw a couple shows, one Snoopy on Ice, and one trick biking show. A huge storm came through, during the bike show, and we had to huddle next to a wall to take cover.

Everyone had fun. Even though it was a roller coaster lover's dream park, and perhaps we were not all quite as into the coasters as others, it was a fun park to visit.