Day 4 - Hershey Park

Day 4 - Bright and early, we are on our way to Hershey Park, in Hershey, PA (of course). I have to say that the park itself was kind of a disappointment, but I did enjoy the "pretend" tour of the chocolate factory. In fact, this was the highlight of the visit.


The entrance to Hershey Park:


The waterpark was brand new in 2007 and very popular on this very hot day:

David loved the surfing simulator --

Wipe out!


Here are a couple pics of the pretend factory tour:



It was a really long day, and very hot and humid. It felt great to get back to the hotel and relax!

Day 3 - Gettysburg to Harrisburg, PA

The next day, we finished the second half of the battlefield tour. It's really hard to choose my favorite photos, but here are a few of my best:




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After this, we went into the town of Gettysburg for souvenir shopping and just to walk around a bit. Gettysburg is a very charming town, with many historic buildings. Here we are at the Farnsworth House (remember the ghost tour?) in the daytime:

And a few random pics around and about Gettysburg:


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That afternoon, we drove to Harrisburg and checked into our hotel there. In the evening, we visited the local mall and Bass Pro Shop. And that ends Day 3.

Day 2 - Gettysburg, PA

We are finally here in Gettysburg! We did a lot of touring today --

First, the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War:


And right across the street from the museum is the Gettysburg National Cemetery where Lincoln's historic Gettysburg Address was made (spoken...addressed...? whatever):


Then, we toured the battlefield. It was pretty awesome to be there. We all really enjoyed the auto tour -- a CD that you play in your car that narrates all the stops and various monuments, etc., and gives you a very interesting story about the battle.

Here are a couple photos from the Gettysburg battlefield:



Later that night, we went on a ghost tour at the Farnsworth House. I won't tell you what I experienced here, but it was weird enough for me to get the chills right now just thinking about it! Also, Chuck and David and I all heard what sounded like guns firing at night over the battlefield. David insists they were fireworks, but there were no lights and I don't think they were. Spooky!



Here's a link to more about the Farnsworth House (named by the Travel Channel as one of the Top Ten most haunted inns in the U.S.):

http://www.jennie-wade-house.com/farnsworth-house.htm


After touring the haunted inn and going on the haunted ghost walk tour, we all went back to our hotel and had a good nights' rest (muahahaha).

Road Trip 2007 - Day 1

Well, its been a long delay since I said I was going to work on the Road Trip story. Oh well!

So, we left on July 28 at 7:46 AM. On the first day we just drove and drove all the way to Cranberry, Pennsylvania. We took the Indiana Tollroad, the Ohio Turnpike and then the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

I decided to try to take a photo of every 100 miles on the road. What a cute idea! However cute, it only lasted for about the first 600 miles.

Here is the photo of 100 miles out:



This was taken on the Indiana Tollroad near Elkhart, Indiana.

We decided to stop somewhere for breakfast, so we asked our Garmin for a suggestion. She suggested a place in Edon, Ohio called the Feed Bag or the Feed Mill or something like that. Anyway, we drove about 5 miles down a little road and there it was. We had a great breakfast in a cute little town.



After that, we just kept driving. Here is the 204 mile photo:



This one was taken somewhere in Ohio at about 1:37 PM.

And the following photo was taken at 357 miles on 80 East in Ohio near the Cuyahoga River:



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And one more: taken at mile 436 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, east of Pittsburgh -


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So, Day 1 is almost over. We have arrived in Cranberry, Pennsylvania in the late afternoon. We are staying at the Hyatt Place for the night. This is a really cool hotel - our room has a 42" plasma tv!


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For dinner we drove across the street to a restaurant called "Eat & Park". It was pretty similar to a Baker's Square. The thing is, though, wouldn't a more correct name be "Park & Eat"? I don't get it at all. I would think you need to park before you eat, rather than after. Someone didn't think that name out very well at all.
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Have a nice rest! Tomorrow we take off bright and early for Gettysburg.

School is over and I'm.....what??

I never thought I'd feel sad to be out of school for the summer.

Remember those days of the past - the last day of school? Freedom! Joy! The long summer days ahead; it seemed they would go on and on; one endless weekend.

Well, it has happened: I am sad to be sprung. I finished my Medical Terminology class last night, took my final, and now I am going to miss going to school. It's a frightening realization because it means that maybe I am a real adult. Because, really - there is no way I could still be a kid and be sad about getting out of school for the summer.

I loved my class. It had been years since I went to school. Unless you count yoga or pregnanacy fitness or lamaze as higher education. So it seemed a big decision to actually sign up for a real class. After the first couple of sessions, I began to question my decision. I had to actually set aside time - my precious time - to do homework and study for the weekly quiz. I didn't even want to think about the BIG tests, the midterm and the final looming somewhere vaguely in the not too distant future.

I got into the routine quickly enough, though, and began to relax enough to actually learn things. My instructor was a registered nurse who infused the lecture with tales of her own personal experiences at the hospital and I found the lectures to be very interesting, even entertaining.

Now that my Tuesday nights are my own, once again, I feel a little bit empty. I think that not only did I learn all about medical terminology, body systems, and medical procedures; but I also received a dose of self-pride. Hey, I could actually sit in a class of a bunch of 'kids' and do as well as the rest of those freshly minted brains. Never mind that they were probably taking four other classes simultaneously and I was only taking the one.....

Let's see, if I stretch this out properly, I could probably be able to take one class per semester and have my master's degree in hmmm.......about 45 years.

That'll keep me busy!