Travelin'

This was a wonderful trip! My two sisters and I left early on Saturday morning- we took the train from Oak Lawn to Union Station in downtown Chicago. From there, we caught the Amtrak to St. Louis. It was about a five hour train ride. It was such fun to visit the snack car and have lunch on the train. When we arrived in St. Louis, we took the Metrolink to Lambert Airport where we rented a VW Bug, which we then drove to St. Charles, MO. St. Charles is a very old, quaint little town on the Missouri River. There are blocks of old houses and buildings converted to shops and restaurants. Of course, there are many Lewis & Clark references - I think their journey began here. We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites which was very nice. And on Sunday, after Mass at St. Peter's, we visited almost every single shop. We never made it to Frenchtown, which is the antique district. We ran out of energy. We had dinner at Lewis & Clark's (what else?) which was delicious! On Sunday night, we went to the Ameristar Casino. I started out with $6, played slot machines for three hours, and ended up with $3.50. Karen did really well at the blackjack table. Finally on the last full day, we drove out to the countryside (beautiful!) to Defiance, Missouri and visited five wineries and tasted many different wines. I enjoyed the Chambourcin wine and brought home a bottle from Augusta Winery. The train ride home was fun, too, but the weekend sure did go fast! We had a wonderful time!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

pink and brown stuff

Since it seems like everything is pink and brown, I decided to make my blog blend in. What do you think? Good camouflage?

Watch out for these 2

I'd steer clear of these kids if I were you.

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.