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!
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:
------------ 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:
---------- 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.
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.):
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:
-------------------- And one more: taken at mile 436 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, east of Pittsburgh -
------------- 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!
----------------- 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. ----------------- Have a nice rest! Tomorrow we take off bright and early for Gettysburg.
We have returned from Road Trip 2007 and it was a very long road! I can't believe how much we did and saw in 8 days. We logged 1,875 miles from beginning to end.
Its kind of a strange thing that I love Road Trips, but I hate to ride in cars. I always like to sit in the back seat and do things to take my mind off the traveling - listen to my ipod, do cross-stitch, read a book, play my PSP, etc. But I love the planning and I love the thought of seeing the country!
I've been on a lot of road trips - the first major one I can recall was my Mom and Dad taking me and my younger sister to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Huntsville, AL. My Dad was driving our new (used) 1966 gold chevy with the black vinyl top.
We weren't too far out of Chicago when the a/c conked out. The real crime about that happening was that this was our very FIRST car that had a/c. So it was a huge excitement to have this cool and comfortable ride to look forward to. But it just wasn't to be.
Anyway, the road trip that year (1970, I believe) took us through Carbondale, IL to visit our brother at SIU, then on through the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee where we visited Lookout Mountain and Rock City.
I recall being so very impressed with Rock City, that I brought my kids back there many years later.
We did make it to Huntsville and had a nice visit with the relatives before the long trek back home.
Many of my other Road Trips have run together in my head -- I know I took a wonderful Road Trip to the East Coast once upon a time in the early 80's. Traveling through Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island...maybe more - I just can't remember!
Then there was the Road Trip with the destination of Virginia Beach in 1987. We visited Williamsburg and Chincoteague, where we saw the stuffed "Misty" - those who are book readers will know what I'm talking about. And then on the way home visited those same relatives of the 1970 Road Trip, only this time in Kentucky.
I loved the Road Trip of 2002. It was kind of a cheating Road Trip because we flew part of the way, but really....driving to California was not an option. We started in San Francisco, drove over to Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevadas, down through the Garlic Capital of the world - Gilroy -, to the Hearst Castle in San Simeon (wait a minute -- not sure if we did that on this particular trip or not!), but I know we did visit the Winchester House in San Jose; Monterey, Carmel, then on to Los Angeles before flying home. And yes, we traveled the great Highway 1 along Big Sur.
The reason this one is not totally clear is because its kind of like the Road Trip of 1998 (with my sisters and Mom) in that we flew to California and drove from there. I know we did many of the same things as the Road Trip of 2002, but in an all-girl kind of way instead of a family type thing. Just a different experience.
And back in 1992, like I was talking about above -- took our little kids (they were 5, 4 and 6 months old) to the same relatives' anniversary party in Kentucky and from there went down to Rock City and Lookout Mountain.
I know I did several Road Trips to Florida, both married and single. With kids, without. On one of the Florida Road Trips, the kids counted every Waffle House restaurant along the way and I wish I recalled the count. Its kind of funny that our brown Astro van's air conditioning broke down shortly out of Chicago on that trip..... It was fun anyway, and in addition to Disney we drove over to the coast and spent some days on the beach at Indialantic. Of course, on the way down we stopped at Rock City and Lookout Mountain because we had one more child by then who had never been there!
I kind of doubt that I have mentioned all the Road Trips I've taken. There have been many many short ones, that's for sure. But I'm not sure that weekend trips would count as Road Trips, no - not really.
So, this is the intro to the Road Trip Saga. I'll start posting photos and the story, day to day, of our great Road Trip 2007 in the upcoming days or weeks, depending on my enthusiasm!
I took a short hop to the islands on Saturday night. From the minute I sat down to a cheeseburger (in paradise) and a cool Corona at my sister and her husband's pre-Buffett party - I was on my way to the tropics.
It took awhile to get there (First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre) only because there were people coming from not only the Chicago area but many surrounding states and the traffic was being re-routed all over the place - but upon entering the parking lot a whole new world opened up.
Parrotheads to the left, Parrotheads to the right.
The most enormous tailgate party I have ever encountered. Cars decorated with shark fins, entire tiki bar set-ups, guys in grass skirts with coconut bras, and all kinds of parrots! What a crowd!
The concert was absolutely amazing -- we had lawn seats which I think were much nicer than sitting under the canopy in chairs. Thankfully, the weather was very cooperative, but I have a feeling it probably wouldn't have mattered much to most of the soused crowd if a blizzard had been going on.
The stage was set up to resemble the Bama Breeze, a beachside bar, with the aqua blue ocean behind it and a tropical sky which changed colors through the show. Jimmy entered the stage on a bicycle, barefoot and in shorts and t-shirt. The whole show was laid back and key wasted - just the best description I can come up with.
Even if you're not a die-hard Buffett fan, you can't help but have a blast at his concert. And if you are a Buffett fan or even if you just love the ocean - as soon as you begin that long trek back to the parking lot, you will be counting the days till Jimmy's next show!
The Daily Southtown has a review of Saturday's show at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre: "Buffett & Co. deliver again" A big part of a Buffett concert is always the atmosphere, from the gaudy outfits of the fans to the sound of the steel drums and pedal steel guitar to the comely backup singers to the free-flowing libations. But the bare-footed beach bum and his band of cohorts Saturday once again showed that if you strip away all the accoutrements you still have the music. And Saturday, as always, it was like a good tropical drink: cool and satisfying.
I wanted to share my latest doll creation. This doll is from a kit by Wendy Dickison called "Haily". The kit comes in five pieces - a head, two arms and two legs - no hair, no paint! It is in vinyl, deep pink in color. I renamed this doll, "Katey" after I had finished.
Below is a photo that shows the hair somewhat. The "hair" that I use is pure mohair which is purchased in locks. I separate the locks into individual strands which are then rooted into the doll's head using a very fine needle which grabs only one or two hairs per insertion. Since you can see that Katey has a lot of hair, you can imagine how long this process took. Not to mention how many needles are broken in the process. But in the end, it actually looks as though this hair is growing right out of the scalp!
My earlier dolls mostly had wigs, but the more recent ones were hand-rooted. Like Katey.
Backing up, I usually do all the painting first. On this doll, the original vinyl color was rather deep pink. I wanted a paler look so after doing a light green wash to neutralize the pinky color, I simply gave the skin mottling by using a combination of very pale pink and white paints. I always add touches of pale blue here and there for shadowing and depth. In real babies you can usually see these blue undertones if you look carefully.
The fingernails and toenails are painted in a rose color and tipped in white before being sealed with a satin varnish. The lips are painted in the same color and also sealed with satin varnish.
Eyebrows are painted, but eyelashes are rooted in a slightly lighter color than the hair on the doll's head.
The head and limbs are then all weighted, the ends are sealed and then attached to the cloth body - which is also weighted and stuffed with a combination of poly beads and fluffy polyester.
And then you have -- a baby! I have already had offers for this doll, but I was very lucky to obtain another kit by the same artist and I will most likely create a twin brother for Katey. At that point I may sell them together...or who knows - maybe these will be the ones that I keep for myself!
David loved the surfing simulator --
Wipe out!
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