Day 34: Hershey and Liberty Bell

Went to Hershey Pennsylvania.  I have to admit all I thought of was Chocolate, I had no idea what else was here.  Apparently there is so much going on here.  We didn't look at anything but the Chocolate though :)

 We took a little ride that was inside.  It was free and definitely geared toward children but was fun and actually informative and the best part is after the ride you get some free chocolate!  Yum

Hershey kisses

 This is Fred.  He was our guide on a Trolley tour.  He had a good sense of humor and told us so much about Milton Hershey.  Milton only had a 4th grade education.  He went bankrupt 4 times trying to start his chocolate business.  His 5th time trying to start his business he borrowed money from his Aunt.  When he was about to lose everything one last time Obama came in and saved him lol....(That is a Fred and Gary joke) He had learned how to make caramels and had sold some to a Englishman.  The Englishman liked them so much he bought enough to get Milton out of bankruptcy and made him a wealthy man.  Milton found out that the Englishman was dipping the caramels in chocolate.  Milton decided that he could do that also, he worked hard and learned how to make the best milk chocolate and dipped his caramels himself.  Anywho he made lots of money.

He and his wife were never able to have children.  So they started a school for orphaned boys.  At the end of his life he gave all his fortune to orphaned children  and to this day his school still helps children.

 During the depression Hershey is the only town that had jobs for everyone and the job market actually grew.  This is one of the mansions that Milton built for one of his plant managers.  The manager could buy this house from Milton for $1.  The only stipulation was that when the man was done working for Hershey he would have to sell the house back to Hershey for market value and that was the managers retirement plan.  There is just so so much.  Hershey did an amazing thing here in Pennsylvania.  Very impressive.

Tayler and Lora on Tour

Emma and Hope on Tour

 One of the funny things that Fred said was that Hershey is such a sweet town, it is the only town that you can gain weight just breathing :)  Super fun and very impressive town.

We stayed on Chocolate Avenue

Tayler in heaven

 Interesting thing about Reese's.  A man with the last name of Reese, he might have been a manager, came to Hershey and told him about this candy he had been making at his house and his children really liked it.  Reese wanted Hershey to buy the idea from him.  Hershey didn't think it would sell, but he offered to help Reese out by selling him all the chocolate he needed at cost.  So Reese took him up on the offer and made Reese's peanut butter cups....which is the top selling candy today.

Hershey Kiss street lamps

Tayler loving his Reese's peanut butter "bowl"

Giant twizzlers

 Hope looked online and saw that the Liberty bell was closed on Saturday and Sunday....so we jumped in the car and zoomed to Pittsburgh.  Here it is.  So so cool.   Glad we were able to make it here.  It really helps that everything is so close on the East coast.  I am always happy to know that we only have to drive two hours from one destination after another.  Sure beats the long hauls we will be making at the end of this trip.  We are in Jersey City tonight.  Looking forward to New York tomorrow!

Day 33: Gettysburg

Gettysburg was pretty cool.  This is one of the valley's that they fought on.  We borrowed a dramatization of the battle from Tina.  I'm glad we had it, it made it easier to imagine what had happened there.

There were statues and monuments everywhere at Gettysburg.  So many tributes to all the soldiers, both Union and Confederate.

:) Hope looks like this a lot :)

little tower we climbed

We ended the tour at the cemetery where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.  We were following the signs around when the man in the picture below started telling us that the signs were wrong and that we needed to go to one plaque just a little further down the path.  That plaque let us know that where the address was actually given was not where the big statue was but was out in the cemetery in between the flag and the little building out further.  So I took pictures of the round about area.  The man was full of information and pretty much was our very own personal tour guide.  He is a retired Judge.  Interesting huh.

Statue placed where they say the address was given.  This is not the right spot.

Address was given left of the tree.  According to our guide :)

This tree is one of the few trees that were here when the Gettysburg battle happened.  I thought that was kind of cool.  We had a good day and enjoyed hiking all over.  If you ever go, definitely do the Auto tour.  It covers the whole three days.  It is so surprising to know that more Americans died in the Civil War than in World War I and II combined.  Brothers against Brothers.  So much to think about.  So much I need to keep reading about.

Days 31 and 32 DC

We decided to take a break on Tuesday.  We slept in for the first time in a long time and we slowly got ready for the day.  Grandma came to Tina's for her piano lessons and so we got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa one more time.  It was just nice to relax.  Tayler, Emma and McKay went swimming for a little bit and had some cousin time.  It was really nice.  Tina and Lincoln took really good care of us.

Wednesday it was back to DC.  We had bought two day trolley passes so we needed to use them.  We rode up to the Cathedral and listened to all the history of the area on the way.  The Cathedral is of course massive and very impressive.  We went to the Basement and saw the different chapels and then we went to the 7th floor and looked out over DC from the towers.  Very interesting.

 After the Cathedral our driver took us down Embassy road.  We were literally whipping our heads back and forth :)  The driver was pretty impressive, he hardly took a breath telling us to look left and spilling the country that was in that embassy and on your right another embassy, all the way down the road.  If you have ever been there you can imagine what I am talking about.  We got a  pretty good laugh about it when he was done.

 Ford's Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot.  Right across the street is where he actually died.  It is amazing all the history crammed into one area.

Wright Brother's actual plane

Spirit of St. Louis

We decided to go to one last museum, the Air and Space Museum.  So much information and so much to see.  One thing for sure I would not want to go to space.  The facilities are not to my liking ;)  Tayler said he would go into space.  I think the rest of us will keep our feet on the ground.

We had so much fun in DC.  Being with Family made it one of our favorite places along the way.

Day 30: DC again

Tina took us to  Andrews Air Force Base today to see Air Force One....Here it is :)  We of course couldn't stop and take pictures.  Well we could if we wanted to cause extreme alarm.  So this is what we get.

 After the Air Force Base we headed to DC.  We got a little lost :)  But it was ok because we wen to the Theodore Roosevelt Monument.  I've never heard of it before.  It was kind of neat.  It was on a little island on the Potomac.

 Ok so one of the things on our list today was to go to the Holocaust Museum.  We had to get tickets because usually it is a really busy Museum.  We stopped to get the tickets and the place was not busy and our tickets said we could go right in.  So we changed our plans and went to the museum first. First thing you do when you walk in is pick up an Identification Card.  It has a person that was a victim or had something to do with the Holocaust.  It has a quick summary of their life and death.  It is very very sobering.  The things that happened to these people was and is so atrocious.

Smallest McDonalds I've ever seen

 We also went to the National Archives.  We were super lucky and there really weren't very many people.  We walked right into the room where the Declaration of Independence is.  I guess normally the lines can be incredibly long.  It was cool to see.  We laughed though because we notice that a lot of documents and things would have an f in the place of s.  So it would say Pennfylvania instead of Pennsylvania.  We got a kick out of that.

 We walked through this art garden.  It had some fun statues and sculptures.

 This house was very interesting, look at it from different angles and see if it changes.  it is really only two wall and a roof, so basically three sides.  We liked it.

 This did make me laugh, Tayler and Emma just walked right over to it and touched it.  I don't see the harm but obviously they shouldn't have :)

Smithsonian Castle

Day 29: Church!!

Today we went to church!!  It felt so good to go.  I have missed going to church so much.  Tina's ward has been in the LDS news.  If you want to see the ward I went to watch this clip here.

After church it was raining so hard, I actually felt cold for the first time in a month.  I came home and put on pants for warmth.  Crazy :)

Grandma and Grandpa and Trudy and her family came for dinner.  We had a good time visiting. A  home cooked meal and family made it a perfect day.

Day 28: Arlington

Arlington national cemetery is such an amazing experience.  We started off my going to Lee house or Mansion.  Robert E. Lee owned it up until the war and then it was taken from him.  To make sure he never came back they made his plantation into a cemetery.  

Eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's 

 We walked and visited and had a good time talking about this and that.  Lincoln and Tina are excellent tour guides.  We learned so much and we didn't get lost :)

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

 We spent quite a while here.  Pondering about our lives our freedoms, the lives lost.  It was very touching.

Changing of the guard

 We did have some fun!  Look at those cute kids and one adult....ok cute kids, sounds better :)

 Iwo Jima Monument also known as the Marine memorial. Hope just told me that one of the two front men was a Corpsman.  The rest are Marine's.  Only three of those men made it home to live their lives.

 This is what we looked like trying to get photo's of this monument.  Nothing like a good umbrella shot :)

Tina taking our picture

 Washington National Cathedral.  Very impressive and huge!  We got there just as it was closing so I will go back on Monday, but for now I found the architecture very pretty.

Washington DC Temple

 Tina told us that we were pretty close to the temple so we decided to go home that way.  What a beautiful place.

 Beautiful architecture, beautiful purpose.  I'm thankful I will have my family with me forever.