Sunday we headed north, driving through the mountains with some really pretty views
We crossed the Appalachian Trail!
We were headed to Catoctin Mountain Park, which is very beautiful, has lots of hiking trails and is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Camp David, the presidential retreat!
The visitor center was a historic building, as evidenced by the sign in the bathroom
The Junior Ranger book told us how to pronounce it
The visitor center had some interesting exhibits about the history, both human and natural
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) both had a huge part in the human history at this site
Our dog was interested in the walking sticks at the trailhead that were left for anyone to use
We saw a funky beetle, Eastern Eyed Click Beetle
And I got a great photo of this Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly having some lunch
We drove back into Pennsylvania
We were headed to Gettysburg
This was not my favorite national park site to visit--it was as manic and busy as an amusement park! I was kind of disappointed by that! This atmosphere is not helped by the fact that there are three different kinds of bus tours you can purchase tickets for, plus they had stanchions lined up to manage the crowds going in to the movie and the gift shop was packed with people buying all the things.
Inside the visitor center they had this tree with all the shrapnel still in it
There were also displays of artifacts from the battlefields
These were the uniforms of the Union
And the Confederacy
I found this the most interesting--especially some states (like Oregon that sent almost 2,000 Union troops) but also like Louisiana and Kentucky that had quite a few on both sides!
We took the auto tour which takes you through the battlefields.
We saw the "no relic hunting" signs several times
Lots of monuments, just like Antietam and Vicksburg
There was this observation tower that J and I, and the dog, went to the top and looked out over the battlefields
We could see the Eisenhower farm
And also our rig, looking kinda tiny down there!
Tuesday we went to the Gettysburg National Cemetery--this is the actual site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
S noticed the cardinal sitting on the headstone and I was able to snap a photo of it
This area marked many graves
These ones were named
And these ones were not
Not far from those graves was this monument, marking the spot where Lincoln gave his speech
We headed out after that, following some of the tour route--we saw the observation tower--on our way to the Eisenhower farm
Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower built this farmhouse in the 1950s. They had hoped to renovate a 200+ year old home on the property but it was not salvageable. Tours of the house were only on the weekends, so we just saw the grounds.
There was a one hole golf area in the back
Just outside the sunroom were these welcome mats
There was also a helicopter pad, these gas pumps, and cattle barns (which we didn't see). Ike raised Angus here.
Our next stop was the Zimmerman Center for Heritage, located in a 1700s era building. We were looking for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Did you know it goes all the way to Cooperstown, New York?
The building was right across from the Susquehanna and a marina with a cute little (probably not real) light house
We briefly stopped at President James Buchanan's Wheatland. He bought this house and ran his presidential campaign from it, giving speeches on the front porch
And we went and found his grave
We drove across the Susquehanna River a few times
And also traveled down the Lincoln Highway
Wednesday we went to see the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg. It looks like it has a tiled dome
It is VERY ornate inside (J kept saying, "Did they use enough gold leafing?")
Inside the House of Representatives
And the Senate
Even the fire hose cabinet was kinda fancy!
The building was also VERY vertical. This is not an exaggerated photo! The steps in the galleries for the House and Senate were very steep.
The view down several flights of stairs from the fifth floor
Pennsylvania is the Keystone State, we saw this motif in quite a few places like the elevator floor and where the fire hydrants were mounted on the wall
Also ornate but in a different way: lots of mosaics in the floor of the rotunda
Theodore Roosevelt dedicated this building
Our next stop was a little more whimsical. We headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania! The street names are related to chocolate
The street lights (and the medians) have Hershey's kisses
We went to The Hershey Store: the Museum on Chocolate Avenue. Honestly? It was interesting but not really worth the $40 for the three of us. You could pay more for "experiences" or just see the museum for cheaper
It was supposed to be interactive, they gave J and S tokens to use with this machine to set them up and then throughout the museum. It wasn't that dynamic of "interactive" though.
The museum WAS really informative though. Hershey started with Lancaster Caramels and then went into chocolate. There was a timeline of what products appeared when.
Hershey also had a sugar plantation in Cuba! There were other displays and information on how he innovated the process of making chocolate to make it more affordable to everyday folk
Right outside the building was the Hershey amusement park, a more modern addition to Hershey, Pennsylvania.
We headed that direction and saw this: the school that Hershey started. He basically built an entire town around his company.
We were headed to Hershey's Chocolate World. This can also be expensive, if you pay for all the different "experiences", we just went for the pseudo-ride that was free
There isn't a factory tour anymore, you can ride this "ride" through the factory experience, which is all smoke and mirrors basically--lots of animation, screens, lighting, to make it look like you are passing machines that are producing chocolate and candy. It was definitely fun and worth the price--FREE!
We saw the Kiss Mobile outside
Of course, we bought some chocolate at the museum to share (1 pound Hershey bar and two 8 oz. Reese's peanut butter cups). The Mr. is cutting up the peanut butter cup, the next photo is S and J each holding one in their hands, just to give an idea of how HUGE they are
Thursday we headed into Maryland again. I didn't quite get a photo of the state line sign but then noticed a little brown sign below the cell phone sign: Mason-Dixon Line
We went to Hampton National Historic Site which is a beautiful mansion that is currently undergoing renovations (as it seems all the sites have been doing during the pandemic shut downs!) The owners of the mansion were a great help during the War of 1812 and the owner gave all 300+ of his enslaved workers freedom in 1828!
When you're rich, you can have an ice pit so you can have ice cream in July!
The mansion was beautiful, we didn't get to see inside or the roofline with the cupola which was being worked on
They also had a fantastic garden out back
Then we headed in to Baltimore, kind of a scavenger hunt on our way to the next national park
First up, a giant pencil stuck in the side of a building
Then a cemetery
Where it looks like we kinda found Sleeping Beauty's grave? Maybe?
But we were looking for this one:
And this one--John Wilkes Booth is buried here with several siblings
That apparently is the location where the Ouija board got its name
We found the RCA Victrola dog! I think our dog most closely resembles this dog, although lots of people tell us she looks like Petey from Little Rascals and sometimes Wishbone from the Wishbone TV series.
And Poe's graves--plural! Both in the same burial ground, apparently he was buried twice?
This is the more famous grave
Then we headed out, following the Star Spangled Banner Trail
We were headed to Fort McHenry
This is the site that inspired the Star Spangled Banner poem that was then turned into a song and became our national anthem. Francis Scott Key was actually on a British ship, watching the bombardment, when he saw the U.S. flag waving and was inspired to write the poem.
Our last scavenger hunt item of the day was this bus stop with a giant push pin in it and it said "Estamos aquí" (we are here)
Some fun sights in Baltimore on the way out
Then we drove back to Pennsylvania
We got to see beautiful farmland
And this flower, which I love. It's chicory, more commonly known as cornflower
It's not all fun and games around here. Our fridge stopped working last week and we had to throw out a lot of food plus get a cooler for the rest. We managed to find an electric cooler which took a bit of searching but basically works like a fridge. It's a whole lot smaller than our RV fridge, which was already small! We have a part on order and will get our RV fridge repaired at the beginning of next week.
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