More Pennsylvania and Maryland plus Delaware!

Sunday we attended the York Ward, Lancaster Pennsylvania Stake.

On the way to church we saw an Amish buggy

And on the way home we saw a sign for.... farm fresh butt nuggets???

Monday we headed out to Valley Forge. On the way there and back we saw more Amish buggies

And an Amish home--notice the very long laundry line

And lovely stone bridges

And what I call "marshmallows"--the first time I saw these wrapped hay bales it looked like a pile of marshmallows!

We had a roundabout way of getting to the Valley Forge visitor center because Google wanted to take us one way and there were road closures. We finally made it!!!

We did the auto tour, went by the Washington Memorial Chapel which was so beautiful.

This was inside the tower

Then we went inside the chapel

This soldier was dressed in the uniform of Washington's Life Guard

We walked down to this train station and got to see a freight train go by! That was kind of fun!

Washington's Headquarters was not open, as many of the historical buildings have not been open. Part of it is due to small spaces, hard to keep social distancing. Most of it has to do with a reduced workforce in the National Park system during the pandemic.

This was a really interesting detail on the porch roof.

As we drove the auto tour route, we got to see a covered bridge

This is the National Memorial Arch. It says, "To the officers and private soldiers of the Continental Army December 19, 1777-June 19, 1778"

Our puppers really enjoyed the auto tour, especially because we rolled windows down and let her hang out the window!

When we stopped for lunch, we discovered this bug. We learned it was an invasive species, may have two sets of wings but does more jumping than flying (which we got to experience), and that we should check ourselves and our car before leaving an area because it's a hitchhiker!

Our next stop was Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site--the beginnings of industrialization in the new country! This site had its beginnings in the 1770s, producing all kinds of iron products.

This was an anthracite furnace, supposedly a better and cheaper way of making iron, but it didn't work as well as hoped.

This was the water wheel that was in the cast house, where they produced the iron

The water wheel was actually working!

This was the cast house. I thought it was a church at first, with the funky tower that was actually more of a chimney

Just a beautiful flower that I found, known as the obedient plant!

Tuesday we headed to Annapolis to see the Maryland state capitol building. Annapolis is a really beautiful city with a very colonial feel to the downtown area.

We are a little bit rebels, but no, we didn't take the dog onto the capitol grounds for real. I just couldn't resist the photo op!

The cool thing about this state house is that it is the oldest, continually used state house in the U.S. There are plenty that are still in existence (Florida and Tennessee come to mind) but are not used by the state government anymore.

The Senate

The House of Representatives

Also cool: This is where George Washington resigned his commission of the Continental Army

Our next stop was the United States Naval Academy which isn't that far from the state capitol building. A lot of the houses in the area had a little oval plaque on them, stating they were historical buildings.

We had to go through security to get on to the naval academy property. Sadly, the museum is closed on Tuesdays, but the visitor center is pretty interesting and we got to see a really good film about what a student at the Naval Academy goes through from admissions to graduation.

On the way home, we stopped to see the "World's Largest Engagement Ring". J was disappointed it wasn't an actual jewel on top

On our drive we passed this home, possibly the home of John Stefanowicz, an Olympic wrestler from York County, Pennsylvania.

We found this whimsical tree in our campground

Wednesday we went to Delaware! The state line sign was small and went by fast, I only managed this blurry photo

We drove through Maryland on our way to Delaware, no state line sign but we did get a Google state icon screen shot!

We saw several signs with a message of basically, DON'T GO DOWN THIS STREET! if you are over 12'. I didn't get a good photo of the next sign on the actual street that said, "Too late, stop now!"

DuPont is based in this area

We were following the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway

We stopped in Wilmington to see the New Castle Court House Museum, this was the first site of Delaware's government

Check out this cobblestone road right out front!

Then we drove down to Dover to see the state capitol building

Although we went through security to get in, the security guards told us they are a small capitol and really informal. We were welcome to sit in the state legislator's seats if we wanted. We peeked in the Senate and the House--both really small rooms with not very many desks!

Up in both galleries there were reserved seats for the sergeant at arms. I guess to keep the unruly spectators under control?

The state seal was in the ceiling of both rooms

Beautiful staircase leading upstairs to the galleries and offices

Delaware is The First State because they were the first of the colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

We went over to the Old State House, which was the original state capitol building in Dover. It looked a lot like the New Castle Court House Museum inside.

Interesting side note: the state legislators voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution from a tavern, as the Old State House had not been built yet.

When we stopped at a Walmart, we found these! About half the people passing through the parking lot stopped to take photos. They were lifeboats for the USNS Charlton

Thursday we headed out of Delaware by way of Rehoboth Beach, MAJOR tourist town.

We were headed to Assateague Island National Seashore

If you've ever read Misty of Chincoteague, that novel is about this area, just a little farther south. There are wild horses here and SO many signs and warnings about keeping your distance!

There was also this display in the visitor center--the horses will eat whatever you leave out and it makes them sick and sometimes kills them

As soon as we drove from the visitor center into the national park area, we found wild horses!

This horse had a bird on its back!

I made J and S hike the dunes trail (they were not happy about the sand in their shoes!) and we found this really crazy thing: there was an asphalt road through here in the 1950s!

Some of the beautiful flowers we saw that day (but not at the national park)

And a butterfly that we did see at the national park!

I'm always surprised by these signs, I forget that the coast is right there, hurricanes come through, you do have to evacuate! First time I saw one of these signs I was a college student.

Friday we made our way back into Maryland to go to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park

There were SO many amazing exhibits inside the visitor center, about her life and those that she freed

I found these three panels very sobering and awe-inspiring

Then we drove and drove and drove back into Pennsylvania

Saturday we went in to Philadelphia. We saw SO many things! First off, we drove by the Rocky statue and the famous steps that the character runs up in the movie. People were standing in line for a chance to pose with the statue

We saw the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. All temples that are open right now are only open to those in the temple district, so this was as close as we got.

We saw Independence Hall, from outside. You have to have timed entry tickets are we are too fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants to plan more than a day or two ahead.