Fall Break in PA

Ok - get ready for lots of pics!  This trip was amazing - not only did we get to take in beautiful country as we drove there, but we got to see family with lots of cousin time and see some truly amazing things in this incredible country of ours.  It made our fall break this year!

 

 Gettysburg ...

This place was nothing that I had expected but very moving.  It was a place where you could 'live' the  history that had happened there.  It was a very gray and drizzly day, but it almost made the experience more real.

Love Big D's face in this picture ... truly looking the soldier part, since he begged for a pop gun at the museum store, and his dad caved and bought it for him. 

We had lunch at Friendly's ...

 Then drove around and stopped to see several of the monuments.

Master S loved the cannons ...

 The kids had a great time pretending to be fighting on the union side - looking out for confederates whenever we stopped - the Big D and his cousin putting their pop guns to good use.

This was on the drive to Philadelphia through Amish country - absolutely gorgeous!

 Philadelphia ...

  We had the perfect tour guides - my brother and his wonderful wife and their darling kids.  They had been to Philly enough to know exactly where to go and how to get there.  We had lunch at the Reading Terminal - YUM!

Walked through downtown.

 Had delicious gelato at this way cool place - on the list of the top ten places for ice cream in the U.S.

 It was so good!

 My brother and his daughter ...

 Liberty Bell - not so impressive,

 but Independence Hall across the street was really cool.

My kids LOVE to wait!!!  They love to walk even more!!! Lol!

Master S and Miss Lilly at Independence Hall.

 Some Asian tourists thought Big D and his cousin were pretty cool - cool enough to take lots of pictures of them!  Haha!

 A little street my sister-in-law had us stop and get out to see -- very cool place.

 There is a temple under construction in Philly.

 The 'Rocky' steps ...

 The view of downtown (and a horse's behind - Josh was wondering why on earth I needed a picture of that!!!)

 Miss Lilly had a real Philly Steak Sandwich - when I told her we were having that for dinner she was so excited.  She LOVES steak!

 Lisa also took us to see Hershey, PA - Chocolate World.

 We went on a historic trolley tour of the city - so worth it if you ever go.  I learned a lot of Milton Hershey and it was probably one of my favorite things about this trip.  It helped that they gave out lots of chocolate too :)

 The last day we ventured to a little city north of Lancaster, PA called Lititz.  I can't wait to go back without children, hahaha!  It was a darling little town with a really great downtown area that I would love to explore without kids that don't love to explore - although they did really like the candy store.

 We went there for a tour of the 1st pretzel factory in the U.S.  It was started in the 1860's and obviously doesn't operate there anymore, but it was a cool tour.

 The big soft pretzels at the end were really good too!

 We stopped for a little hike at a state park on the way home - with some great views of the Susquehana River.  There really is nothing like fall in the northeast of the U.S.!

Miss Lilly collecting rocks -- I think we have rocks from all over the U.S. somewhere in our house or garage!

This is my darling niece - we adopted her for the hike.

  One of the things my kids loved the most was spending time with cousins this trip.  We miss them so much!
 

*hope you don't mind Lisa that I borrowed some of your instagram pics -- you have some amazing pictures :)