Back from PA

Evan and I spent around 6 days last week in Pennsylvania as our vacation. A brief recap:

We started in Philadelphia, where the very first stop was at Geno's for a cheesesteak. This was Evan's main priority and he thought it was really good. The line to order at Geno's is always long, 24 hours a day. When we arrived around 1:30pm, the line was probably 50 people or so. It moves pretty quickly. Evan had researched how to order the sandwiches as to not look like a tourist. Apparently they can be like the Soup Nazi if you don't know what you want. We had to eat our sandwiches in the car due to lack of outdoor seating, which wasn't ideal. We made it work.

The next day was spent walking around the historical sites in Philadelphia, mainly Independence Hall, Liberty Bell Center, etc. Evan had never been there and it had changed a bit since I was there in elementary school.

Next we headed to Reading, PA for some shopping. This was a complete disappointment. Apparently a bunch of the outlets had closed up. Evan and I both remember it being a shopping destination, but the outlets it did have were a let down.

Off to Hershey the next day. I had never been there. You can't take a tour of the real factory, so you have to take this Disney-like ride through a simulated factory to learn how they make the chocolate. The gift shop had all the varieties of Hershey products including many of the varieties of Hershey kisses since it's the 100th anniversary of the Kiss. The best part was that after dinner, we stepped outside and the air smelled like chocolate. It was great, like someone was baking a giant chocolate cake.

Then we headed to Gettysburg for a day. We did a walking tour of the cemetery where we learned about the famous battle and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Though the walking tour was fine, Evan was most excited about taking the ghost tour that evening. Gettysburg is said to be the most haunted place in America. I guess if thousands of soldiers died in one little town, you could expect that. So we went and Evan took pictures like crazy hoping for something cool to appear. Others in our group were capturing "orbs" in their photos, according to the tour guide. Evan captured nothing. He was disappointed and even tried manipulating the camera settings. ha.

Last on our PA tour was to see Fallingwater, one of the famous homes designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright (pictured above). I had wanted to see this for a long time. It really is amazing, whether you're a designer or not. It's located in an absolutely beautiful setting out in the middle of nowhere. Very cool. Besides the house itself, the highlight for me at this stop was seeing a bear cub walking through the woods maybe 20 feet from our car. Unbelievable! I never have seen a bear in the wild before. It was cute. We snapped a quick picture after fumbling for the camera, but he had started to trot away, so it wasn't super clear.

After that it was back to Ohio. All in all the trip was good. Nothing too exciting, but it was a nice break from work...where I'll be the entire rest of the summer. I held up pretty well, considering all the walking and the hot temperatures. I've discovered that the heat and sitting for long periods will make my ankles swell. I try to drink as much water as I can, but I think it's just the beginning of my summer of swelling. I guess it's a small price I'll pay while carrying the little one.