Pennsylvania Adventures
My favorite kind of travel is when you have the opportunity to not only see the main tourist spots, you also get a sense of the local experience and the off the beaten path places as well. So for this trip, we chose Pennsylvania to see a bit of both.
Pennsylvania was also perfect in another way. It has some amazing museums and such a vast history when it comes to democracy that it really hit all the sweet spots for a family vacation. I’d highly recommend it.
One of the more interesting places we visited was Bicycle Heaven. Everything there was soo interesting to look at. From one of PeeWee’s bicycles from the movie to tree that had grown into two bicycles, it was so intriguing. Definitely recommend a stop there, but if you have small children, you might want to wait. The temptation to touch everything is intense. A follow-up to Bicycle Heaven was a stop at Randyland, which is as every bit eclectic as you’d imagine for the name. I totally dug it.
Our next stop was the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I spent two weeks covering 911 almost twenty years ago so I wanted the kids to see it, as well as us. I found it much more emotional than I had expected to. Like a lot of people, I can remember what life was like before it changed everything. I want the kids to understand what happened and be able to talk about such issues.
I’ll admit, it was hard at first to follow up Pittsburgh with a visit to Hersheypark and camping and of course, Hershey’s Chocolate World. After seeing how much the kids enjoyed the park and the chocolate tours, I was convinced it was a great part of the trip. One word of caution though, if you’re going to camp at their camp grounds, ask to not be put by the trains. They kept us up all night. A train went by almost every twenty minutes. It was exhausting.
Next up on this trip was Gettysburg and our favorite camping spot of this trip, Caledonia State Park. That is one of the nicest parks I’ve camped in a while. We met such nice people and even saw a part of the Appalachian Trail. I’ll definitely go back to that campground. Gettysburg was very interesting. My son is super into history so we went and watched a reenactment and went to see the Gettysburg Cyclorama at the National Military Park Pennsylvania. That was amazing. Then we walked all over Gettysburg. So much history!
Our final stop in Pennsylvania was Ohiopyle. The natural waterslides were so fun and scraped everyone up pretty badly. While in Ohiopyle we toured Falling Water. What a magnificent house. I was a bit nervous being in there with kids but it worked out. They did well and we didn’t end up in debt to the Frank Lloyd Wright foundation. The kids slept in hammocks our final night of our trip. I was hesitant at first but they did great. So long, Pennsylvania. We’ll be back!
