On the Road Again, part 4

We left Elaine’s today for Pennsylvania and Amish country. On the way there, we ran into a huge storm. It started with just snow on the ground, then it was raining, then full out snowing! A few days later, this would turn out to be a huge, rare October storm with record snowfall that would leave hundreds of thousands of East Coasters without power. We drove to Lancaster, found a hotel, and were pretty much stuck there for the rest of the night!

The next morning, it had stopped snowing in Lancaster, but there was still snow everywhere. It was really pretty...a winter wonderland! We drove through downtown Lancaster, then headed east through Amish farmland through the towns of Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse (insert joke here), and White Horse. They are all very small cute towns. Since it was Sunday, many of the places were closed and there wasn’t a whole lot going on. We did see a few horse and buggies go by. The farmland around these towns is very spread out and pretty. We drove around some of the back roads before continuing on our way to Philadelphia. We dropped off our car and caught a shuttle to our hotel. Our shuttle driver was a little crazy, but funny, randomly spouting out Rodney Dangerfield jokes along the way. We decided to take a bus tour of the city to get the lay of the land and see where we would want to explore further.

The next day, we had a full day in Philly, so we decided to start it by walking to the Philadelphia Art Museum, home of the famous stairs scene in the movie Rocky. There’s a Rocky statue you can take a picture with, and we ran to the top of the stairs, just like Rocky did, fist pumps and all! We then jumped on one of the trolley buses (the tour from yesterday was valid for 24 hours) and took it back to the starting point, near the historic area. We toured Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed, then stopped in to see the Liberty Bell. After that, we got cheesesteaks from a cart on the road and walked over to the Betsy Ross house and the U.S. mint. Then we went by Franklin Square and into the Reading Market, a large indoor market. We walked through Chinatown, went to an Irish pub for dinner, then back to the hotel.  Philly is a great, fun city!

It was our last morning in Philly, and we decided to go to the Franklin Institute. It’s a pretty neat place, sort of like the science museum back home. There are lots of hands-on exhibits and areas you can go. They had a CSI exhibit going on where you were assigned a case and you had to use the evidence around you to solve it...pretty fun! The center also has a huge model of a human heart that you can walk through. The whole place was very cool and interesting! After there, we walked back to the hotel, finished packing up, and waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport.

This was such a great trip! The East Coast is a wonderful place to visit. We learned lots of history, saw beautiful scenery, and spent time with great company. I’d go back to any of these places any time.