This year, we wanted to embrace the city for the 4th - and we sure embraced a LOT! The common theme was crowds, but we had so much fun.
Wednesday night was the Conshy fireworks. We hauled the lawn chairs to the city park - along with everyone else in town. It was a beautiful warm night and we realized we now live in a climate with lightning bugs! Fun!
On the actual 4th, we wanted to participate in the Philly celebrations. It is, after all, the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed! We went for a tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary (not so patriotic, but cool and in the vicinity!), and had dinner before heading to Franklin Parkway for the concert and Fireworks. Holy moly - I have never seen so many people in my life! It's estimated 500,000 people showed up for the festivities. Well, we decided that was too many people for us and turned our car around to enjoy some local ice cream and relaxing at home. I think it's the first time we have actually stopped our plans due to crowds, so that's saying something!
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| The Penitentiary: one of the first jails in the world of it's kind. It's more of a living ruin now after being closed in the 70's. |
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| Al Capone's cell |
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| Us and half a million of our best friends... |
The fun continued on Friday on our road trip to south central PA. We had 3 major stops to see: Amish Lancanster county, Hershey (chocolate!!), and Gettysburg. We stayed at the most incredible B&B in a small town between Lancaster and Hershey and were able to see everything we wanted to and more. The "crowd" story here is that we showed up at Hersheypark wanting to just do a simple tour. While waiting in line, we realized that there were a LOT of 14 year old girls. In puffy painted matching shirts. It was a One Direction concert! (for those of you not familiar: the most popular boy band in the world right now) Needless to say, we met a lot of parents without their kids at the local brewery down the street!
We got to go on a buggy tour in Amish country, go sampling at some local wineries, and stopped in at our favorite new little town: Lititz!
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| An Amish buggy driver |
Our last day we went to Gettysburg. It happened to be the 150th anniversary (remember that thing about crowds?), and while we didn't get to see any re-enactments, it was so wonderful to see so many people visiting and taking in this amazing site.
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| The view from the beginning of the 20+ mile tour |
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| View from Little Round Top |
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| Minnesota's Statue! This is one of the biggest ones on the battlefield dedicated to the bravery of the MN troops who held the line with nearly 80% casualty - one of the highest of the battle. |
On the actual 4th, we wanted to participate in the Philly celebrations. It is, after all, the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed! We went for a tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary (not so patriotic, but cool and in the vicinity!), and had dinner before heading to Franklin Parkway for the concert and Fireworks. Holy moly - I have never seen so many people in my life! It's estimated 500,000 people showed up for the festivities. Well, we decided that was too many people for us and turned our car around to enjoy some local ice cream and relaxing at home. I think it's the first time we have actually stopped our plans due to crowds, so that's saying something!
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