This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Vacation Recap, PA/NY, Part I
Oct
12
2017
We took a week to visit famous places in Pennsylvania and New York (specifically Philadelphia and Manhattan).
Day 1
Get to eastern PA. Nothing fancy here.
Stayed at a local place (not a chain) because I thought it would be interesting – a greater chance of something memorable compared to a national chain.
The place was called the Hershey Farm Inn, and I chose it because they had a buffet-style restaurant that was open for breakfast (and free for hotel guests). Plus it had a pool. And some nice grounds: a pond, some goats, some geese, a flower garden, walking paths, and a giant statue of an Amish man. I didn’t know about that last item until we arrived though. The place is not related to the Hershey Chocolate Company – it’s just near the town of Hershey.
It fulfilled my expectations in that it was unique and therefore memorable. I can’t recall the details/layout/features of the various chain hotel rooms we’ve stayed in, but our accommodations that night were half of the top floor of an old farmhouse. It was setup to sleep 8, I think, so two of the kids didn’t even have to share a bed like usual.
I took the kids on a walking tour of the grounds while Some Wife got dinner ready in the room. She brought it from home so we wouldn’t have to go out that night. We ate dinner, then we all went to the pool. Outdoor only, slightly cold, but it worked. After the pool, the kids played on the boat-like play structure and chased the geese. Then winding down in the room with some home-improvement show on HGTV, then off to bed.
Day 2
Woke up, walked across the parking lot to the restaurant, and had a large breakfast. I don’t remember everything they had, but I do know they had pancakes and bacon.
Then we loaded up the van, checked out of the hotel, and continued on to Philadelphia. Our first stop was the science center/museum.
Philadelphia really likes Benjamin Franklin. He has stuff named after him all over the place there. Here’s the exterior of the science center:
The science is called the Franklin Institute. And it was just off Benjamin Franklin Parkway. And Franklin Square is downtown.
Walk in the Franklin Institute and what do you see?
Of course, there are a bunch of exhibits:
I don’t remember what this one was:
This one was supposed to mimic the neurons in one’s brain. Really, it was just a maze of netting for kids to climb through.
This was the kids’ favorite. It’s the roller coaster obstacle course for billiard balls. Other places have these too, and it’s their favorite there too. They could watch this thing all day, it seems.
We left there in time to get to the hotel before dinner. The hotel was about 10 minutes down the road, so that was no problem.
What was a problem was parking. It wasn’t hard, just expensive. $40 per day. The hotel didn’t have its own lot, so parking was next door in the public lot. Convenient, but pricey.
We stayed at the Home2Suites near the convention center. The room was nice (but unremarkable), the breakfast was very good, the pool was fine but small. The oddest thing about this hotel was that you needed your room key to operate the elevator. I can see why they did that, but it wasn’t obvious at first, so the elevator was rather confusing.
Anyway, after we checked in, we had dinner in the room and then swam and then got ready for bed, with a dose of HGTV again.
To Be Continued …
Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
1 Kings 12:32
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:11 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
