Vacation Recap Days 1 and 2

Oh how I love vacations. Oh how I loathe vacations. Can both of these be true? They are for me! Our family doesn't take vacations very often. It just never happens for us. Trevor's job has put the brakes on them for the most part. Having worked contractual jobs most of our married life, vacations taken - were without pay - so we just didn't do them. But let's face it - we all NEED a break every now and then. A break preferably that includes eating, sleeping in late, eating some more, resting, did I mention eating, swimming and catchin' some nice rays?! The part that, well, pretty much stinks about the whole vacation thing, is coming back. Yes - coming back to reality. Coming back to all the bills shoved in your mailbox. Coming back to piles on your work space in your office. And coming back to the dreaded laundry. Darn things won't clean themselves.

Since this was indeed one of the longest vacations we have taken, I have decided to break it up into 4 parts... Days 1 and 2, Day 3, Days 4 and 5 and Day 6. Yep - 6 nights, 7 days and lots to talk about... so here we go.

My wonderful, creative (oh, and handsome) husband, Trevor, has this theory that he still stands by after this vacation is over... DON'T MAKE PLANS - DON'T MAKE RESERVATIONS - - just GET IN THE CAR AND GO. While I will admit that this is fun most of the time, some of the time it is just down right frustrating. I go along with it, though - - hey, he's the one driving! I can always kick back, fall asleep and wake up to a new state. Nothing about that you shouldn't like. :)

Day 1: Monday, June 25
Our plans were to leave by 8:30 a.m. We know how "plans" work (maybe Trevor's on to something here). However, after getting the dog to the kennel, packing last minute things, making sandwiches for the long drive the first day, taking back movie rentals and picking up the rental car... we just didn't make it out when we thought we should. So, I think we pulled out of Adrian somewhere around 10:30 a.m. Not good... but not too bad.

Now, I have to clarify something. We DID know that we were headed out east and we DID know that "east" included Hershey, Pennsylvania. Chloe's birthday was on Wednesday, so we did know that we wanted to include Hershey Park as a stop on her actual day. So - that's the direction we headed.

First stop - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We rolled in at around 5 p.m. Remember - we had no reservations, so first priority was finding a place to stay. We did just that and then spent some time roaming this cute town. What a place! Loads of history. Now I'm no history buff, but I did enjoy the site-seeing in Gettysburg.
After some sight-seeing, Chloe was anxiously awaiting her time in the hotel's outdoor pool. To be honest, after the 95 degree day - so was I! We hit the pool and then went to bed. Pretty tiring first day, but hey, I could get used to this whole vacation thing! What job?

Day 2: Tuesday, June 26
We signed up for one of the Battlefield Tours on one of those really neat double decker buses. You know, the funny looking ones? The 2-hour tour began at 9 a.m. (glad it wasn't a 3-hour tour.. We might not have made it back :) haha!) By 9 a.m., it was over 90 degrees outside and we decided to sit up top. Nice! Boy was it hot! But I did get some nice sun on my face and arms.
Now how she did this, I will never know, but Chloe actually FELL ASLEEP on the top of that bus! Twice! After each stop I caught her dosing off. It was incredible. Guess that sun just wore her right out, poor thing!
Following the bus tour we went back to the hotel, packed up and checked out. Headed for our next destination.
Now this next destination was my heaven on earth. I know it's going to sound weird, maybe even sick, but this made the entire vacation worth it for me. We visited this place. Okay - I collect them, so I HAD to go! And let me JUST tell you... anyone who collects Boyd Bears HAS to HAS to HAS to visit this place at least once in their lifetime! There is absolutely nothing like it! No kidding. I don't know how long we were there (my guess would be 3 hours) but it was AMAZING. And I STILL didn't see all I wanted to see! $117 later, though, Trevor was convinced that he would carry me out if he had to!
Back on the road....
Next stop: Hershey!
We arrived in Hershey at around 5 p.m. and I am NOT kidding - you can actually SMELL the chocolate when you enter the town! I'm not joking. Trevor kept telling me it was my imagination - but I swear to you, our vents were blowing in the sweet smell of cocoa powder from the first turn into the town.
We decided to check out the hotel that the Hershey Park pamphlet actually recommends called Hotel Hershey. Um.. let me just say this right now... even if they would have HAD rooms available - we wouldn't have stayed there! The room rate was over $450 a night! I don't care WHAT they had available or HOW old and GRAND the hotel was - it was NOT worth taking out a second mortgage on our house! We settled for a Days Inn. MUCH nicer on the wallet!
After arriving to our room and freshening up - we decided to head to Hershey Park to check out Chocolate World. This place is the coolest place! For a chocolate lover - it was my second heaven on earth in ONE DAY!
We bought some chocolate (DUH!), ate some chocolate (DUH!), saw a Chocolate 3D movie and rode the simulated Chocolate ride. Oh and did I mention that we bought even more chocolate after that - because once you are finished with the ride - they dump you into this NEW, HIDDEN chocolate store that has everything in the world chocolate to buy! NICE! Trevor was practically carrying me out of that place, too. VACATIONS are AWESOME when they include Boyd Bears and Chocolate. (don't you poor Trevor me, he enjoyed himself just as much as I did.)
What was the funniest thing about the whole day was that we actually ran into people we knew!!! Now I have been known as the woman who knows everyone everywhere I go - but I didn't know that would still be true over 400 miles away! Yes - it's true. Our Children's Ministry Director, Shari Glass's, kids were visiting their grandparents in Vermont and were there visiting the park on the VERY SAME DAY we were there! How funny was that!? Trevor actually took their picture to prove to Shari that we saw them! I cannot imagine how weird her poor parents must have thought we were!
Following Chocolate World we went to Red Robin to eat and then back to the hotel.
Another great day!

Day 1 and 2 Highlights:
The beautiful ride into Pennsylvania
Gettysburg Tour
Boyd Bear Heaven
Swimming with Chloe and Trevor singing songs and being silly
Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate!

Nothing could have prepared us for Wednesday, though. Stay tuned for more... :)