Philly, Family, & Chocolate

Thursday started early after a very short night (see previous post). I first headed to Trenton, NJ to see the State Capitol. It has a really beautiful gold dome on it. There was construction and trees galore so it was hard to get a shot of the full building, but I liked this one.

 This is the street the capitol is on and I LOVED the fall colors on the trees.

Then I headed to Philadelphia, I had been there once ten years ago and wanted to re-visit it and this time see Valley Forge and the LOVE statue. Valley Forge was first. It is very pretty and interesting to drive around. These log cabins are replicas of what the soldiers had.

 I loved these bunk beds, reminded me of a certain brothers' bedroom, minus the fireplace :)

Didn't I tell you it was very pretty... now you believe me?

Next stop - Philadelphia!

For my trips, I use my my maps app on my android phone and it is usually pretty terrific. But in Philadelphia, the roads are CRAZY and its more typical than not that 5 or more roads meet at an intersection, so I couldn't tell exactly which street I was supposed to be turning onto. This mistake led me onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and across the Delaware river away from Philadelphia. Thankfully my map knows how to "reroute" REALLY well, this is not the first time I didn't follow exactly as I should have :)

The bridge was a nice detour, it was a very pretty light blue and had a great view. After I rerouted and finally got into the city, I found parking for a whopping $16 but I couldn't find anything cheaper. I wandered around the historic district and saw Liberty Bell, the tower where it originally hung is in the background under construction.

 As I wandered, I came across the Philly Bourse - full of shops and restaurants.

 I went inside and had a Philly Cheesesteak, in Philadelphia!!! They always sounded kind of gross to me, but it was actually much better than I was expecting. I actually enjoyed it. 

Look carefully in the center of this photo, on the other side of the tunnel is a white frame, outlining the house Benjamin Franklin lived in. Good 'ol Ben walked this very passageway everyday to his office, which was just to the left of this side of the passageway. With less than a two mile drive, I thought I had the best commute, his wasn't even a block!

The white portion of the building was Betsy Ross' home and workplace. It was so tiny inside, the outside is definitely deceiving.

 I loved this building right downtown Philadelphia, nothing has reminded me more of Paris. This picture doesn't do it justice, it was just BEAUTIFUL!

 And FINALLY I was there! I thought this LOVE statue was SO MUCH BIGGER, but it was still fun to pose with it in the city of brotherly love.

Then I was off to Burke, VA. Why there, I've never heard of that place, what's there? To answer all the questions - my brother Ben, his wife Brynn, and two cute kids Dane and Neve. But before I got to them I had to deal with HORRENDOUS traffic pretty much all the way from Philadelphia to D.C. and it just got worse the closer I got to D.C. Because of the very long day and crazy traffic I forgot to get any pictures of my family. It was a short visit but very good to see them. We had yummy thai food and chatted, Ben and I ran a couple errands, I needed gloves for when I got to New York and I wanted some hot chocolate. We came back and I watched Revenge with Brynn, I'm glad she likes that show as much as me. Then I finally crash.
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Friday morning Dane left for school before I got up and Brynn told me of her conversation with him. But first some background, Dane is a tough one to please, you have to earn his love. He's smart though and I think he does this on purpose knowing, the more he ignores me, the more I'll pay attention to him and beg for his affection. All Thursday night I think I only managed to get a very weak high five and maybe a "hi."
So back to the morning conversation, Dane asks his mom, "how long is Aunt Elizabeth staying?" (I'm surprised he remembers my name, I typically see them once a year.)
Brynn, "She's leaving today, she'll be gone before you get home from school."
Dane, "NO FAIR, I only got to see her last night!" YES!!! He DOES like me, that little stinker.
Neve on the other hand LOVES to be ALL UP in your space. I was showering and she comes into to use the toilet and then stays to have a lovely chat while I shower, dry off, try to stay covered, and do my make-up. She Thursday night had asked to sit in my lap as she was already crawling into it and cuddled with me. Those two are total extremes and I love them, they are too cute! I'm so glad I got to see them. And I'm sorry Dane I left so soon, I promise I will visit again and stay a bit longer.
I left this cute family and headed to see the Washington D.C. temple real quick. I had seen pictures but never in person and so many people talked about how incredible it was. It was impressive but still not my favorite.

I then headed to Baltimore to see one of the oldest B&O train stations and the B&O museum. This train stop is in a little town just outside of Baltimore and is super cute.

Here is the inside of the B&O Museum and where the trains were built and repaired for years. You can see the track on the floor and the center is a big rotating circle. My favorite thing, the GIANT nutcrackers, I want them for my collection!

 Here is the very first passenger train, the men road inside and the women on top, RUDE! But still they are cute, shaped after the only thing they knew, the stagecoach.

 Here is the mail room of a train. The postmaster would let down a hook thing and try to catch the bag of mail from a pole as the train went by places they weren't stopping. About 50% of the time, he just ended up ripping the bag and sending mail flying everywhere. Once mail was picked up it was sorted here and repacked to be literally tossed off at the appropriate place. "Handle with care" was definitely not a concern. But robbery was ALWAYS a concern and these mail rooms were hit constantly by thieves.

What a gorgeous train!

It was really fun and my personal volunteer tour guide knew a TON! I then went to see Edgar Allen Poe's house, it was cash only and I didn't have any but the guy let me in anyway. This was actually Edgar's aunt's house and only the portion from the white door to the right and about as deep as it was wide. This place was teeny tiny.

 That up-most window is to the attic room where Edgar stayed. I took this photo below from the stairs, the height of the room was even 5 feet at the tallest point. I think I would go crazy in a room this tiny.

 After his house, which is pretty much in the projects of Baltimore I went to the small graveyard nearby where he was buried. This marks the original spot.

 Then because he became famous after his death and there was damage to the cemetery, his grave was moved to a more prominent spot right near the front with a much nicer grave stone.

After the very interesting stops in Baltimore, I was off to Hershey, PA home of Hershey's Chocolate World! I thought it was a lot of fun, it is pretty expensive but I had a good time.

 They have a huge amusement park, closed during winter but filled with Christmas lights.

They give a free little tour of how they make their chocolate. In addition to that, I bought a trolley tour that had caroling and various visitors including Santa, a chocolate tasting, and a Make-your-own-candybar! It was all a lot of fun. Below is the chocolate tasting - they explained where they get their cocoa beans from for all fo their types of chocolate and how they should taste and feel. We even had the cold liquid chocolate that natives typically drink.

 Here is just a tiny view of the candy store where I waited before going on my trolley tour, it was overwhelming.

LOOK, there's my candybar!!! and my name, which if you didn't know I'm in love with.

Now it is emerging from that beautiful liquid.

 My hand-picked candy bar in my very own designed wrapper. Simply AMAZING!

Hershey is a small town and all the streets have cute names like Cocoa, Hershey, etc. Also down the main road the street lights are all kisses!

This I took right by the factory, which is the largest chocolate factory in the U.S. and the building is at least 1/3 a mile long. Its HUGE! Milton Hershey and his wife couldn't have children so they set up boy homes all over Hershey with house parents. They also set up a school and a college. Then Milton left his fortune to these programs/institutions. It just seemed like the most utopian little town. Though I did get a bit lost trying to drive around without my gps, very bad idea. I lost signal and it took me a bit to get going in the right direction. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Hershey but by this time, I was again behind schedule and had a few hours drive to my motel in upper New York.
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I followed my gps and about an hour out I realized I was going to need gas but was in the middle of nowhere and then where my map was taking me was under construction and completely blocked off. I lost signal and my gps could not reroute me. I turned and had to cross this little toll bridge and asked the old man there where the nearest gas station was. The directions were not the best and I headed into very dense, extremely deserted woods. I was praying, I was freaking out, I had no gps, it was almost 1am. I was in this state of lost, panic, trying to have faith for about 30 minutes. Longest 30 minutes of my life. Then I finally saw a city and GAS STATIONS, I've never been so happy and shortly after I got phone signal!!!! Tank filled, gps working, less than an hour and I arrived at my motel?
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Before I get out of the car my whole body is pulsing, I open the door and I feel like I've just stepped into a club. The motel's restaurant area holds a club on the weekends. Yeeeaaah for me! Not! Its 2am! I'm exhausted! Heavy, pulsating beats are not going to put me to sleep! I just hoped my room was far away, it was sort of far away and I guess I was tired enough because I went to sleep fairly fast despite the "club" I was staying at. Oh the adventures!