Cape May & the Jersey shore!

We are here! It wasn't to bad of a drive through the city of Philadelphia to get here.  We hit a few traffic jams on the way down but once we got past the city it was pretty smooth sailing.  The campground on the other hand is very tight!  It was like threading a needle to put the camper into its spot!  As you can see from the photo there are trees and fences everywhere.  With Karen's help backing me up and a little patience we got it in.  After getting the camper situated we went into the city of Cape May.  There is a nice little downtown area full of shops for kids and adults with fudge shops, beach item shops, Jewelry and the list goes on.  We spent a couple hours strolling through the shops and keeping the kids from buying everything.  After the shops we drove down to the beaches and let the kids stretch their legs a little and see the water.  Kaylee and Bryson were so excited because some kids at the beach had found a couple of Horseshoe Crabs!  Kaylee was all about holding them but Bryson wasn't as keen on it.  From there we traveled to the Wildwood Boardwalk to get a bite to eat.  After some Jersey pizza we checked out a few of the shops  and then came back to our home for the night, because we needed to be up early to go back to Philadelphia for a couple of shows for Natural Balance.  We set the alarm for 5:00am (Cringe) and went to bed!  Up and at it and in the truck by 6:15am and heading to Philadelphia with Norm and the kids.  The 1st shoot was at 9:15am and Karen and Norman did great!  From their we had to be in west Philadelphia for a 5:00pm shoot!  That left us with a dilemma of how to kill 5-6 hours before that show.  We checked out a few places, some nice, some not so nice and ended up at a nice park called Wissahickon on a beautiful river!  We walked the path next to river and stumbled upon a nice little restaurant named the Valley Green Inn, so we decided to have a late lunch on the front porch.  From there we went to the final shoot of the day in which they both did a great job once again!  Back through the city and a slight detour back into city for some Philly Cheese Steaks and ice cream at the famous Franklin Fountain! The thought of going back into the city on Friday night at 6:00pm was making me uneasy, because I had just made it out of the city without a scratch! The cheesesteaks were great and the ice cream did not disappoint, so from there it was time to head home.  We landed back home at 9:30 pm and lights out at 10:30pm!  That my friends is a long but great day!

New Jersey Here we come!

Well once again its time to move on to another place.  We had a great time in Pennsylvania with the Amish culture, and great time in the city of Philadelphia.  We finished our stay with a visit to Dutch Wonderland for the kids and a tour of the Harley-Davidson assembly plant.  The kids had a great time at Dutch Wonderland as it is geared to kids under 12 years old and it has a water park incorporated into it.  Thank God for that, because 94 degree temperature was starting to wear us down half way through the day!  We were at the park at 10:00 am when it opened and stayed to 5:30pm just short of closing time.  We felt the kids needed a break from all the colonial history, Amish living and city history! This morning we woke and traveled to the Harley-Davidson plant and I took a tour of the factory - no kids under 18 year of age are allowed.  Its probably a good thing I went alone, because Kaylee leaned over during a short film and said "Daddy, this is boring".  Karen took the kids to a short factory tour of a local soap company and met up with me an hour later.  From there we went back to the campground, packed up and moved to "Beachcomber" campground in Wildwood, New Jersey.   We will be hitting the beaches of the Jersey Shore tomorrow!



Philadelphia

The stairs from the "Rocky" movie!

Today was a great day in Philadelphia!  We started the day with a double-decker tour bus ride that lasted for 1-1/2 hours.  The bus's second floor had no roof so we sat up there and kids really enjoyed being outside.  We had Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches for lunch and then found some soft serve ice cream.  We then walked around and just took in all the unbelievable architecture!  City Hall was Karen's favorite, she discovered she loves French 2nd Empire Architecture and the Mansard Roofs.  Disney World's Liberty square is modeled after this.
We finally saw the Liberty Bell toward the end of the day and got a few pics of it with the kids! 

The city was amazing with all its history and beautiful buildings!  We could easily take another 2 or 3 days and not even scratch the surface of what this city has to offer. Its becoming clear to Karen and me, that there is so much to see in this country that we have to get a general overview of each place, then move onto the next, so that we can stay on track of seeing the west before the bad weather starts!  Its a rough life-- but someone has to do it!

Another beautiful day!

 Well we started off today by taking a few pictures of the campground grist mill and covered bridge.  There are so  many things to see here I think we will be extending our stay a few extra days.  From there we went to Hershey Pennsylvania to visit The Hershey Chocolate Museum.  We did the "Chocolate Lab" tour, where we all learned about the Cacao beans and where they are grown. Then we got to taste all the beans from different parts of the world.  At the end we all were able to make our own candy bar!  This would be the reason we are wearing the stylish hair nets!  Boy I picked a day to let the goatee grow out!  After the lab, we went over to "Chocolate World" and rode an amusement ride similar to "Pirates of the Caribbean", but all about chocolate production.  Everyone enjoyed the ride!  On the way home, we went to the Intercourse Pretzel Factory, where the kids got a brief tour on how to roll and twist the dough to make pretzels.  This was a good time for me to take a short bench break and watch all the Amish ride from place to place in their horse and buggies.  As the day winded down we headed back to the campsite and cooked some brats and locally made sweet sausage on the grill for dinner. Right before we sat down at the picnic table to eat dinner the Amish people came into campground selling home baked goods and quilts!  I thought some home made root beer and pumpkin bread we be good for an after dinner snack!