I'm so behind on my blogging!!!!

Ugggg!   Traveling is so busy that we hardly have time to do anything but sightsee and drive!  After going to the 4 big cities of Washington DC, New York, Philidelphia, and Boston, I am so behind on my writing because we have been going, going, & going.  I am taking good notes, but the internet has been incredibly slow so uploading pictures and posts are very difficult.  Hopefully I will get caught up somehow but there is so much to write about.  Enjoy the posts as they come and await in anticipation the one's not done yet!!  :) 

Thurs. April 19th: PENNSYLVANIA: Lancaster Amish Country

Thursday, April 19^th, 2012

The first time that I saw an Amish family was on the Great Race with my dad driving through Missouri.  We were on the freeway and they were on the side of the freeway in their horse and buggy.  It is a very different way of life, but for them, it is their way of life.  Lancaster is one of the biggest counties for the Amish people and today we went to visit their farms. 

The Amish, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology. The history of the Amish church began with a group in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jacob Amman. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.   In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the most traditional descendants of the Amish continue to speak Pennsylvania Dutch.   They grow their hair long, men and woman wear special hats, women only wear dresses, and women only have long hair.  It is a very interesting way of life, and the Amish make pretty good money from the tourists who want to see how they live.  We took a wonderful horse and buggy ride for about 3 hours through their farms and shops. 

Their stores are full of incredible handmade items and food!

We bought some yummy homemade pretzels!

And rock candy!

Wed., April 18th: PHILIDELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

I am totally out of order with days so I'm going backwards a little . . . the internet has been awfully challenging with loading posts and pictures, so posting certain day's has been hard.   And trying to type posts daily is almost impossible with the schedule that we have set before us . . . so I have to catch up a little!!

Philadelphia is the birth place of our free and independent nation.  It’s where the first delegates that led our nation to liberty from Great Brittan met.   It has so much history and it was such a joy to be here.

The Liberty Bell was first heard in 1753 atop the Pennsylvania State House here in Pennsylvania.  And it was here that the colonial representatives took major steps toward independence from Great Britain.  The first time they rang the bell it cracked because is wasn’t made out of strong enough materials to with stand the pressure.  The crack is now a reminder that liberty is imperfect, and evolving. It is most known for “Declaring Liberty Throughout all the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.”

 

In response to Parliament’s  Intolerable Act, Sugar Act, Tea Act, and Stamp Act, the First Continental Congress gathered in September of 1774 in Carpenter’s Hall, where they drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances and an appeal to King George III.  We toured this building and saw were each member sat.  King George didn’t do anything about their requests and so the Second Continental Congress was formed in the State House in May of 1775.  The first shots at Lexington and Concord, and these delegates now had to direct a war.   Independence was not the original goal, because many were loyal to the king and wanted to keep the stability and security that came with being citizens of the British empire, but also wanted to change how King George controlled them with the taxes. King George III was unmoved by their requests and declared the colonies in a state of rebellion, sending more British soldiers to America.  In Jun 1776 Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee moved that the colonies be proclaimed “Free and Independent States.”  Thomas Jefferson drafted the formal declaration of Independence which was adopted in independence Hall on July 4^th, 1776.  In November 1777, Independence Hall produced the Articles of Confederation which served the new nation during the war.   But it had many inadequacies, and in  1787, fifty-five delegates met to revise the Articles for “the preservation of the union,”  and our United States Constitution was born in this very room.  George Washington was elected the leader of the Continental Congress and sat in the “Rising Sun” chair, symbolizing the birth of a new nation. 

Down a few blocks is the original home of Betsy Ross when she was commissioned by the Continental Congress to create a flag for our country.  We paid a small fee to tour the house and the best part was at the end where Betsy Ross sat sewing her flag.  She was adorable and did a great job explaining to all of us who she was, her family life, her sewing business, and the important job of sewing our countries flag.    She learned to sew from her great-aunt Sarah Elizabeth Ann Griscom.     After she finished her schooling at a Quaker public school, her father apprenticed her to an upholsterer named William Webster.    At this job, she fell in love with fellow apprentice John Ross,   The American Revolution War broke out when the two had been married for two years. It was at this time that the Continental Congress asked Betsy to make a flag.  She has always been know as Betsy Ross even though she was married two more times.  As a member of the local militia, John Ross was assigned to guard munitions and was killed by a gunpowder explosion. The 24-year-old widowed Betsy worked in the upholstery business repairing uniforms and making tents and blankets and stuffed paper tube cartridges with musket balls in 1779 for the Continental Army.    They say that Betsy was the "beautiful young widow" who distracted Carl VonDonop in Mount Holly, New Jersey, after the Battle of Iron Works Hill, thus keeping his forces out of the Battle of Trenton.     On June 15, 1777, she married her second husband, mariner Joseph Ashburn. Ashburn's ship was captured by a British frigate in 1780.    He was charged with treason and imprisoned in England. While Ashburn was in prison, , their first daughter, Zilla, died at nine months of age and their second daughter, Eliza, was born. Ashburn died of an unknown illness in a British jail.    In May 1783, she married an old friend, John Claypoole. The couple had five daughters. With the birth of their second daughter, they moved to a larger house on Second Street. After two decades of poor health, Claypoole died in 1817. Ross continued the upholstery business for 10 more years.

To be continued!!

Tuesday, April 17th: PENNSYLVANIA: Hershey World

Tueday April 17th, 2012,

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate . . .  today is fill with Chocolate!  We are going to Hershey World created by one and only Milton Hershey.   We did a chocolate unit study about 3 years ago and studied Mr. Hershey as part of it.  Ever since I learned about his life I’ve wanted to come to Hershey, Pennslyvania.  He was a fascinating person and he made a huge impact on Brandon because he always uses him as one of his impromptu speech examples.  Milton Hershey had several failures, but that didn’t stop him . . . he pressed on to become not only one of America’s wealthiest individuals, but also a successful entrepreneur whose products are known all over the world.  He is a great example of perseverance.  He was raised in rural central Pennsylvania, without a formal education, and was nearly bankrupt by the time he was 30.  He was also a visionary builder of the Hershey town and his generosity continues to touch the lives of thousands even today.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate . . .  today is fill with Chocolate!  We are going to Hershey World created by one and only Milton Hershey.   We did a chocolate unit study about 3 years ago and studied Mr. Hershey as part of it.  Ever since I learned about his life I’ve wanted to come to Hershey, Pennslyvania.  He was a fascinating person and he made a huge impact on Brandon because he always uses him as one of his impromptu speech examples.  Milton Hershey had several failures, but that didn’t stop him . . . he pressed on to become not only one of America’s wealthiest individuals, but also a successful entrepreneur whose products are known all over the world.  He is a great example of perseverance.  He was raised in rural central Pennsylvania, without a formal education, and was nearly bankrupt by the time he was 30.  He was also a visionary builder of the Hershey town and his generosity continues to touch the lives of thousands even today.

As we entered the visitor center there was a free ride that shows the chocolate making process out of the Cocoa bean.  It reminded me of a Disneyland ride for younger kids.  It was adorable. 

Next,  Shelley and I signed up for the chocolate tasting class, so we went into a special little room and sat at the table with a table mat, a bag full of chocolate, and a chocolate drink.  She told us all about the history of the cocoa bean and how it becomes chocolate.  Then she made us put our 5 different types of chocolate on our mat.  We were told that it is very important to look, small, listen, and then taste the chocolate to help determine the different flavors.  It was a fun class

After we were done with the class we let the kids do a make your own chocolate something and they all choose a make your own sundae.  They got to pick their 3 toppings and they had a blast.  While they were waiting for their sundaes to be brought out, she gave them white chocolate paint to  decorate the table paper with.   

We made them stuff it down so that we could make it on time to our Trolley ride around Hershey Town, which was fabulous.  The tour guide had been a teacher at the Hershey Institute for boys for 29 and now does these tours.  It was obvious that he loved his job.  He told us the whole history of Milton Hershey and how, and why he created this town.

This is his story in a nutshell:

Hershey company originated with Milton Hershey’s decision in 1894 to produce sweet chocolate as a coating for his caramels. Located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the new enterprise was named the Hershey Chocolate Company. In 1900, the company began producing milk chocolate in bars, wafers and other shapes. With mass production, Hershey was able to lower the per-unit cost and make milk chocolate, once a luxury item for the wealthy, affordable to all. One early advertising slogan described this new product as “a palatable confection and a most nourishing food.”

The immediate success of Hershey’s low-cost, high-quality milk chocolate soon caused the Milton to consider increasing his production facilities. He decided to build a new chocolate factory on the farmland of south-central Pennsylvania in Derry Township, where he had been born. Close to the ports of New York and Philadelphia that supplied the imported sugar and cocoa beans needed, surrounded by dairy farms that provided the milk required, and with a local labor supply of honest, hardworking people, the location was perfect. By the summer of 1905, the new factory was turning out delicious milk chocolate.

Looking to expand its product line, the company in 1907 began producing a flat-bottomed, conical milk chocolate candy that Mr. Hershey decided to name HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolates. At first, they were individually wrapped in little squares of silver foil, but in 1921 machine wrapping was introduced. That technology was also used to add the familiar “point” at the top to signify that this was a genuine HERSHEY’S KISSES Chocolate. In 1924, the company even had it trademarked.

Throughout the next two decades, even more products were added including MR. GOODBAR Candy Bar (1925), HERSHEY’S Syrup (1926), HERSHEY'S chocolate chips (1928) and the KRACKEL bar (1938). Despite the Great Depression of the 1930s, these products helped the Hershey Chocolate Corporation maintain a profit and avoid any worker layoffs.

He believed, along with the more forward-thinking industrialists of the age, that workers who were treated fairly and who lived in a comfortable, pleasant environment would be better workers. Consequently, he started building a town to take care of the people who were employed by his company. He had plans drawn up for a model community that included housing for executives and ordinary workers, schools, churches, parks, recreational facilities and a trolley system. Unlike other “company towns,” Hershey’s was intended to provide for their welfare. As time went on, Hershey saw to it that the town (named Hershey,

For the farm boy who never had much chance at education himself, providing that opportunity for others was always an important priority. As early as 1909, Hershey and his wife, Catherine, who were unable to have their own children,  , established the Hershey Industrial School, a school for orphan boys. Today named the Milton Hershey School, it has since opened its doors to girls as well. He also made sure that the town of Hershey had the finest elementary and secondary schools possible.  . In 1918  Hershey transferred the bulk of his considerable wealth, including his ownership in the Hershey Chocolate Company and other enterprises, to the Hershey Trust to be given to the Hershey Industrial School.   He was quite a generous man and when the guide was talking about him dying with nothing and they he gave it all away to people who needed it, I had tears in my eyes.  That is truly the way life should be!!

In 1923, a former Hershey employee named H.B. Reese decided to start his own candy company out of the basement of his home. He made several different kinds of candy, but it wasn’t until five years later that he hit upon his greatest idea: a confection of peanut butter covered by milk chocolate.   During World War II, he discontinued his other product lines and concentrated on producing only REESE’S peanut butter cups.

Even though it had  only a single product, Reese’s company prospered, and in 1963 the H.B. Reese Candy Company was purchased by the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Since then, the REESE’S product line has grown to include REESE’S PIECES candies, the NUTRAGEOUS candy bar and REESESTICKS

During WWII the military troops  needed a ration bar that weighed about four ounces, would not melt at high temperatures, was high in food energy value, and did not taste so good that soldiers would be tempted to eat it except in an emergency. This last objective in particular was certainly a new one for the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. Nevertheless, its chocolate technologists came up with something that passed all tests.    Named “Field Ration D,” it was so successful that by the end of 1945, approximately 24 million bars were being produced every week. More successful still was HERSHEY’S Tropical Chocolate Bar, a heat resistant bar with an improved flavor developed in 1943. In 1971, this bar even went to the moon with Apollo 15.

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Today, The Hershey Company is the leading North American manufacturer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery and grocery products.    HERSHEY’S products are known and enjoyed all over the world.   In fact, the company exports to over 90 countries, with approximately 13,700 employees and net sales in excess of $4 billion..

With the death of Milton Hershey in 1945, the company, town and institutions that bear his name were well positioned to continue and grow.     The Milton Hershey School, along with Hershey’s amusement park, hotel, neighborhoods, , has expanded and prospered, with the school housing and educating hundreds of boys and girls. In a long and useful life, Milton S. Hershey proved himself to be a courageous entrepreneur, a determined builder and a compassionate man. 

I loved seeing Chocolate World today and I’ll never forget the type of man Milton Hershey was.  Praise God for wonderful people like him who show the love the Jesus wants us to show daily!

Monday, April 16th: PENNSYLVANIA: Gettysburg

Yahoo, Brandon is here for the first day of his trip!!  And our KOA is lovely.  It has a beautiful private, protected parking area with a wooden swing at our site.  The bathrooms are clean and they play music in them constantly.   I think it’s the best one yet.  Also it’s going to be 85 today . . . hot again!! 

Today we are going to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  It is now a National Park.  It has a  huge visitor center with a very well done movie (narrated by Morgan Freeman – I love him as an actor), a  cyclorama, an incredible museum, and wonderful gift shop. 

We first watched the movie and .after it was over, we walked upstairs to the cyclorama which is a circular painting depicting the events that took place at Gettysburg.    We waited a few minutes and then the lights went off, as the cyclorama lit up with a recording of each of the battles that took place during the 3 days.  It was an incredible presentation.  The cyclorama is 358 feet around, and 42 feet high.  It was painted in 1884 and is the largest painting in North America.  It was unbelievably painted in less than a year.  It was first in Boston, and then brought to this Gettysburg site on the 100^th anniversary of Gettysburg. 

Before July 1-3, 1863, Gettysburg was a quiet, quaint little town,  But on July 1^st General Lee marched his troops into town, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it.  The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, and was a Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the war's bloodiest battle with 51,000 casualties. It was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's infamous "Gettysburg Address".

The park is set up as a driving tour and we rented the tape to listen in our car as we stopped at each site.  It was awesome to listen to the battle in detail of each of the three days. Along the way, each stop has some kind of memorial statues or more of all the fighting that took place between both sides. 

Day one, July 1^st, the Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford.  However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south .  Soon they were reinforced with two corps of Union infantry.

On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy attack on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard  - we drove to each of these sights.

On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle.  

We did the Junior Ranger program on the happenings of the third day. 

General Lees statue representing all the types of men who fought in the Confederate Army - farmers, business men, lawyers, boys, blacksmiths, etc. 

Gettysburg was incredible and wonderfully done.  All of the deaths during this battle were not in vain as they fought for our freedom.  As Morgan Freeman put it in the movie, America was very concerned about "Liberty but not about human bondage. "   The men of the Civil War were fighting for what they believed in.  It's sad that there is sin and evil in the world and such drastic measures have to be taken to resolve an difficult issue.  But Jesus also had to take the drastic measure of dying  on the cross to give us freedom & life in Christ (John 3:16) because of sin in the world.     And someday when Jesus returns He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain and destruction, because He is making all things new - Rev. 21:4-5   Hallaluja - Praise the Lord!! 

Sunday April 15th: WEST VIRGINIA: Harpers Farry & Antietam

Sunday April 15^th, 2012

Harpers Ferry and Antietum National Battle Field

Harpers Ferry KOA provided a wonderful free pancake breakfast.  We hit the jackpot because they do it only on Sat. & Sunday.  Also a very clean campground, but a tons of bugs.  Can’t complain because it’s the first place that we really have experienced any bugs!! 

A beautiful day – hot but not too hot.

Harpers Ferry was established in the 1790’s when the United States Armory and Arsenal transformed it from a wilderness to an industrial center.  Between 1799 and the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, the armory produced over 600,000 muskets, rifles, and pistols, and had over 400 workers.  The armory produced the first U.S. military rifle (the Model 1803flintlock and the first percussion rifle.   By the summer of 1860 it was a vibrant, thriving community with seven combination dry goods/hardware stores, four men’s clothing stores, five shoemakers, four tailors, four taverns, and six churches lining the narrow streets and competed among the 3000 people.  Farmers and butchers filled the market place with fresh cut produce and meats and trains delivered fresh seafood from the Chesapeake Bay.  The major business was still the U.S. Armory musket factory and rifle factory making about 10,000 rifles and muskets a year for American soldiers to defend our growing country. 

In October of 1859, John Brown attempted to seize the 100,000 rifles and muskets stared at Harpers Ferry as a first step in his revolutionary scheme to abolish slavery.  His plan failed when local militia and a regimen of marines under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, ordered by President Buchanan, seized Broun and killed or captured all of his raiders, three of which were his sons.  He was later hung for tyranny, but his actions made an impact on the start of the Civil War. 

On the east end of the town where the Potomac River and the Shenandoah River  meet, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland all meet together.  We walked out there and stood in the area and watched the rivers come together.   Running over the Potomac River was an old tresel bridge and all of a sudden a big old train came roaring by.  That was awesome!! 

We hurried up the road about 20 minutes so we could see Antietam National Park.  It is called the “bloodiest one day battle” of the civil war because there were so many casualties within minutes of battle..  Lee marched his 40,000 Virginian  troops into the battlefield on September 17, 1862.    It was a beautiful piece of  property and very peaceful now, but I could just imagine what it looked like them.    We pulled over at the south end to make dinner and let the kids run around.  We had a wonderful little picnic with our dinner sitting outside enjoying the wonderful weather.  The lookout tower had a beautiful view of the fields, and the bloody trench was right along the walk way.  We made the kids lay in it as if they were soldiers that were shot because that’s what this trench was full of when the battle was over.  Pictures on the information plaques were heart wrenching!! 

After leaving Antetem we drove to get Brandon at Harrisburg airport.  This was the first time ever that he flew by himself and he made it!  Yahoo.  Grandma and Grandpa got him off in San Francisco and he had to make the connecting flight all by himself, and he did it!!  It was so great to have him – everyone was excited to see him!!   

Sat. April 14th: MARYLAND: Annapolis

Annapolis Maryland is the most beautiful, quaint little town, that I think I would love to live here.  It’s the site of our nations first capitol where George Washington worked when he was President.  The buildings are all brick, and absolutely beautiful!

We met up with Shelley’s friend Jenna who is in her Junior year at Annapolis.  She walked us through the downtown first on the way to the College campus.  We went to the most authentic Starbucks building that I’ve ever been to . . .   it was down underneath the cobblestone buildings, and the inside was the original brick.  I don’t know what the building was before Starbuck’s but it once was part of the Underground Railroad. 

Next we walked by the Tavern where Ben Franklin would always go!

Then we entered the Annapolis campus from the downtown area. 

Janae, is blessed this year because Juniors do not have to wear her uniform on weekends.  All freshman and sophomores have to wear their uniform 7 days a week, so we was saw many handsome Navy “plebes” walking around downtown in their very professional navy uniforms.  She showed us where she ate, what her room looks like (she couldn’t take us to it but there was a model of it in the main building), where her room is from the outside, where her classes are, where they have fitness drills, and best of all where the gift store is. 

At the end of the day we walked back through Annapolis and decided to eat at Chick and Ruth's because Janae said it was great, and we were starving.   It is also famous for being on Man vs. Food and is known for their 3 pound burgers and 6 pound milk shakes.  Wow!!    Our waiter Adam was hysterical and he talked like Wooton on
Adbentures in Oddesey.    He talked our heads off and kept making the kids laugh!!  We didn't get the 3 pound hamburger but Dave ordered their famous Pastrami sandwich, Brooke ordered their famous waffles, Brittany ordered their huge langagna, and I ordered an amazing chickend wrap!  A great little hole in the wall type resturant with nationally known food.  Amazing!  Also, the resturant is know for doing the national anthem every morning at 8:30 am and anybody can join them.  The owner started the tradition 30 years ago and they still do it everyday to honor those who serve our country.  What an wonderful tribute!!

After dinner we weren't full enough because we just had to go the their famous ice cream shop downtown that was totally packed with people to get some yummy ice cream on their homemade waffle cones.  I guess Brooke gets two kinds of waffles tonight!!  I was amazing and well worth the wait!

What a beautiful day and the temperature was perfectly amazing.   I think I loved Annapolis and could live there.  Don't know what it's like in the winter, but the weather couldn't have been better today, and the homes are beautiful too!!