Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg and Hershey

Monday we planned to head to Pennsylvania.  There were so many options for day trips from Baltimore and it was hard to narrow down what to do. We packed as much into our time as possible for Monday and decided on the following schedule:
8-9 drive to Harpers Ferry
9-11 explore
11-12 drive to Gettysburg
12-2 explore
2-3 drive to Hershey
3-5 explore
5-6:45 drive back to Baltimore
This worked well with the parameters of when things were open (9-5), and splitting up the driving.  But of course only allowed us to experience a tiny portion of what we could have done if we had all day (or multiple days) at each place.

We got to harpers ferry 2 minutes too late.  As in Preston threw up in the car right before we pulled into the parking lot.  Luckily it wasn’t too stinky and I had wet wipes to clean him up.  I think he got carsick as he was coloring during the drive.  We went to the visitors center first to get Ethan's 4th grade national parks pass, but there wasn’t much to see there.  They recommend taking the shuttle to the lower town because of lack of parking, but the shuttle left right when we got there and we decided to drive to save time.  There was plenty of parking when we got there (but the lot looked full when we left 2 hours later). 

There was lots to see and we could have spent a whole day there, but managed to get to quite a bit in our budgeted time.  We crossed the river, stopped at the bookshop, information building (no more Jr. ranger books available as they had run out the day before), stone steps, church, Jefferson’s rock, confectionary shop and John brown museum. 

We were listening to a book “Flashback Four: The Lincoln Project” while we were driving which was talking about Gettysburg and helped the kids be interested.  Gettysburg should have be at least an all day place also, so we didn't do it justice-but I don’t know that the kids would have appreciated that long there.   

The 4th grade parks pass doesn't include most of the tours and we opted out of paying for any extras but instead chose to walk to the cemetery. We probably should have driven, I didn’t realize how far it would be or that there was parking right by it, it was cold and windy but good to walk after sitting in the car. The kids enjoyed being able to see where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address.  (And Preston has been quoting it ever since). :)

We then toured the Mills house which we all enjoyed.  The book was talking about Lincoln staying at the Mills house right as we were pulling up to go there.  There was a lot for the kids to see and explore which gave me time to read more the plaques displayed on the walls about the history.  We all left learning lots of new things.

And then on to Hershey.  The kids were the most excited for this part which is why I left it for the end of the day.  The 2 hours we scheduled was way more than we needed as it was not busy that day and we didn't have to wait.

  The chocolate tour (free) was quick with no lines.  We are ended up going twice. I had looked at prices ahead of time and debated paying for an activity there.  I ended up choosing the chocolate tasting which was excellent and engaging enough for all the kids to enjoy it.  They've been more mindful about eating chocolate since then.  The kids wanted to buy the whole gift shop, but it was expensive.  We got a few sale candy and an ornament and left to get back to Baltimore.

  We got back in time to pick up James and have dinner with him. We just ate breakfast and lunch while driving so it was mostly snacks.  For dinner we went to the Inner Harbor and ate at Pizzaria Unos while we filled James in on our adventures of the day.