Penn

Last week we took a trip out to PA to see Andrews nephew graduate high school. Graduation is a Friday night. Last year, we left early on Thursday and our intent was to stay halfway but the kids fell asleep so we opted to keep on going. We stopped for dinner and booked a hotel nearby and they gave us a smoking room. We had to argue with them tooth and nail for two hours before they would refund our money...which left us no choice at this time to keep on going to Reading.

After that ordeal, we decided this time we would book a non smoking hotel (slight up-charge) and stay exactly half way and then finish the other part of the drive on Friday. This left me in the car less time and gave me time to stretch my legs. Our drive up was uneventful thank goodness, as being pregnant I can't take my regular dose of traveling pills. We stopped at our fabulous hotel (Fairfield Inn and Suites) ,and after my thorough check for bedbugs we got unpacked and headed for the pool. It was so nice to jump in and my stress just floated away. Wish I could get into the hot tub, but alas, I just watched my husband enjoy. The pool was nice and we had it all to ourselves. We swam for about and hour or so and headed upstairs to change for dinner. We were all kinda hungry. We ate at Hoss's which is pretty much like a Ponderosa and headed out to CVS to find Bubba some Tylenol as he was running quite a nasty fever. If your kids order a hotdog, they make a big deal about it, and "burn" their name in it.

 AFterwards, we headed back to the hotel for baths and calming down for the evening. We got the suite so the kids could fall asleep and we could watch TV in the other room....problem is...they weren't having any part of that. So we all went to sleep around 930. haha.

The hotel as a very nice breakfast included in the cost. They have fresh fruit, juices, coffee, waffles, pastries, biscuits, etc. We ate very nicely and for free...guessing it would have cost us about $30.00 or so at a restaurant. After breakfast we packed up for the remainder of our drive. My brother in law suggested a cute little "creekside" restaurant for lunch and ice cream around lunch time. The kids only had ice cream for lunch (imagine that). The ice cream was rather good. There is no place to sit inside so all you have are all these picnic tables that line the creek bed. We sat under some trees and enjoyed our lunch.

We passed a Peperidge Farm plant and decided to go check it out but they were only open to the public on Saturday/Sunday. So much for cheap goldfish. Afterwards, we turned the van toward Reading and found our new hotel. This hotel was much smaller--I couldn't even bathe the kids without shutting the door to the bathroom--but the beds were comfy. We checked in and headed right down to the pool to get some swim time in. The pool wasn't as nice as the previous nights hotel, but it did the job and the kids had fun swimming with Uncle Doug. We decided to get out and head to an early dinner at TGI Fridays. The kids did very well considering they were probably exhausted. AFter a quick bite, we went back to the hotel to get Andrew and Tatum ready for the graduation. Bubba and I were staying at the hotel since there is NO way he was going to sit through a graduation ceremony after being in the car half the day. We got them out the door and put on our jammies and just when I thought we were done for the rest of the night, I realize, DUH...I forgot that we didn't have any water or drinks in the room and the vending machine was a cash only machine. So....off to the gas station we went to get some water but then we decided we were hungry as well so we drove back to TGI  Friday's to get some smoothies. It wasn't too long after we got back to the hotel that bubba kept saying he was tired. He laid down on the other bed and to sleep he fell! I was reading my book, but since I decided to turn off the lights so he could sleep I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress' and Facebooking the rest of the time. Andrew and Tatum didn't get back till around 1115 or so. I was conked by 1030. I had to have Andrew text me to so I could let him in.

Before we fell back asleep I was instructed that we would be meeting the family at Shady Maple for breakfast at 830. Oh my.

Shady Maple--let me just say. If you love breakfast and you love Amish food...this place is amazing. It has over 200 feet of food. There are the HUGE Amish doughnuts, make your own waffles, pancakes and omelets. Every breakfast food (including cereal) you could ever want. Juice, pop, milk, icees--you name it and it is there. I had an omelet this time, but the waffles are swwweeetttt! They have a gift shop at the bottom of the stairs so I let the kids pick out one thing to take in the car and then we headed back to Marcia's. We had hotel reservations that night so we didn't have to leave right away. We stayed until about 4ish. Which was kinda silly b/c although the kids played...Andrew and I slept. We barely talked to anyone. 

On our way back to the hotel we hit some nasty, nasty rain. You could hardly see the road and since we were on the turnpike and it was so level...there was no where for the water to go so people hydroplaned like crazy. It was kinda scary. We made it to our location and stopped at Pizza Hut to get some food since none of us had eaten since breakfast. We headed back to the hotel and got our pajamas on and watched some movie on the Disney Channel and fell quickly asleep. We finished up the rest of our drive on Sunday. We made good time, but we were so done being in the car.

I am glad the trip is over and we don't have to do it again for about three more years. I hate driving the mountains and hills and two lane highways. Glad the kids got to see their cousins, but wonder if the trip was really worth all that work. Wooh!