Gettysburg, Hershey and Liberty Bell

I now realize that it is gonna take me forever to get caught up! Especially now that school has started :( I will try my best though :) Ok, so since I am of course still playing catch-up, I am combining Gettysburg with Hershey Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell. Gettysburg was a pretty neat experience, we went on a driving tour, we had a CD that explained everything for us. There were memorials/statues and huge headstones ALL over the place. 

North Carolina Memorial :)

After Gettysburg we went to Hershey Pennsylvania, which I found out doesn't really exist? Weird.. I know and I don't exactly know how to explain it, so I would suggest to you if your curious to Google it :) That's what I always do; me and Google are like BFF's now. Moving on though, I was super duper excited for Hershey! What person in their right mind doesn't love chocolate right? ;)

Welcome to Heryshey! It's kinda funny cause me and Hope were talking about the "castle-like building" up on the hill
 and it turns out to be the town's middle school.. i was like WHAAA?!! I wish I could go to school in a cool looking building.... :)

Yup, Chocolate World.. be jelous ;) 

We went on a tour of Hershey, and we had a hilarious tour guide: Fred. He told us that Hershey is the sweetest place on Earth, even the air smells sweet, and is therefore the only place where you can breathe and get fat.

Milton Hershey's Birthplace!

Hershey Cocoa bushes! They also have chocolate geese in Hershey :) ok no they don't, but you know those geese that
have dark brown heads and necks, light brown backs, and white bellies? Well Fred told us that they were chocolate geese because they have Dark Chocolate Heads, Milk Chocolate Backs, and White Chocolate bellies :)

Hershey Kiss Lamp Posts!!! 

So I pretty much think that I would have the coolest address on the face of the planet if I lived on Chocolate Avenue.. 

One of the few places where this isn't creepy ;)

After eating lot's of chocolate and having fun in Hershey we quickly drove over to the Liberty Bell so that we could see it before it closed that day because it would be closed all weekend.. and that wouldn't work for us.

I only know about Pass and Stow cause of National Treasure... The whole time we were in D.C. I kept picturing
scenes from the movies :)

Next up: New York and New Jersey! 

Oh and guess what?? I counted all the states we're going to be going through and by the end of this trip I will have gone to 32 states! Before this trip I had only been to 6 states and Canada. Pretty awesome :)

Maryland and Washington D.C.

Since the beginning of our trip I have been super duper excited for our stop in Maryland! Mainly to see my AMAZING family, but seeing D.C. was cool too ;) Since I'm playing catch-up with my blogging I am combining our whole Maryland/ D.C. trip into one post. We stopped in Mechanicsville Maryland first and saw my grandparents, my Uncle Steve and Aunt Trudy, and saw my cousins Ceci, Zane, Noah and Stevie! When we first got there, we ate lunch and then went off to an Amish Market!! I have never seen Amish people in my whole life and it was..weird haha :)

looks fun right?? :)

We stayed 2 nights with my Aunt Trudy, and then went up to Waldorf (which is like only 40 minutes away) to see my Aunt Tina and Uncle Lincoln and my cousin McKay. We went into D.C. with my Aunt Tina a couple times and went on a tour around to see all the monuments.

U.S. Capitol

Smithsonian Castle

Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Statue

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal..."

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Eleanor Roosevelt 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. This one is new, and was apparently made in China?? How
come it couldn't be made in America?? Oh well.. still impressive

WWII Memeorial

:)

Korean Wall Memorial

Now THIS was awesome! The wall had face's carved into the whole thing and it was just..WOW!

Washington Monument or as my cousin Noah calls it "The Pencil" :)

Lincoln Memorial

"Fourscore and seven years ago.."

Vietnam Memorial 

Union Station

On Saturday, we (Uncle Lincoln, Aunt Tina, McKay, Mom, Hope, Tayler and I) went to the Arlington Cemetery, Imo Jima and the National Cathedral. 

Lee Mansion

Eternal Flame at the J.F.K. and his family Grave site

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, this was very cool to see. There is a guard at this memorial 24/7, my Uncle Lincoln
was telling us that this is the most prestigious military job.

Changing of the guard

Sorry for stealing your picture Aunt Tina but this picture makes me laugh EVERY time :D

McKay, Hope, Me and Tayler

Imo Jima Memorial

The Cathedral

Woodrow Wilson Grave inside the cathedral

I love stained glass windows!!!!

Mega Hinge!!!

View from the top of the cathedral!

front doors!

The White House

We also went to the D.C. Temple :)

Last day we went D.C. we went to the archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

We also went into this garden that had a bunch of modern art and stuff which was all kinda weird but this house was super cool! If you walked back and forth it changed from being inverted to.. the opposite of inverted lol. Anyways it was cool :)

When I see a sign that says "Do Not Touch Art" it just makes me REALLY REALLY wanna
touch the art. Unless it's a painting.. 

Next Up: Gettysburg