Philly in May - Part 3

Friday was a free day for us, so after sleeping in, we decided to make the most of it.  We headed our rental car (actually all they had left was a mini-van, much to Jordan's disgust) a few miles from our hotel, to Valley Forge.  It was beautiful!

Miles and miles of rolling hills and lush greenery, with small Revolutionary era cabins dotting the landscape.

As we drove and walked, we imagined the area covered with tents and more cabins as the soldiers wintered there so many years ago.

These days, the only things that winter there are deer, it seems.

and birds.

From there, we drove to Lancaster County, where we discovered the small town of Bird In Hand.  Settled in the midst of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture, was some of the most beautiful farmland I have ever seen.

We took a buggy ride through the area.

Unfortunately, our companions on the ride were a group of the most obnoxious, rude older adults that I have ever been around.  They were loud, made rude comments and were horribly insensitive throughout the journey.   We did our best to completely ignore them, but they definitely put a damper on the serene ride.  However, despite their unforgivable behavior, our host was incredibly kind and I couldn't help but wonder if the Amish people were onto something.

How peaceful and freeing to live that simple life, surrounded by such beauty.

Our next stop was Hershey, PA, the home of the Hershey Chocolate empire.  We went straight to Chocolate World, admiring the street lights throughout the town.  I'm thinking that living in Hershey must fell a little like living in a Disneyland set.

The factory tour turned out to be a Disney-like ride with singing cows taking us through the process of making candy.  It was a hoot.

We indulged ourselves by stepping into the art of designing our own chocolate bars.
Via computer screens, we each selected the base  . .

fillings (can you guess which one is mine?). . .

and toppings.

We even designed our own wrappers that were placed around our personalized tins of chocolate!  What fun!

 Before we returned to the hotel, we made a swing across the state line so that all of us could say for certain that we'd been in Delaware!