We woke up to a rainy morning in Washington Dulles, VA on Saturday, and it was like that for most of the morning.
The route we took along the countryside was a nice change of scenery. There was so much green, and my aunt jokingly said all the trees together looked like salad.
The roads were covered in thin sheets of rain, and the asphalt was slightly shiny from the light moisture.
Michael announced we were in Pennsylvania at 8:07 a.m. and I felt as excited as a 5-year-old getting candy on Halloween.
Why?
Because our first stop of the day was Hershey’s Chocolate World! (And c’mon, who doesn’t love chocolate?)
We went on a ride that showed the ropes of how chocolate is processed.
(Unfortunately, low lighting = crappy photos :()
I didn’t bother buying any chocolate because they’re sold at grocery stores anyway. But I did get a small packet of chocolate almond samples at the end of the ride 🙂
The one thing I dislike about guided tours is that you barely have time to absorb the beauty of the places on the itinerary. Typically Michael would ask us to get back to the bus within 15 to 20 minutes of getting off of it. We only had that much time to be at Times Square and the memorials in Washington DC. Sure, I got some cool photos and I get to say I’ve been to those places, but as far as actually soaking up the fact I’d been there? Nuh-uh.
I absorbed as much as I could, and every place we saw is still vivid in my mind. But it would have been nice to have had more time there. (Of course the tour company has to put as much on the agenda as they can to make it worth everyone’s money. I just would have liked more time at certain places.)
We stopped by a place called Loyalsock in Pennsylvania to eat. (I had no idea such a city existed. Who has ever heard of Loyalsock???)
Then we went to Corning, NY to visit the Corning Museum of Glass.
There was also a live glass show. The guy who demonstrated had been blowing glass for 13 years, and it was fascinating watching him swing it back and forth to elongate it. The glass had to be kept at over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise it would crack and break.
Driving up through northern New York is much more peaceful than it is in Manhattan. It’s also a lot greener.
We got to our last destination of the day, which was so beautiful: Niagara Falls.
More on the falls will follow on Wednesday 🙂
(Side note: I actually saw the Wells Fargo Center on July 14. I mistakenly included it in the previous entry because we had also been in Pennsylvania then.)