The Crayola Factory

Today we made a bit of a schedule change. It was cloudy, cool , and a bit rainy this morning with the rain scheduled to move toward the east and the beach we are planning on going to in New Jersey. We had planned to go to the beach today and then leave the beach to hit Easton, PA tonight. Since the weather didn't get the memo, we drove up to Easton today and spent the afternoon in the Crayola Factory. Just like Chocolate World, this wasn't a tour of the actual nearby factory but a hands-on interactive play center and museum with tons of crayons, chalk, markers, modeling clay and other activities to let the kids explore their creative side. One of the highlights was a mock-up of the factory floor with real working equipment where the workers actually made some red crayons and orange markers right in front of us and gave them away fresh. The markers were so fresh with ink that you could watch as it slowly seeped into the nib. Alex even got to apply a label to a crayon with their special non-toxic glue - cornstarch and water. They've been making crayons in this town for 103 years and they're still going strong. We ended with a trip through the huge Crayola Store and got a box of 120 crayons and quite a few Christmas/birthday presents.

Sesame Place

We spent the last 2 days here exploring Sesame Place, a theme park near Philadelphia based on the TV show Sesame Street. The park has traditional theme park rides, though most are scaled down so kids can ride them, as well as numerous water slides and other water rides. We naively thought we'd have a "dry" day and a "wet" day, but we smartly packed our swimsuits just in case. The first day was hotter and we should have spent more time in the water, but we pretty much played from opening until closing. Aaron's favorite ride was a large raft that we all rode in down a series of slides into lower pools until a final plunge to the bottom. Everyone at the bottom would have thought he hated it because he started screaming as soon as we took off his life jacket because he wanted to go again. Alex also found a water slide he liked where he rode down on a tube over and over again. Alex also rode his 1st roller coaster, but one trip was enough for him. There were places for them to run and climb and live shows for us to sit and cool our jets while the characters performed for us. We got to pose by several of the characters. Telly even matched Alex's wacky pose for a great Kodak moment. It was a long road to get here, but we'd love to come back again someday. The question will be whether the kids have outgrown it by the time we're ready to do it again.

Riding a Duck up the Delaware

The next day we drove into Philadelphia, PA with lots of time to spare. The desk staff at the Courtyard Marriot in Langhorne, PA gave us an extra large room so the kids would have room to wiggle. We quickly unpacked (including pulling in the chocolate from Hershey that now had to survive the rest of the vacation without melting) and looked at some brochures from the lobby. We passed up a nap to spend the afternoon touring Philly. We hadn't planned on spending a lot of time checking out the history of the city because we felt it would be boring for the boys at this age. But we felt it was a very important city to our country and that it would be a shame if we were this close and didn't try to see something historical. Becky found the perfect cross between history tour and fun ride. Ride the Ducks offers an open air bus tour of downtown Philadelphia that culminates in a drive INTO the Delaware River where a motor engages and pushes our floating bus up and down the river for a waters-edge tour of the city shore. As we predicted, the tour part bored the boys, but they perked up for the boat ride. Aaron thought every floating object was a fish and had a blast naming the color of every "fish" that he saw, including one shaped like a bowling pin. We got shots of Independence Hall and the Battleship New Jersey among others. We all got our own "quacker" that sounded like a duck call that we could entertain passersby with - though we had to follow the rule "No quacking when the captain's yakking." We thought it was a fun way to spend our free afternoon in Philly. Now I need to go watch National Treasure again.

More Famous Than Jefferson

We're not sure which one of us will become a more famous President than Jefferson (I'd bet on the kids), but if you want a preview of what that would be like - here you go.

Chocolate World in Hershey, PA

The next day we got up and drove a short jaunt to Hershey, PA. Apparently the town used to give a tour of the actual chocolate factory nearby, but they've since built a separate tourist attraction for showing us how they make the chocolate. In the top picture, you can see the sign for Chocolate World (or as Aaron says it, CHOCKLIT WULD!!!!). We ate lunch in the Kit Kat cafe and then took the Great American Chocolate Tour which was a Disney-style ride with animatronic singing cows (providing the milk for the milk chocolate) and really took us through every stage of milk chocolate making from beans to wrappers. We got a picture at the end looking very excited to be there. We put the kids to work at the Factory Works Experience where they got ID badges and work hats, pictured above, and they put kisses in a container, gave them a "chocolate shake" and put them on a conveyor belt. We saw a 3-D show about the history of Hershey and then snacked and shopped in a huge Marketplace. This has been one of the most memorable moments of the trip so far. Exhausted, we checked into a nearby hotel and ate at a local pizza joint.

Idlewild - Carousel

As our last stop before dinner, we rode a huge carousel. It even had its own organ complete with percussion. You can see it on the video.

Idlewild - Life Is A Highway

Idlewild - Racoon Lagoon

After getting off of the trolley, we had a blast in Racoon Lagoon. This area was devoted to amusement park rides sized down for younger kids. You might find these in a county fair, but they seemed much safer and cleaner and the operators all had teeth. There were hand-cranked cars, bumper cars, and tracked motor cars, planes, boats, buses, and mini-roller coasters. We spent the bulk of the day here. The lines were short, so they rode many of the rides over and over. As you can see from the pictures, they could ride many of them together with just the two of them in the vehicle. It was amazing to see such a large area devoted to smaller rides, and it made us want to go back.

Idlewild - The Land of Make Believe

After lunch on a picnic table under the trees, we took a side trip to the nearby Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – The Land of Make Believe - ride. This was our longest wait all day, but it wasn’t too bad. Becky and I grew up watching Fred Rogers on PBS, but our kids have only seen repeats. However, they are not too dated and still teach great lessons about self-confidence, respect, and trying new things. Before he died, he supervised the building of this life-sized attraction at Idlewild. This video will show you the drive into the Land of Make Believe and the welcome speech by King Friday, voiced by the Late Fred Rogers himself.

Idlewild Air Balls video

Idlewild - Jumpin'Jungle

Next we moved from one of the oldest sections of Idlewild to one of the newest. It was a large area designed to let kids run, climb, and play. There was a large net climb that wiped Alex and I out to get to the top, where we had a clear view of the much shorter net climb. There was an enormous ball pit, slides, and rope swings. Aaron really enjoyed an area that had jets of air levitating plastic balls that he could gather up and return to the jets if they fell out. After playing here a while, it was time for lunch in Racoon Lagoon.

Idlewild - Story Book Forest

We spent today at a theme park tucked into the mountains called Idlewild. It was a great place to take the kids and have a fun day. It was divided into sections and we went to the Storybook Forest first. We had to walk into it through a large storybook. Beyond that was a path through a forest that brought to life many childhood nursery rhymes and stories. Pictured above are Alex in a block of cheese (I don't remember the rhyme), Jack and the BeanStalk and Humpty Dumpty. Many of them were animatronic, but some of the characters were actors like Little Red Ridinghood and Mother Goose. The kids enjoyed it more than us and warmed us up to it by the end.

We're On Vacation!!

We left this morning on our Pennsylvania/New Jersey road trip vacation. We made good time today and got all the way across Ohio and past PIttsburg to set up camp at a Four Points by Sheraton in Greensburg, PA. As you can see from the picture, we're starting to see some low mountain terrain. The kids got a big bubble bath and Alex wore a big bubble hat. He is posing as Guido from the Cars movie. We quoted a line from the movie the whole trip where Guido (who speaks mostly Italian) tries to convince the race car Lightning McQueen that he needs a pit stop before his one lap dirt race with Doc Hudson. It goes like this:

"Pit stop?"

"No pitstopo. Uno lapo"

"OK."

Imagine that about 100 times in one week.

Happy Fourth of July 2006!!!

At this age, it's still sparklers in the backyard. Note that Aaron is more interested in the car that Alex is holding.

Getting Our Fireworks in Early

It's hard to take the kids to the big 4th displays at this age, so the last few years we've made a tradition of getting them to a Mudhens game that features them afterwards, which allows us to catch a great game and usually get home at a reasonable time. The Mudhens lost it in the last 2 innings after being in the lead the whole time. Better luck next time. The kids enjoyed this year's display without earplugs - getting a little braver every year.

Building a Baseball Equipment Rack

Today we went to Home Depot where Alex built a baseball equipment rack. The bottom holds bats, the top holds baseballs, and there are hooks near the bottom for gloves and hats. He's getting much better with his hammering. They have plastic folding tables for us to work on, but they abosorb the hammer blows too much and make it hard to drive nails, so we usually build these on the ground.

Aaron Singing his ABC's

Alex's Week at Hob Haven Day Camp

This week Alex spent the week at his school participating in Hob Haven Day Camp. He got to swim every day which was his favorite thing to do. He also got to ride a pony named Thunder. His group named themselves the "Puumba Warthogs". He made musical instruments out of kitchen bowls. He helped make an ant colony using ants we found in our driveway. They sang camp songs. He rode on a real school bus to the pool. He played dodgeball, "baseball tennis", and soccer. Today was Mardi Gras day and they got beads and ate ice cream in the amphitheater.

Spatchcocked Chicken

This is a great way to grill a whole chicken. Flavor it however you like. I've injected it with marinades. I usually sprinkle on some kind of rub - lately it's Emerils Chicken Rub after I've spatchcocked it.

To spatchcock it, lay the bird breast down on a cutting board and cut up both sides of the backbone with kitchen shears and remove it. Press the sides flat a bit and use a sharp knife to cut the breast meat away from the breastbone. Use the shears to separate the wishbone from the breastbone and remove the breastbone. Cut off the wing tips with the shears. Use the knife to cut a 3/4 inch hole in the thigh skin on each side and poke the legs through the holes. Your chicken will now lay flat and stay together on the grill. Season it as you like.

Lay the chicken skin-side down on a hot grill and cook it for 15 minutes. Move the chicken around to avoid flame-ups from the dripping chicken fat. Flip it to the other side and cook it for another 15 minutes. Place your chicken on a large platter and present it for all to see, before you dig in.