The Laugh Doctor

We almost forgot that we had the local hospital's Summer Staff Dinnertonight. We like to go for the food, socialization and entertainment. For the price of my annual hospital dues, we get a free evening out. Minus the cost of babysitting - nothing's free anymore. It was held at the Sylvania Country Club and the evening summer sun from our 95-degree day was streaming into the dining room, making it warm and stuffy. Announcements were made during our salads, then the Cheif of Staff introduced our speaker as they were bringing us our meals. He was having to speak over the servers and everyone seemed to start talking at once, presumably about the food. It was very awkward until the Chief realized what he'd done and stood up and apologized and suggested we eat first, to which we all heartily agreed. The company was great as we got to update some old residency compatriots with the recent camping trip details. Dinner was pretty good as it usually is at the SCC, Becky and I had the fish The snafu with the speaker was a serendipitous way to start and he took it in stride, because he is the Laugh Doctor.

Dr. Clifford Kuhn is a psychiatrist that came to our function to give us his HA, HA, HA prescription. He helped us develop our Humor Aptitude, enhance our Humor Attitude, and take appropriate Humor Action. Fair warning, avoid getting on a long elevator ride with me, because I have a new trick I would like to try. We really enjoyed the evening and we plan on practicing our new humor skills soon.

Alex's Second Lost Tooth

Alex lost his second tooth tonight. He loosened it for what seemed like forever. It reminded me of a shark's tooth, because the new tooth was poking in behind the baby tooth. He's hoping for a $100 bill since he got the golden dollar he wished for last time. I'm not sure how it works, but I think he'll be disappointed if he's serious. Our tooth fairy seems to like golden dollars.

Camping at KOA

Becky wanted to go camping in an air-conditioned cabin this weekend, but since we started making plans a few days ago, we found out that the air-conditioned cabins this time of year are popular...and booked. We thought that a little fan in our tent would be almost as good. We were wrong. We went camping on one of the hottest weekends of the year and we have the sweat stains to prove it. This was the first camping trip since the fiasco of June 2004 when it rained all weekend. Some rain this weekend would've been nice. We went up to the KOA Kampground about 10 miles north of us near Petersburg, MI and pitched our tent. We had electricity for our air mattresses and fan and running water at our site. We bought firewood there and built campfires to cook hamburgers the first night and hot dogs the second - as well as two evenings of s'mores. Even though it was hot, Becky and I sat and talked by the fire after the kids went to bed. To beat the heat, we swam in the big swimming hole they have at the campground and ate some ice cream. We went though about 10 bags of ice for those 2 days to keep our food and drinks cool. Saturday night the kids got to ride around the campground in a tractor-pulled wagon with other kids. They also had a big playground there which the kids climbed all over. We'll definitely be back.

Penn's Cave

After getting extra smart by staying in a Holiday Inn Express, we drove a little further on Interstate 80 until we reached the turn-off for Penn's Cave. Becky found this one in a brochure rack in Philadelphia. After a week of shorts and sleeveless shirts, the boys were puzzled by why we dressed them in pants and brought their jackets. It all became clear when we descended the long staircase that led to the skinny boats in the 52 degree cavern. This cavern was traversed completely by boat. There was a tight S-curve in the middle that required the boats to be very long and skinny. We saw lots of stalactites and stalagmites and learned which was which. Near the end of the tour, after we learned many interesting cave facts, Becky turned to Alex and asked, "Can you believe that it takes one of those stalactites at least 300 years to grow one inch?" To which Alex replied, "That was real?"

In the gift shop, Becky bought a bag of dirt and semi-precious stones and she and Alex sorted them with a sieve in a sluice set up in front of the shop. Watch for some of those in future necklaces. Tonight we're in the best Holiday Inn Express yet witha huge room and an enormous tub to soak away the road miles. Tomorrow we've got to get another 3 hours down the road to roll into Toledo. This has been a great vacation.

The Jersey Shore

Today was a much better day for the beach. We drove east and turned right at New York City to drive down the New Jersey coast to Island Beach State Park. We paid $6 to get the van in the park (by far the cheapest day we've spent all week) and changed at a large bathhouse. We crossed the dunes on a boardwalk and found a great spot for our blanket. We immediately dipped our toes in the water and a large wave came up knocked Aaron over. The rest of the day was spent enjoying and respecting the waves. This respect included me learning about rip currents the hard way as I got pulled out to sea and accidentally did the right thing and swam parallel to the shore until I got out of the current and ended up several dozen yards downshore. I spent more time near the shore after that. We found a lot of neat shells and played in the sand. One of our biggest problems once we got there is that our van was baking in the heat while we were chilling on the beach, and our van now not only has the Chocolate World chocolates but the Crayola Factory crayons that could've been ruined were it not for my frequent trips back to the parking lot to run the A/C for a few minutes and blow out the hot air. We had such a good time that we started looking at the Atlas as we left to find the closest ocean beach (I think we were at it) for another trip next summer.

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.