Mmm, anthropomorphic chocolate...

We took a fun trolley ride around the area, and learned a bit of the history behind the Hershey chocolate factory.  The kids thought it was fun, especially when they periodically handed out bits of candy!

Forget "cheese", say "chocolate"!

A nice old-fashioned trolley car.

Wouldn't it be fun to live on "Chocolate Ave"?

Then we went on the Great American Chocolate Tour.  Anna loved this – in fact, we had to go on the “cow roller coaster” once more before we left, because she really, really loved it.  (Luckily, it was free.)

Anna loved those singing cows...

Carolyn would have liked to create her own candy bar, but at $15 per person (and we all would have had to make our own, we couldn’t just all four go in and let Carolyn make one) we decided we could make candy at home.  They even have “make your own candy bar” kits in the gift shop for a much more reasonable price.

No cheesy photo ops here, we had to use a bench.

Finally, we hit the road and drove straight home with just one stop for a quick dinner (we had to collect a couple more Smurfs from McDonald’s, of course).  The drive was absolutely lovely – perfect scenery and perfect weather.  Even the knock knock jokes were mostly tolerable:

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Interrupting smurf!
Interrupting smurf wh-
La, la, la la la la, la, la la la la!
(Yes, that’s the smurf theme. No, they’ve never seen the smurfs.)

An Amish farmhouse.

A child's bedroom.

Just look at those quilts...

Got to meet some lovely farm animals:

This baby cow is only a month old! So cute!

Mr. Ed. Wonder what he has to say...?

A baby goat. Another cutie!

And then the highlight for the girls…the one-room schoolhouse.  They were enchanted!  First they played being students.  Then they took turns being the teacher.  Anna read all the numbers on the number line on the desks.  Carolyn read all the school rules and the lesson plans.  Then they wanted me to be the teacher.  Even better?  There was a bell to ring!  (Thankfully the rope ended at adult height.  Someone planned that well.)

Anna studying her number line.

Carolyn waiting to be set lessons.

Not the most studious of students!

Teacher Carolyn

Teacher Anna

There were lots of buggies outside to take pictures in.  And they were selling bonnets in the gift shop, obviously.  Really, it was a fabulous way to spend the morning, and I’d highly recommend it!

Two girls in a buggy.

...and in another buggy!

Just such a lovely place!

We had a nice lunch and went on a buggy ride.  It was really more of a horse-drawn wagon with a roof, but it went through some incredibly beautiful countryside.  And the girls got to sit up front with the driver and kept everyone entertained with their commentary on all the little white butterflies and the cows in the fields.

A farm and a cornfield on a perfect day.

Unfortunately, the buggy ride went longer than we expected – the horses were tired and couldn’t be coaxed into going very quickly – so we didn’t make it to the pretzel factory tour.  We still stopped there to get some pretzels to eat, though.  We had a wonderful day, and truly enjoyed spending time in this beautiful, peaceful part of the world!

A view from the monorail.

Apparently, it was a day for cheesy photo ops – seriously, the girls insisted on posing in each and every one of these places and wouldn’t budge until I’d taken their pictures!  (I have them trained well.)

Mmm. Giant fake pretzel!

Anna didn't quite know what to do...

Anna the Knight and Carolyn the Princess.

Kids. In. Spaaaaace!

We met the princess the first night, now we got to meet Duke & the knight.

We got there early enough that we were able to go on ride after ride with little to no line.  It was so much fun! Some of them (like the Frog Hopper) they went on multiple times in a row because there was no line.

The frog hopper. Easily the girls' favorite ride!

The bumper cars were especially fun.  It was Anna and Daddy in the yellow car vs. Carolyn and Mommy in the purple car.  We definitely put the bumpers to good use!

The yellow bumper car of doom...

When we decided it was time to cool off, we changed into swimsuits and let the kids play in Duke’s Lagoon – a combination sprayground & mini waterpark with (cold!) water spraying everywhere and mini waterslides.  I was terrified to even bring the camera near the place after killing my ipod touch the other night, so it stayed safely dry in a locker for that part of our fun.  We finally managed to drag the girls out of there with promises of going on the pipeline plunge.  Yes, I took two small girls through that twisty-turning blue tube, on nothing more than a rubber raft.  It was fun!

We survived the pipeline plunge!

We went on lots more rides after, including the dreaded log flume ride.  (I left nothing, not even park maps, in the outside pockets of my bag this time!)  Carolyn even went on the flying trapeze by herself!

This ride is hand-powered!

Anna had a little help from Daddy.

Ready to go!

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease...

After dinner, we saw The Frog Prince, reinterpreted into a high dive act.  It was really amazing!  And even more amazing was that the pool these performers were diving into was only nine feet deep.  That’s only 6″ deeper than the deep end of our backyard pool.  But they were diving from really, really high heights.

A princess, a frog, and king and two girls.

We didn’t quite close the place down, but we rode the train one last time around the park, saying “goodbye” to all of our favorite rides.  The girls had a wonderful time, and are already asking when we can come back!

The Strasburg Railroad

We thought that taking the train in the rain would be fun, so we headed for the Strasburg Railroad.  (To say that we got drenched while waiting to board would be an understatement.  Despite our enormous umbrella, everyone’s shoes were soaked through and Anna – poor short little Anna – couldn’t have gotten wetter standing in the shower fully clothed.)

Feeling very glad we didn't pick the "open air" car!

Do you *see* how hard that rain is coming down?!?

But it was worth the soaking.  The details inside the train were lovely – aside from the velvet seats being green instead of red, it was exactly as Laura had described her first train ride in By the Shores of Silver Lake.

Lovely detailed woodwork and windows.

Just in case we got cold...

Even the outside of the cars were gorgeous!

The ride itself was fun, too.  We were able to open the windows and look out on the rain soaked cornfields, wave to people waiting in cars at crossings, and even see an Amtrak train go speeding by at 100 mph while we waited for the engine to switch to the other end of the train for our trip back.

Looking out the window.

Smoke and rain and something vaguely green.

It's too bad about the rain - this looked fun!

The conductor looking out at the rain.

What a great train ride!

By the time we finished watching the engine switch back to the other end of the train again after our trip, it was lunch time, so we headed to the Red Caboose Motel, where we ate lunch in a train car!  The girls were extra thrilled to find a friendly cat sitting on the porch when we were leaving.

Switching the engine.

The conductor signaling the driver.

Lunch on a train - you could even sleep here at the motel!

Right next to the tracks - we were on that train earlier!

Friendly cat!

Since we were still soaked through, we headed back to the hotel for a swim and a change, and then went shopping at Kitchen Kettle Village, where we bought fudge, jam and beef jerky (blame Denis), and also were able to stop at the absolutely lovely Lancaster Yarn Shop.  Where I may have acquired some yarn.  But, 1) it’s souvenir yarn, and 2) it’s sock yarn.  Neither souvenir yarn nor sock yarn count as “stash”.  So souvenir sock yarn must be anti-stash, and therefore actually cancels out some yarn I already own, right?

Kitchen Kettle Village. In the rain.

Lovely, lovely yarn shop!

Anyway, we are in Lancaster, PA for a much-anticipated vacation.  We spent a couple of hours at Dutch Wonderland this evening, which is a small theme park – especially compared to the other DW – but absolutely perfect for our two small girls.  We were able to let them go on lots of rides all by themselves.

Three princesses!

Denis can go on any ride he wants!

Carolyn on the Sky Ride.

Denis and Anna on the Sky Ride.

The only sad moment of the day was when I discovered that our trip on the log flume ride may have completely killed my ipod touch – aka, the kid entertainment unit, aka the only reason Anna behaves during Carolyn’s piano lessons.  That was a harsh, harsh lesson to check the outer pockets of my bag before going on a potentially drenching ride or wandering through a rain storm.  (The inside, where my camera lives, stayed perfectly dry, thankfully!) I’m holding out hope that some time drying out will somehow fix it.

Don't bring your ipod touch on this ride!

Anyway, a good time was had by all, and the kids are *finally* asleep.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!  Oh, and I’ll leave you with Anna’s very first made-up joke:

Why couldn’t the banana cross the store easily?
Because it wasn’t completely peeled!

Happy Birthday, Poppy!

It was fun to get all the cousins together again – it happens so rarely, everyone seems to grow many inches in between visits.  (Shhh, don’t tell anyone – I think my eldest niece is very nearly as tall as I am…)  The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins, and were very sad to have to leave.

Giggles and Grins

Now we’re home again, with two rather grumpy children who have sat in the car  for far too many hours in the past three days.  Hopefully everyone will get a reasonable amount of sleep tonight!

We were sort of hoping the big storm headed up the East coast would delay us a bit, but no such luck. So, back to winter we went!

The flights back were mostly OK, although Anna was so tired by the end of the second one that she cried for most of the last half hour…and then conked out just moments before we landed. Which meant I carried a very soundly asleep (and heavy) baby off the plane!

So, we’re back in Rochester, where it’s cold…but cold like February is supposed to be.

And now we need a vacation from our vacation!

First, we headed for The Seas. The Nemo ride was a huge hit with the girls, and Anna has found a new favorite character: “Nee-Moh!” We walked around the giant aquarium, and saw lots of really neat fish. I herded everyone into the Turtle Talk with Crush show, which was “totally sweet, dude!” Really, it was hilariously funny and something to put on our don’t-miss list for next time!

After the seas, we headed for The Land. Anna was too little to go on Soarin’, and we couldn’t actually do a switch off at the entry point like you can for many rides, so we had to take turns – which took forever! But it was definitely fun, although given the option to go again with Denis, Carrie chose not to. After we had all soared over California, we went to Sunshine Seasons for an early lunch, to prepare ourselves to walk from Canada to Morocco!

Canada was mainly a quick stop just to work on the mask, and then we visited jolly old England, where we saw a troupe of performers that were rather Python-esque. In France, we stopped for some delicious pastries, because, really, Epcot is just an excuse to sample cuisine from all over the world, right?

We spent a good deal of time in Morocco, both to let Carrie finish her mask and because the architecture there is so beautiful.

Weary from our world travels, we boarded the ferry to head back, where we ducked into Mouse Gear just as the rain started falling in earnest. It took a while to pick out t-shirts for everyone, and the rain just didn’t let up.

Denis decided to take Anna back to the hotel and Carrie and I ran through the pouring rain long enough to get a couple of Mickey ice cream bars. We tried to wait out the rain, but ultimately decided to call it a day.

We ordered in pizza for dinner and then walked down to the hotel arcade for a bit. Did a little more shopping in the hotel gift shops, and then headed back to pack up and put the kids to bed.

I did one last thing before going to bed myself…our first night, we had heard some strange music out on the bay, and after a little research discovered it was the Floating Electrical Pageant. We’d only really watched it through the windows of the hotel room every night – and the kids were soundly asleep and never did get to see it – so I walked out onto the dock to get a better view, along with some pictures and video. It was even maybe a little stranger out there…definitely an unusual way to end a vacation!

We stood in line for a very, very long time to meet the fairies. But it was worth it to see how excited Carrie was to meet Iridessa, Tinkerbell and Silvermist.

When we left Pixie Hollow and grew back to our normal size, we had just enough time to make it to our lunch reservation: Cinderella’s Royal Table! Of all the dining experiences we had in Disney, this was by far the most expensive. And it was also, by far, the most excellent! Really, the food here was top notch, and the character experience was great. The girls were visited by Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine and Belle – and all this was after seeing Cinderella herself downstairs. The cutest bit was that they had wishing stars and wands for the kids. At one point, they held a wishing ceremony. Carrie’s wish? To spend “half the time as a fairy, half the time as a princess, and half the time as a mermaid”.

After lunch, we headed back to Toon Town – we’ve heard rumors that by the next time we go it will have been replaced with another attraction, so we spent some time on the playground and in Mickey and Minnie’s houses. Denis took Carrie on Goofy’s Barnstormer – another minimum height ride – which Carrie loved. And then we headed back for a nap and a rest.

Anna napped (and I suspect Denis did too!) while Carrie and I checked out the pool. It had a zero entry area and a small waterslide that Carrie went down over and over. She contemplated the big waterslide (not super duper big, but big enough!) but changed her mind at the last minute. And we took a short dip in the hot tub, which is funny considering how tepid the bathwater has to be if we don’t want to hear wails about how she’s being burned alive… After we (mostly) dried off, we checked out the strip of beach on the other side of the hotel, where Denis and Anna found us. Anna wasn’t quite sure she liked the cold sand between her toes!

We had a quick dinner, then headed back to the Magic Kingdom. For some crazy idea we thought we’d take the kids on the Haunted Mansion ride. Which was scary for a few reasons – mostly because it kept stopping for long periods of time, and we were sure we were going to be trapped there until we became ghosts ourselves! After that, we bored the kids with the Hall of Presidents (which had been closed for renovations the other two times I’ve been). I was pretty impressed with the show, and am glad I finally got to see it.

As we exited the theater, the Spectromagic parade was passing through, so we watched the end of that. Carrie was so excited to see it again! And finally, Denis took Anna home to bed while Carrie and I sat right in front of the lit-up castle to watch the fireworks again. We were both a little sad that we won’t get to see them again until next time we come to Disney!

We went through Spaceship Earth first, which has definitely changed since we were there last time. One annoying thing was that the ride kept stopping (sometimes several times in a row, just a little bit apart). We think it was to help passengers with limited mobility load, but the annoying bit was more that they kept announcing that the ride was stopped and to stay in your seats while the narrator was talking, so we’d miss important bits of the story the ride was supposed to be telling.

Now, we know lots of people think Epcot is the least fun park, but it’s pretty much hands down our favorite. So right after Spaceship Earth, we grabbed a passport kit and headed to the world showcase.

We ate in Mexico, at San Angel Inn. It was yummy, but possibly the least little-kid-friendly place we ate at (it was pretty dark and the kids’ menu options were not really that great). And in Mexico Carrie started working on her Kidcot mask.

In Norway, Carrie survived the Maelstrom, while Anna took a 10 minute stroller nap. Not quite what we were hoping for…since Epcot is so big and so much walking we hadn’t planned to go back to the hotel for a nap today – but 10 minutes isn’t very long!

We saw some amazing acrobats in China, then stopped for a quick bout of drum playing and ice cream eating at the Outpost. Denis got himself a beer in Germany, and we caught another show and admired the architecture in Italy. We stopped in America just long enough to visit the Kidcot station.

Finally, we headed for Japan, where we had a wonderful dinner at Tokyo dining. The kids’ plates were shaped like trains…which Anna decided were much more fun to push around the table than actually eat from.

We wrapped up the evening by hiking all the way to Canada to see Off Kilter (warning: their site plays music). We love this band, and were really amused to watch the girls dance like maniacs to their music! And then we staked out a spot to watch the fireworks. Anna conked out before the fireworks even started, and slept right through them. Carrie was asleep before we got back to the hotel. And we were very happy that we’d brought both strollers!