Tag: Pennsylvania

A US Road Trip: Philadelphia

Passing through the state of Delaware

It had been over 4 weeks since we had arrived in the USA. After spending 3 weeks looping Chicago to Chicago travelling around the Midwest states, we had spent one final week on the road ticking off a few more states as we travelled through Indiana to Michigan then through Ohio and West Virginia into Pennsylvania.

After spending the morning at Hershey’s Chocolate World, we were now making our way to Philadelphia airport to hand back our rental before making our way into the city for one last night in a hotel.

  • Monument at Fort Christina
  • Replica of the Kalmar Nyckel
At Fort Christina National Historic Site

Our route to the airport briefly took us into Delaware, a state which we had travelled through before on a Trek America tour but not stopped in so we had made plans to divert slightly to the city of Wilmington. We had left it to the last minute to look up where to aim for in the city but after a bit of googling in our motel the night before, had found a National Park Service site there so decided to stop there.

The site where the first Swedish and Finnish settlers arrived in the USA

Pulling up at Fort Christina Park, the National Historic Site on the banks of the Christina River, we walked down to the monument which stood there. Unsure at what we were really looking at, we were pleased when a Park Ranger came down to chat with us, answering some of our questions and explaining that the site was like the ‘Plymouth Rock of Delaware’, being where the first Swedish and Finnish settlers had arrived in the USA.

Just down the river from the monument, was a replica of the ship they sailed on, the Kalmar Nyckel.

A rainbow after the storm after we arrived in Philadelphia, and below, views from the One Liberty Place Observation Deck

After leaving Fort Christina Park, we continued to the airport, saying a fond farewell to our rental car then catching the train into the city of Philadelphia.

We arrived at the end of a horrendous thunderstorm and made our way to the Sheraton hotel having decided to spend our last night in a bit of luxury after 4 weeks of roadside motels.

That evening, we walked the short distance to the One Liberty Place building to visit its 57th floor observation deck. The rain had cleared and the sun was starting to set which made for some pretty views across the city.

Outside Independence Hall, and below, touring the site

The next day, we had a late night flight back to the UK so we could spend the day exploring the city. We had visited Philadelphia before on our Trek America tour but it had been a short, one hour visit so we hadn’t seen anything in any detail. This time, we had booked tickets to tour Independence Hall in the morning.

We arrived a bit earlier than our ticket time so we could first visit the nearby Independence Visitor Centre and pick up Junior Ranger booklets to fill in.

The tour was interesting and we especially enjoyed seeing printings of the Articles of Confederation, the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in the Great Essentials Exhibition.

After our tour, we joined the lengthy but quick-moving queue to see the Liberty Bell before returning to the Independence Visitor Centre to hand over our Junior Ranger booklets to earn our badges.

  • The Liberty Bell
  • Becoming a Junior Ranger again

After a Philly Cheesesteak lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, we decided to get tickets for the hop on/off city tour bus in order to see as much of the city as we could in a short amount of time.

Philly cheesesteak lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe

We first hopped off the bus at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not to visit the museum itself, but to see the building’s famous ‘Rocky steps’. The steps to the museum feature in the Rocky film where Sylvester Stallone runs up and down them to train and we decided to also attempt to run all the way from the bottom to the top.

The ‘Rocky steps’ in Philadelphia
View form the top of the steps

We spent the rest of the afternoon completing the bus tour loop, hopping off again at Elfreth’s Alley, America’s oldest residential street and also walking to see Betsy Ross’ house, supposedly the place Betsy Ross lived in when she sewed the first American flag.

  • Betsy Ross’ house
  • Elfreth’s Alley – America’s oldest residential street.
  • Elfreth’s Alley

Then it was time to collect our luggage from the hotel and catch the train back to Philadelphia airport. After more than 4 exciting weeks travelling across 16 states of the USA, it was finally time to return to the UK.

A US Road Trip: Pennsylvania

After 4 weeks on the road, 3 spent travelling through the Midwest states and a final week cutting across from Chicago to Philadelphia via Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, we were a just a day away from returning home to the UK.

Crossing the river into West Virginia

We had spent most of the day in Ohio, visiting Cleveland then driving through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It was now late afternoon and we still had to make it to tonight’s stopover point at a motel on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Visiting the World’s Largest Teapot

Leaving Ohio behind, we briefly cut through a corner of West Virginia, a deliberate detour as it was another state we had not visited before. Here, we had a stop planned in the town of Chester as it is home to the World’s largest teapot! Finding this roadside stop easily – it was hard to miss! – we pulled over and jumped out, posing under it for photos holding empty Starbucks cups we had kept purely for this occasion!

Arriving in Pennsylvania

Then, after a quick visit to the local CVS to purchase a West Virginia souvenir, it was back on the road and we were crossing the border into Pennsylvania just minutes later.

The Punxsutawney, PA Welcome Sign

Battling rush hour traffic around Pittsburgh, we were relieved when we finally made it to our motel to relax for what was left of the evening.

The next day, we were excited to be visiting the town of Punxsutawney, another last minute addition to our road trip itinerary – and quite a hefty diversion from our original route! – after I had happened to watch Groundhog Day just a few weeks before we departed and, seeing it was set in Pennsylvania, had the idea to visit the groundhog!

Although the movie wasn’t actually filmed in Punxsutawney itself, the annual Groundhog Day ceremony is actually help there each year and the town has plenty of Groundhog-related reasons for stopping by!

Peering in at Punxsutawney Phil in his burrow

Upon arriving in Punxsutawney, we were greeted by a giant, top hat wearing Groundhog welcoming us.

Phil’s Burrow in Punxsutawney, and below, groundhog sculptures around the town

After a quick stop for photos, we continued into the town where we quickly found Phil’s Burrow, we den where Punxsutawney Phil sleeps the rest of the year either side of the Groundhog Day festivities. As we peered in, we could see the cute groundhog snuggled up inside and at one point, he even looked up at us, stretching and yawning before snuggling back down again!

The site of the annual Groundhog Ceremony

The town had figures of groundhogs dressed in various ways dotted around it and after having a quick look around, we drove to the interestingly-named Gobblers Knob, site of the annual Groundhog Day ceremony, for more fun photo opportunities!

At Gobbler’s Knob

After that fun diversion, it was a bit of a race against time to reach our destination for the day, Gettysburg, where we had booked a historical tour of the battlefields on horseback.

Horse riding in Gettysburg

Having done horse-riding in Wyoming on our Trek America tour a few years before, we were both eager to fit it in somewhere on our trip this time and this tour seemed like a good way of ticking that off our list as well as finding out some of the history of Gettysburg.

Historical tour of the Gettysburg Battlefields on horseback

We arrived too late to spend any time exploring the town, instead having to quickly drop our things at our motel before checking in for our horseback tour.

Trying not to faint in the heat!

Unfortunately, it was a sweltering humid day and way too hot to be sat on the back of a horse, out in the middle of a field with no shade, listening to a history lesson on the American Civil War! At one point, I was so uncomfortable, I thought I was going to pass out! Luckily I didn’t but I spent so much time concentrating on not fainting in the heat that I found I wasn’t really following what was being said by our guide.

We also both felt that the tour had taken for granted that those on it would have some background knowledge of the Civil War as I guess most Americans would have studied it at school whereas being from the UK, our knowledge was less than even basic which made the tour even harder to follow.

I did at least enjoy the parts of the tour where we were trotting past the battlefields with a slight breeze blowing through my hair but these parts came too few and far between.

At the Gettysburg Visitor Centre

The next morning, we visited the Gettysburg National Military Park’s Visitor Centre and Museum which we felt we got more out of than on the horse back tour the previous evening. Then it was back on the road to drive towards the final destination of our road trip, Philadelphia.

Arriving at Hershey’s Chocolate World

We still had a few stops scheduled before returning our hire car to the Avis drop off at Philadelphia Airport, starting with a visit to Hershey’s Chocolate World!

Above, and below, fun touring Hershey’s Chocolate World

As well as the huge Hershey store, Hershey’s Chocolate World operates a free tour to all visitors. We arrived early just after opening time but the site was already pretty busy. The queue for the tour moved quickly though and acted as part of the attraction as information boards along where we queued told us the history of Hershey’s chocolate. The main attraction though was a ride through a mocked up Hershey’s chocolate factory. We sat in a small car which took us around the factory while Hershey products including chocolate drops, talked and sang to us explaining how the chocolate was made.

As part of the tour, we were also given some free chocolate bars to sample. Definitely worth the stop!

In Lancaster, PA

From Hershey World, we continued on our way and soon found ourselves in Amish Country, finding ourselves sharing the roads with horse-drawn Amish buggies a few times as we drove through the Pennsylvania countryside stopping briefly in Lancaster.

After our stop, we would be leaving Pennsylvania briefly, driving into Delaware en route to Philadelphia to finally complete our road trip!