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April 13, 2014 - 12:47 a.m.
"crystal cave" or "gettysburg"

Hey Journal!

Wow! Today we had a PACKED day! The stuff we did this morning feels like it was a week ago!

Right now we're in Frederick, MD at the Fairfield Inn... But how did we get here, you ask? Well, let me tell you...

We woke up this morning at our hotel in Allentown, PA a little before our alarms were set to go off at 9am. We got up and ready and then gathered our belongings and headed out for the day!
We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast which was just a minute up the road. The area looked really familiar to me, and then I realized we were sorta near where Kristen and Don used to live. We had gone to this very Cracker Barrel with them years ago in 2009!

Anyway, we got breakfast there and I had eggs, pancakes, and turkey sausage! Everything was good except the first pancake I had... It was a little hard and dry... But the rest were good!
After eating we hit the road and headed towards the Crystal Cave! I love caves so I was really excited for this adventure. On the way, we passed the Premise Made chocolate store which is ANOTHER thing that we did with Kristen and Don. So weird that we were in that area!

Anyway, we arrived at about 11:00, parked, and headed inside. The woman at the counter was AMAZING! She's had such a great voice... I think she could be an amazing voice for a phone system!

We had to be at the cave entrance at 11:25 for the 11:30 tour so we went to the bathroom and then headed up the big staircase and sat on the benches outside the cave until it was time to go in!

Our tour guide was named Dan and he was pretty fun. We first watched an 8 minute movie about the cave (the website said it was 13 mins but probably got shortened down at some point!)
After the video, we headed inside the cave! It was really a fun time. Dan was a good guide and we saw all the stalactites and stalagmites and columns! It was pretty cool inside and the cave was apparently discovered in 1871.

At one point he turned the lights out in the cave and it was pitch black! It was wild to see what it's really like in there and to see how little the early exploiters were really able to see inside! Not to mention it must have been INSANE climbing over all those slippery rocks with no walkways and handrails!

Dan gave us all the history of the cave, and it was wild that people used to party in there, get drunk, and also would take stuff with them as souvenirs!

When we were done, we hurried back on the road because we had a busy schedule of activities! Next stop-- Hershey's Chocolate World!

I haven't been there in a few years and we were quite excited to ride the Chocolate World ride!

We parked and headed inside.

They are renovating the Chocolate World ride so the queue area was an absolute mess. The ride was fun, though, and we got a free pack of Mini Rolos at the end! They were actually pretty good.

We all had the "milk chocolate" song in our head for a while after that!

Next we wanted to go to Red Robin for lunch. We went to put our name down but the wait was about 20 minutes so we decided not to stay! We decided to go to Sonic instead.
They took our phone number for the waiting list at Red Robin and just as we pulled out of the parking lot they called us for a table! Insane! That was only about 8 mins! Ugh!
The Sonic was a little bit out of the way, but it was still a good lunch! We arrived there at 3pm. I got a grilled cheese, a chicken tender sandwich, and an orange slush!! Mmmmmm!

Back on the road- we were headed to Gettysburg!

We got there at 4:35 and went into the visitors center to see what we should do. The girl at the desk, Sarah, recommend we that we check out the museum and see the film and Cyclorama!
The museum was cool and very well done but we had to move through it pretty quicly becuase our film tour was at 5:15!

It was the last presentation of the day so we didn't have any time to explore afterwards. The film was informative and the cyclorama was strange.

When we were done, we went back to the car and drove around to check out some of the battlefields and other interesting sites. First, we checked out the observation tower which required us to ascent 96 steps (according to a kid who counted!)

At the top, we had a great view of everything. We asked a man to take our picture and he was quite the professional photographer. He told us where to stand and who should stand where!
Next we went to the Pennsylvania memorial and then to the cemetery. We walked around there and saw the site of the Gettysburg address and then headed to another observation tower to see the sunset!

This one was 126 steps! We waited up there and watched the sun set and then we got back in the car.

We drove through the town of Gettysburg and then decided to head towards Maryland. I had found a nice park to go to tomorrow with a big waterfall. We figured we'd head that way and find somewhere for dinner and to stay.

We wound up going to a town called Frederick, MD and had dinner at the Macaroni Grille. It was so much better than the time we went in Niagara Falls! This was a REAL one with much better food!

After dinner it was about 10:00 and we went to Target, got some water, and then headed to our hotel! We found a Fairfield Inn nearby and it was 139 for the night. A little expensive for what it is, but it's okay.

We checked in and found our room. 301. We all took our showers and now we are just getting ready for bed! Tomorrow we plan to get up at about 9:00 and get breakfast, head to the park, and then make our way home, I suppose!

Now I'd better get to bed because Dan and Re are ready for bed.

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)