I was blessed to go on a family vacation this summer and it was the perfect blend of different vacation destinations. My 9 year old daughter started competition dance last year. Every three years her studio goes to national competitions in Ocean City, MD. So we spent a week there right on the ocean. Our 25 year old daughter who danced for about ten years until 2009 flew up from Florida to spend that week with us and reminisce about her days up on stage there. (When we last went, the now 9 year old was only 6 months old and stayed with her grandparents). During that week I saw (and filmed) some beautiful sunrises, some amazing lightning storms, and a gorgeous full rainbow = all three over the ocean waves. We saw dolphins way off in the distance on one morning. We also briefly toured Assateague Island on the way out where the wild horses have lived for quite a while.
After our week there and seeing big sis off on her flight back to Florida, the rest of us went to Allentown, PA and spent 3 days at Dorney Park. I know I am biased and spoiled to have the best amusement park on earth in my Ohio town, but it was a nice change of pace to see some different rollercoasters (and revisit an old favorite ride). We have season passes with a meal plan from Cedar Point and those allowed us free entry into Dorney Park since it is a sister park under the same overall company. Dorney is a good bit smaller than Cedar Point and has a HUGE steep hill right in the middle of the park separating some of the good rides and shops. Cedar Point is large, but very flat so it is much easier to walk - something I won't take for granted anymore. Several years ago one of my old favorite rides at Cedar Point -- Demon Drop was removed from CP to make room for something else. It was shipped and reassembled in Dorney Park, so I had a nice reunion with an old friend! I also got to show my 9 year old how you can simulate levitating a coin on that ride! I also lost my car keys on the Hydra coaster. Luckily we had walked over from the hotel and my wife had her set of keys there. It took 36 hours, but I finally got my keys back from lost and found.
We then left Allentown, made a pitstop in Hershey to tour the Chocolate World facility, and drove on to our final destination of the trip in Gettysburg, PA. Back in 2004 my "girlfriend" and I drove through Gettysburg on our way home from a dance competition in Ocean City. We didn't stop, but we both commented on the scenery just off of the main highway. When I proposed to her later that fall and we began discussing wedding and honeymoon plans we both independently thought of Gettysburg as a destination. We spent four days there as part of our honeymoon and were back again for a single day a few years ago while just passing through. We spent three days there on this trip and ate at a few of the nice places downtown where we enjoyed romantic honeymoon dinners years ago = Dobbin House and Farnsworh House. We did a ghost walk and a car tour of the battlefield and monuments and our daughter took part in an hour long exercise for kids where they learned what it was like to be a civil war soldier with the uniforms, rifles, and gear and they did some marching and shooting maneuvers. The scenery there (especially the view down from Little Round Top) is so serene and peaceful -- it is hard to imagine the chaos and horror that soldiers from both sides faced 150+ years ago on the very same spots.
We were very lucky to get the time off to do this as a family. I think this was the ultimate vacation trifecta: ocean, amusement park, and historical site of great significance - all in one trip. (And I was able to use Fusion Cash and a few other sites' earnings to help pay for a few of the expenses!)
Community Forum
Topic: Vacation (Read 1153 times)
May 23, 2009, 08:55:57 pm
