Okay, I may only have a few precious moments to recount most of this trip before Darth Leah gets out of the shower, so I'll be as quick as possible.

First and foremost, and so I don't get killed in my sleep when Leah reads this, we've been having a blast.  Starting Saturday, we left the Cape for the Renaissance at Patriot Place for the night, then went to Boston the next day to see a Matinee production of "Jersey Boys."  Which, if you haven't seen it and plan on seeing another show in the near future, I would strongly urge you to reconsider.  It was unbelievable, and yeah, I got a little teary-eyed during "Sherry," but what can I say, I'm a sucker for the oldies.

From there we drove through Connecticut to the very end, which exists in a town called Stamford.  The next morning, it was up as early as we could handle, through New York and into Pennsylvania to Hershey.  

Hershey was a very fun, very long, hot day.  After a morning of roller-coaster and flume rides, we took the Hershey Chocolate World Ride-Tour to get our free Hershey Kisses at the end.  Although, since the kisses they were giving away this day were the new "Meltaway" style, they were so rich I could barely make it through without desperately wanting a glass of milk.  That is, until we saw the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookie that can be seen on our facebook pages.  Since we were able to get this with an ice cold milk, we were able to tear through it, but in terms of chocolate, that would be the last for us in Hershey, PA.

The next day, it was off to Gettysburg, to tour the battlefields and museums in the little town in central Pennsylvania.  We first took a guided bus tour with a guide through the battlefields to get a grasp of exactly what happened there, the timeframes, and the locations we'd want to re-visit when we drove through "guideless."

The rest of the afternoon and next day were spent using every single free ticket that came with our "Package Plan" we bought with the bus pass.  Suffering from exhaustion and probably severe dehydration, I championed through and even made it through a ghost tour at night which truly creeped me out.  If you are a skeptic when it comes to ghosts, try walking around Devil's Den or Little Round Top in Gettysburg at 9:30-10pm with nothing but digital cameras and a pair of flashlights purchased at Wal-Mart for the price of a King Size Twizzlers.  

The day after our two-day excursion through Gettysburg, it was off to Lancaster County (aka Bird-In-Hand, Intercourse, Ronks, Strasburg or whatever else you want to refer to "Amish Country" as).  This was a wild part of the trip for me, as Leah had been here before but I hadn't seen the tools being used in these fields anywhere besides a history book or Disney's "Carousel of Progress."  After a relaxing buggy ride through the fields of Amish Country, and an almost hilariously overpriced railroad ride through the same fields (See Leah's picture of me passed out at one of the short-line railroad's 8-minute, no-reason stops).  That night, we drove east into Philadelphia, prompting me to call my brother as soon as we reached the city limits, when this exchange occurred:  

Me:  "Hey man!  Guess where I am!"

Danny:  "Where?"

Me:  "Iiiin West Philadelphia!!" 

Danny:  "YES!  Are you chilling out, maxin', relaxin', all-cool?"

Yeah, I suppose it was funnier when it was still safely locked in my brain.  But whatever, I thought you should hear it too.  Because "Fresh Prince" references in Philly never get old.  EVER.

Today we toured most of the "Old City" of Philadelphia, walking from our hotel to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross house, and many other historic locations in Philly.  Then, realizing we were both totally exhausted, we headed back to the hotel for a short rest.  

Okay, quickly, I want to explain the difference between Leah and me on vacation:

Me:  Early to bed, early to rise, be first in line everywhere so you can get done what you want or need to, then head back to the hotel for pool/hot tub time, a few drinks, crackers and cheese, and plan out a relaxing nighttime activity.  Wear sneakers everywhere to be as comfortable as possible when walking miles per day.

Leah:  Early to bed, early to rise, be first in line everywhere so you can get done what you want or need to, then do everything else the city has to offer.  If you've paid for a pass, or package deal that includes something you could POSSIBLY do, you're doing it.  Don't leave a city with a stone still unturned.  Also, wear flip-flops at all possible times, even when you're literally tripping every 1/3 of a block because flip-flops are totally impractical when doing a walking tour of a city, or in a Disney World-like (lots of walking) location.  

Other than that, we're practically the same in every way...

So, back at the hotel when I woke up from my short nap, Leah reacted angrily when I asked what she wanted to do, and the trip almost took a very violent turn.  However, tempers quickly calmed when she explained she was tired of planning everything and I explained that we'd already done more in one half-day in Philadelphia than I did with my family in two days here in 2001.  We then went to the dueling Cheesesteak palaces (Geno's and Pat's) where Leah got a cheesesteak from Geno's and I got one from Pat's, and we shared them.  After having equal portions of both, Leah liked her Geno's steak while I was leaning in Pat's direction. 

Well, Leah is out of the shower now and we're off to see a movie ("The Goods") most likely since a "Severe Weather Warning" kind of put off our plans for a Ghost Tour.  Can't wait to see you all when we get back. 

Reporting live frooom West Philadelphia!

I'm Bobby Price.