Hello from Hershey Pennsylvania!! As many of you know, we left very early this morning (Monday) on our long trek to Maine for Bobby & Abbie's wedding. The wedding isn't until Friday but we figured we would take the week off and use the time as a vacation. Chris' mom & dad are on the trip with us, so we are packed into a rented mini-van. We stopped this morning in Virginia for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. The kids slept for the better part of the first leg of the trip so it made it pretty easy. Although it wasn't a planned stop, we ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours walking through a National Landmark - The Natural Bridge. It is a rock formation in the middle of Virginia. It is absolutely beautiful. Along with the bridge is an Indian camp. As part of the tour we went on, we were able to meet a 5 generation (on both sides) Monacan Indian. She was sitting in the Indian camp weaving baskets. Declan found her fascinating and talked with her for a long time. We ended up purchasing one of her handmade baskets. She said she has some baskets in a museum that are on display and that there are baskets that her grandmother made as well on display at another museum. She said the baskets will last for 100s of years as long as you remember to get them wet 2 times a year. It is amazing to hear the stories she has. She told about trading with the English and how they made their tools.

Liam's exciting event at the Natural Bridge was losing his shoe over one of the walls. It was a 10 or 15 foot drop and he said he was trying to kill a bug with his shoe and it fell off. Chris wanted to leave it but I had just bought him the shoes before our trip and I wasn't about to leave it. Chris tried to get it with a very long branch and almost did but it ended up slipping off as he was pulling it up. During his attempt, a couple - who are also heading to Maine - stopped to see what we were doing. Before we knew it, he had found an area to climb down and threw the shoe up to us. We were so thankful for their help and explained to Liam that shoes have to stay on his feet.

We had planned to arrive in Hershey earlier than we did and take a tour of the Hershey Factory, however since we stopped off at the Natural Bridge, our plans changed. We got to the hotel about 9:00pm and got checked in and then went swimming in the indoor pool for a little while. We only swam for about 1/2 an hour as the water was very cold and we had not eaten dinner. We ordered pizza and hung out in the room for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow our plan is to get up, have breakfast, load up the van and head to the Hershey Factory for a tour before heading on to Maine. The kids are very excited about seeing the factory. In fact Teah keeps asking if she is going to see Willie Wonka!!! We watched the original Charlie & The Chocolate Factory today on the way into town to get them ready. Although, I am sure our visit to this chocolate factory will be nothing like the Willie Wonka factory.

Well, I am going to sign off for the night. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I will post tomorrow if possible with our adventures of the day.