Winter Wrap-Up, Part III: Unsung Heros Tour

A few people from the Christian Grad Chapter here at Penn State decided to take a Spring break vacation together. They dubbed the road trip "The Unsung Heros Tour," with the general premise being to visit off-the-beaten-path touristy sites. We even signed a Manifesto stating as such. The plan was to head east towards Philly and then south to North Carolina. As I am no longer a student and don't get off for spring break, I was only able to join them for the first weekend (i.e. the trek to Philly). Another student (Daniel) also opted for the weekend-only version, giving me someone to drive back with on Sunday.

Our first stop on The Tour was the Crayola Factory Museum in Easton, PA. This is a perfect place for kids of any age...with lots of stations for coloring with markers, crayons, chalk, etc. We even got to put labels on our own red crayons. Tracy wanted to take home this blue one:



Just upstairs from the Crayola Museum was a Canal Museum, complete with an interactive locks and dams system. Still embracing our childish sides, we enjoyed playing in the water for a while:)


After lunch in a nice little sandwich shop and a stop for candy/carmelcorn, we continued east.


En route to our next destination, I made the group stop in a Walgreens for a little rebating.


In Allentown, PA, we enjoyed the opportunity to ring a replicate of the Liberty Bell at the Shrine. Apparently, 13 bells (including the one that would later be known as the Liberty Bell) were hidden in this church during the Revolutionary War to keep them from being stolen by the British.

Ashley's parents (who live just outside Philly) were kind enough to put us up for the night on Saturday. After dropping off our bags there we headed out for dinner. The wait at Bahama Breeze was over an hour, so after putting our name in, we took a 45-minute tour of the King of Prussia Mall. While not as big as the Mega Mall (a.k.a. Mall of America) in Minneapolis--no indoor theme park either--there were plenty of stores to keep us occupied for the required time. Dinner was amazingly good and filling. This was important for the drive home, as a torrential downpour had closed a couple of streets we had driven just a couple of hours earlier, which resulted in a MAJOR detour. Despite having two different sat-nav/GPS systems (i.e. Heidi and Angus) with us for the trip, neither made it in the car that night...DOH! Ashley stayed remarkably calm throughout the ordeal and eventually got us back to her parents' place--way to go!


On Sunday we visited a local "mega church"...Calvary Church in Souderton, PA. The service reminded me a lot of my church back in Rochester and made me really miss Autumn Ridge and all the great people there. On the way back from church, Heidi directed us to Ringing Rocks State Park. Armed with a hammer, Daniel really made these rocks sing...

For lunch we were denied sushi (they didn't open until 4pm) and found a little diner that had just opened a few weeks before--nothing spectacular, but nice and quaint. At this point we were finally on our way to the City of Brotherly Love. With the late start and a little traffic delay, we didn't end up getting downtown until 4:30pm. Unfortunately, entrance into Independence Hall was no longer an option, but we did get to see the real Liberty Bell...they didn't let us ring it though, much to Kerrie's disappointment :)


While in Philly were also able to walk through the Reading Terminal Market (which was only open late because of the Flower Show) and enjoy some cheese steaks. We opted for Geno's (probably lured by the lights), but were told by our local expert that she preferred Pat's. Of course, I only tried a bite of the sandwich and enjoyed my "Freedom Fries" with cheeze-wiz!

At this point Daniel and I said our goodbyes to the girls and we headed our separate ways...

Note: To best document this trip photographically, I have used pictures taken by myself, Tracy, Ashley, and Kerrie (and a waitress at Bahama Breeze)!