The mountains are calling and I must go....

 We arrived at the camp in Vermont last night. We had a good trip and saw a lot!

We left Ocala on Sunday morning with the plan to drive all the way up to North Carolina with one stop in Georgia to see St. Simons lighthouse. 129 steps to the top. Oh my legs the next few days!

There might have been a Buc Ees stop this day too!

Monday we had tickets to see Mt. Vernon in the afternoon. We did the tour of the house and the National Treasure Tour and learned of the planning and ideas from scoping out the property and how they filmed the one scene there on the outer lawn for the Presidents Birthday party in the movie. It was very hot! I kinda wanted to stay in the basement as it was nice and cool..... although a bit short for my tall boy!

This was the real marker in the basement.

Mt. Vernon. There is a beautiful view of the Potomic. So glad the ladies bought this land and preserved it for all to see and enjoy. 

We travelled over to DC and checked in to our hotel. Ironically, it was located across the street from the Department of Education! I work for a student loan company in Vermont to assure that Vermonter are able to procure a higher education. Two projects at work are waiting on clear documentation from this department - one being a complete rewrite of their system! That one will be 'fun' with a go live of December. 

Tuesday we walked all over DC from one end to the other and I got 26,000+ steps. We saw a lot of the monuments, walked the mall and went to 2 Smithsonian museums. Turns out we needed timed entry tickets to the Air and Space museum, so I booked that for the return trip. 

We saw 2 albino squirrels on the Mall. 

This is the one I really wanted to see. 

We found a great deli and pizza place that we visited multiple times. Yummy food! Wednesday we drove to Gettysburg, PA and enjoyed a bus tour of the battlefields with a guide. 

Then we drove to Hershey PA and visited the factory. We did the tour after walking through and marveling at all the candy and things in the store! We had dinner there and then did the make your own chocolate bar.

This was Emily and her self decorated bar. It was pretty neat to pick and choose the base, the fillings and how to top it with or without sprinkles. It came in a neat metal box.... which will be perfect for sewing!

Aidan and his with lobsters on his design.

I created mine from scratch instead of picking the generic ones!

Yesterday, we visited Ft. Ticonderoga in NY and then crossed the bridge into Vermont. The kids wanted to go to Al's French Fries in Burlington. We hit that for dinner and then headed to the camp. 

The view this morning. I see my brother has not gotten the boat here yet. I might have just sent this photo to them and asked what was missing from the photo! It is a little foggy here, not smoky too much although there is a warning for air quality. Not as bad as PA was where we could barley see the mountains through the smoke. 

We are all relaxed and enjoying the cooler weather her in Vermont.