Kerry grew up in a beautiful part of Pennsylvania, and we love to go back and visit! This summer we had the perfect excuse for a visit - Kerry's parents were going to be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and the siblings all decided it would be great to throw a surprise party for them. We all arranged to be visiting at the same time and I'm pretty sure we pulled off the surpise part of the party. We arrived in PA a few days before the party and spent one day running around Philadelphia with an old navy buddy of Kerry's and his two daughters.


Although it was blazing hot with incredible humidity we had a great day! The kids loved hearing the stories at the "Once Upon a Nation" story telling benches and I got to see Betsy Ross' house. Did you know she didn't actually make the first US flag? I'm pretty sure in elementary school I was told that & I've believed it all these years. A fabrication I was told, hmmmmm, I wonder what other truths I hold dear are fabrications. Something to ponder.

Back to my story, we got to see the famous Reading Terminal and sampled MANY yummy things! I think sampling local food is one of our family's favorite things about travelling. We had a cheesesteak, of course, but we also tried local ice cream, soft pretzels, honey from upstate, and the yummiest sticky buns ever from a Menonite stand. That was all in our first hour in Philadelphia! We slowed down on the eating just a bit, but basically nibbled our way through a gorgeous town that I'll be glad to visit again.




After our full day of touristing in Philadelphia we headed up to the much quieter mountains where Kevin & Sandy live & where the festivities were going to be held. Kevin & Sandy have a beautiful spot - 15 acres with a pond for fishing, cool old farmhouse they're renovating and TONS of wild berries ripe for the pickin! The party went off without a hitch, Kerry's parents seemed genuinely surprised (and luckily pleased) to see all the kids and about 30 others excited to celebrate such an event. We'd been able to get pictures from their wedding that no one had seen in forever put into a photo album and gave it to them as a gift. The rest of our visit was much more focused on spending time with aunts, uncles, cousins, neices, and nephews. We spent lots of time chatting, eating, fishing & just playing! I had such a good time getting to spend time with that part of my extended family that I miss so much throughout the year!





For our last day on the east coast we all went to Knoebels - the oldest family owned amusement park in the US. It was so fun! I'm usually not an amusement park type person - I don't really like Disneyland or Six Flaggs, it's just not my thing, but this was such a cool place. It was a beautiful setting, and lots of the rides were classic and unique. We had a great time!