Arrived in Philly and made the drive out to Gettysburg on Wednesday (longer than I thought it was going to be). Hotel wasn%26#39;t ready (Holiday Inn Battlefield) so headed to the AAA office in town to purchase discount tickets to Hershey. Didn%26#39;t have much time left our first day, but made a short visit to Adams County Winery. Nice little place, nice drive, good tastings (although they could be a bit larger on the size of the tastings). Ended up having dinner at the Dobbins House which was very very good.
Thursday was spent at Hershey Park. Great coasters. Place is a bit cramped and grew old of paying $3 a bottle for water, but that%26#39;s the price of visiting a theme park. Lines wern%26#39;t horribly bad for a Thursday; longest wait was over an hour on the new Farenheight and that was because the ride shut down for weather. Didn%26#39;t want to hassle with dinner (way too tired) so just ended up at Ruby Tuesdays.
Friday began with the horseback tour of the battlefield. Have to say I was a bit disappointed that the park services guide failed to show and we were stuck with a CD version of the tour. Weather was beautiful and ride was nice; very professional. Could have taken a different route back to make it a full circle instead of the exact way we went out. From there we had about 2 hours to kill in the visitor%26#39;s center. Wow. What an amazing place. Wish we had more time there but got a good once-over as we ';flew through';.
From there it went down hill: the scenic train ride. What a joke and an awful waste of time and money. My husband ordered the conductor%26#39;s lunch on-line in an effort to save time. Just a sandwich, chips, soda and bag of stale cookies for $7. Could have done better at the McD%26#39;s value meal board. But the ride. Wow. The conductor was lacking personality until he was done reading from his script at which time he came to each seat and started talking to us. The ';scenery'; was the back end of Gettysburg college, a short view of the battlefield, woods, and people%26#39;s back yards. And it too came back the exact way it went out therefore subjecting me to the same awesome scenery I just witnessed. Could not ever recommend that to anyone. I just went back and read the reviews; not sure why I missed those before we booked. In any case, nice chance to sit down a bit and relax.
From there we did the CD tour of the battlefield. CD was nicely done and the route perfectly laid out. Had to cut it a bit short as we were running out of time. Had a decent dinner and great beer (thanks for the suggestions) at Appalacian Brewing Company. From there it was the ghost tour of Seminary Ridge. Another waste of time and money. No, didn%26#39;t really expect to see a ghost (although it would have been nice) but we just walked by three buildings and the tour guide told of her mom%26#39;s ghost stories. Maybe her mom should have done the tour.
Saturday we packed up and headed back to Philly to fly home. The Holiday Inn was ok; location great, awful charges for everything. Ate breakfast at a nice little restaurant across the street. PA has some strange alcohol laws, like you can only buy a six-pack from certain restaurants? And there was only one guy in town who sold wine. Hmmm. Overall, liked the visit very much and learned tons about the battle and the war (sort of slept through history in school...) and glad we made the trip. Had enough time to try some more cheesesteaks in Philly (this time we did the Pat vs. Genos tastings) and had a beer at the City Tavern.
No comments:
Post a Comment