Spring Break

The week before Easter, aka Spring Break was rather quiet. Mainly because our resident teenager, aka Natalie was able to take a trip out west to see her sisters. It was nice to have time away from work to catch up on things at home. Unfortunately, Skip was NOT away from work. He was very busy working on preparations for the Nuclear Summit. On Wednesday, he was able to set things aside for awhile, and we decided to get away from Virginia and see a little of our neighboring state of Pennsylvania.

We booked a two night stay at a Ramada Inn in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The great thing about Ramada Inns is they have Sleep Number Beds, something we would really like to have someday. So, yes they were two VERY comfortable nights, with better than average linens as well!

Here's a picture of our hotel taken from our driving tour of Valley Forge the next day:



We loved seeing Valley Forge, a place we've heard about for so long, where George Washington and the continental army set up winter camp in 1777-78. It is 29 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The British were occupying Philadelphia and so it was a good place to keep and eye on them. After seeing a little of the visitors center museum and movie, we took the driving tour through what to me was a surprisingly large area, with several camps.

George Washington looks a lot like Skip!


Skip beside one of the recreated cabins.



A Memorial Arch:



George Washington used a rented house as his headquarters:




Doesn't 29 years of marriage look great on us?


We spent the rest of the day in Philadelphia walking around the historic areas.





We visited the Reading Market, where we had the best pastrami sandwich in the world at a deli stand there. We should have taken a picture of the sandwich, but you can tell how good it was by Skip's smile!





The next day, we drove back to Virginia via Lancaster county, aka Amish country, and had just enough time to stop at the Holtzfus meat store and a market. The spring looked so beautiful there.

Back at home we enjoyed two days of General Conference, then hosted a family Easter Dinner on Sunday. We picked up Natalie on Monday, and celebrated her birthday on Tuesday at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Jeri and Doug Pennock and their three children had arrived late Sunday night to spend their Easter break in Virgina. Natalie got to go to D.C. with them the next day.