Hershey, PA or Bust

In late January of 2007, Jessie and I went on an all-too-short roadtrip with our friends Steven and Phillip. We headed North, and our first night's stop found us in Winchester, VA. This nifty little town just happened to share the name of a pub in one of our favorite movies, so we decided to stay. Everything you ever wanted to know about Winchester can be found in the picture above.

The next day, we traveled farther north to our semi-final destination: Hershey, PA. This is where we would stay for the next day and a half. Hershey's Chocolate World is the place to be for all you chocoholics out there (but even I found it entertaining).

On Main Street of nearby Hummelstown, we visited The Soda Jerk (717-566-7707) which served up decent burgers and some awesome REAL cherry Coke (I was disappointed that there was NO soda jerk employed at The Soda Jerk, however).

No visit to Penn's Woods is complete without a tour of the Amish country around Lancaster. Here's the four of us as we visit some of the choice Amish farmland. And yes, Phillip, there are Amish people in Lancaster.

Here's the happy couple-the reason for our little road trip to the great (semi) white north. The wedding, containing a mixture of American and Venezuelan traditions, was quite cool. And, I have to admit, I was just a little bit jealous of Jonathan's outfit.

Blowing Rock, NC

Here's me and Jessie in Blowing Rock, NC along with various family members: Jason, Denise, Virgil, Josh, Jerry, Lauren, and Dale. Our families vacationed here for Christmas 2006 and in these first two pictures, we are visiting The Blowing Rock itself. If you visit, make sure to dress warm-the blowing rock is aptly named. The wind is like ice, but this is one spot that can't be missed if you are in the area.

While in town, we visited the cleverly-named Blowing Rock Cafe (349 Sunset Drive, 828-295-9474), which served up a fairly good lunch. The town's Main Street offers serveral good shops; among our favorites are: The Dulcimer Shop and High Country Candles.

The larger town of Boone is just a ten minute drive down the road, offering many more restraunts and shopping (there's even a Wal-Mart if you just can't live without one). As you can see from the picture of Mom, we enjoyed playing in the snow and ice; and the areas surrounding Blowing Rock provided plenty of oppertunities to play. Jessie and I went ice skating at Ski Mountain, located between Blowing Rock and Boone; and I even learned to ski. Nearby Grandfather Mountain is certainly worth a visit, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is certainly worth a drive.