11/1/08- Lebanon, PA

11/2/08 We arrived in Pennsylvania 9 days ago and are visiting with the children. It has been very cold this last week. Down to the 30’s at night and 50’d during the day. These past three days though have been wonderful. We are ready to move on to Florida.


The second day we were here we went to Harrisburg the Capitol of Pennsylvania. Wow, what a beautiful place. On the back entrance was a fountain that was colored pink for breast cancer awareness. It was beautiful even before we stepped in the doors.

The Capitol was opened 1906 after the first one was destroyed by fire. It is so amazing that almost all of the capitols we have seen so far, most were initially burned down. This was definitely a palace of art. In fact, a female artist, Violet Oakley was hired to paint most of the paintings when she was only 28 years old. It took her over 25 years to complete all the paintings. This was so far my favorite capitol building.

After our day at the capitol we had two days of rain. So, of course we sewed for two days with Penny, Dawn and Shirley. We went over to the center and spread our stuff out and had a great time.

No trip is complete without going to the chocolate factory. It was a cute little tour that was simulated. Colorful and bright, exactly what all children would like. I was disappointed at the end when all we got was one small piece of chocolate. Oh well, they had a gift shop so we bought more.




We drove out to Lancaster pronounced, Lanc-aster. This is the biggest area of Amish people in Pennsylvania. There were carts and buggies everywhere. As we drove by we wondered how they must feel with cars buzzing by so fast. Is must be kind of frightening at times. Of course we stopped by two quilt shops. Boy do they have some beautiful quilts. This is a picture of my latest quilt that I did for Jennifer.

One other day we went to Gettysburg and did a self guided tour with a CD. It was very interesting but a bit overwhelming. Gettysburg is the place where during the civil war Robert. E. Lee tried to take over the North but after three days of the bloodiest conflict ever fought in America Lee lost and retreated. Tens of thousands of men fought in this battle. There were over 51,000 casualties. The battle lasted three days but did not end the war. It went on for another 2 years.

The last day we were here Jennifer and the family came to visit. She had been in Florida for the past week. We had a nice visit with all the kids.
Well, tomorrow off to Washington DC.