Lancaster/Hershey, PA

Lancaster, PA: full of cute little old towns and farms as far as the eye can see.
There no big highways to travel far around here, in truth it's mostly just country roads that take you where you want to go and with top speeds of 45 MPH nobody's in a big hurry.

The Lancaster Central Market: Built in 1889, the Lancaster Central Market is the oldest continuously operated farmers market in the United States, and many tourists come to purchase the handmade Amish goods that are not commonly found elsewhere. Central Market is also the center of the city's growing 'green' movement, allowing people to purchase organic and/or locally grown foods. Central Market is listed with the National Register of Historic Places, and its towers are of the Romanesque Revival style. The market underwent renovations beginning in July 2010, during which certain sections were closed off; though it remained in operation during this time.
I found the most amazing things here, you can raw milk, goose eggs, fresh butchered meats, fruit, vegetables and baked goods as well lunch all under the same roof.
















The Amish: The Amish (/ˈɑːmɪʃ/; Pennsylvania German: Amisch, German: Amische) are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to, but distinct from, Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, and reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology. The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish.
To be honest I'm not sure how much longer the Amish can sustain this old way, they are already slowly moving more towards the Mennonite way of practice, originally they differed of the use of modern tools and power but are quickly coming to use them, they still try to draw a line but it is a very thin line, they don't have electricity or phone in the house but have a landline in the chicken coop, use compressed air and propane and gas powered tools, solar panels and more, so for example they might still pull their crop harvester with horses but there's a gas powered bundler attached to the back of it or mow the lawn manually but use a gas blower for the driveway, when I asked someone how this is still keeping with the old ways I was told that as long as their house doesn't  have electricity that it is deemed ok even by the old order. Sooooooo ?

Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. Hershey's chocolates are made in Hershey, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey.

Milton Snavely Hershey (September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945) was an American confectioner and philanthropist. He founded the Hershey Chocolate Company and the "company town" of Hershey, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a great success. As he and his wife had no children, they turned to philanthropy.
Milton Hershey was born on September 13, 1857 to Henry and Veronica "Fanny" Snavely Hershey. Born the son of a Christian father, his family were members of Pennsylvania's Mennonite community. His ancestors were Swiss and German and had settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. He grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. Like many rural young people of the time, Milton was expected to help out on the family farm, and he learned early on of the value of hard work and perseverance. Henry Hershey rarely stayed anywhere very long, and was prone to leaving his wife and child for long periods. Because of this, Hershey had a very limited education with no schooling after 4th grade.
his mother arranged for the 14-year-old Hershey to be apprenticed to a confectioner named Joseph Royer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Over the next four years, Hershey learned the craft of creating confections. In 1876, he moved to Philadelphia to start his first confectionery business.
Hershey returned to Lancaster in 1883. He borrowed money from the bank to start the Lancaster Caramel Company, which quickly became an outstanding success. He used the caramel recipe he had obtained during his previous travels to make candies. Also, from his previous travels, he learned that caramels sell better in bulk, so that is what he did. Milton Hershey didn't have it easy in the begining, he went bankrupt 4 times before finally finding success with his caramels, then came his next venture, After a travel to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition, he sparked an interest in chocolate.
He spent 2 years perfecting what would become the Hershey Chocolate Bar, After a long time of deciding, he took a risk and sold Lancaster Caramel Company for one million dollars to start the famous Hershey Chocolate Company.

Hershey’s Chocolate World is the name of eight visitor centers which started in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States.
Open year-round, Hershey's Chocolate World offers marketplace shops and restaurants, specializing in Hershey's chocolate products. Attractions include Hershey's Great Chocolate Factory Mystery in 4D, the Hershey Trolley Works, Wrap Happiness, and a free Chocolate Tour ride.









Go inside to the worlds largest candy store and buy chocolate bars, Reese's butter cups and KitKat's as big as the mid-section of your body.

Or you can go through the small scale factory set up and create your own Chocolate bar.

The process is really cool, you pick everything you want it filled with, what kind of chocolate you want.

You then get to watch it made as it rolls down the conveyor belt getting all the bits and pieces you have chosen.

After getting filled with its top layer of chocolate it goes through the cooling tank and then packaging.

You use a printer to style and decorate your own wrapper and TADA! You have a confection of your own design.

Riding the trolley we learned a lot more about Hershey, his wife Catherine "Kitty" Sweeney whom he married in 1898 was unable to have children ( I can relate), scientist now believe that she had MS that caused her health problems, infertility and subsequent death at an early age.
Due to their love of children and desire to help people they founded the Hershey Industrial School, The Milton Hershey School is a private philanthropic (pre-K through 12) boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The school was originally established for impoverished, healthy, male orphans, while today it serves students of various backgrounds. The Milton Hershey School Trust, which funds the school, owns controlling interest in The Hershey Company and owns the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company (HE&R) which oversees many of the area hotels along with a theme park called Hersheypark. With over eleven billion dollars in assets, the Milton Hershey School is one of the wealthiest schools in the world. The school is overseen by a Board of Managers. Originally only housing 4 boys they now have over 2000 children that get to go here. Married couples with no children would act as care givers for the boys all the way to graduation, they then would also get a scholarship for college. This went then to orphaned boys with no parents but now goes to child from families of lesser means, boys and girls alike from all over the country, The Hershey chocolate world , theme park , store funds as well as others all go toward the trust for this school, since they didn't have children and Milton was an only child all the company was turned over to the trust and board to keep it running. Several boys that graduated from this school went on to be CEO's of the company and board, the opportunity that is given to the children that go here is truly a blessing and shows that when you have of being rich no matter what your walk of life, it gives you the opportunity to help change lives for the better. I already love Hershey's chocolate but now knowing what the purchase of a butter cup is doing for the world I will feel no guilt in eating them.

Enjoy the precious life we are given and don't forget, be kind to one another.

Virginia/Washington DC

Williamsburg, VA
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting part of a historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Colonial Williamsburg's 301-acre (122 ha) Historic Area includes buildings from the eighteenth century (during part of which the city was the capital of Colonial Virginia), as well as 17th-century, 19th-century, Colonial Revival structures and more recent reconstructions. The Historic Area is an interpretation of a colonial American city, with exhibits of dozens of restored or re-created buildings related to its colonial and American Revolutionary War history.

The town is really quite charming and takes you back to a different time.

The Governor's Palace: in Williamsburg, Virginia was the official residence of the Royal Governors of the Colony of Virginia. It was also a home for two of Virginia's post-colonial governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, until the capital was moved to Richmond in 1780, and with it the Governor's residence. The main house burned down in 1781, though the outbuildings survived for some time after.
 The Governor's Palace was reconstructed in the 1930s on its original site. It is one of the two largest buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the other being the Capitol.

The Rockefeller's bought the land for restoration in the 1920's, they wanted to preserve the colonial town for future generations to experience and learn from, the sad part is that there was many historical buildings from the 1800's here as well that were all removed. 

Bruton Parish Church is located in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It was established in 1674 by the consolidation of two previous parishes in the Virginia Colony, and remains an active Episcopal parish. The building, constructed 1711-15, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 as a well-preserved early example of colonial religious architecture.
It is still a working church today.




Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, who began designing and building Monticello at age 26 after inheriting land from his father. Located just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, in the Piedmont region, the plantation was originally 5,000 acres (20 km²), with Jefferson using slaves for extensive cultivation of tobacco and mixed crops, later shifting from tobacco cultivation to wheat in response to changing markets. The current Nickel (United States coin) features a depiction of Monticello on the reverse.

There are a lot of things I could put here about President Jefferson, he is a well known man, famous for different things but as I learned more about his life and Presidency I became acutely aware of what his true motives in life were, as a result I thought I should be more honest about who he was as a man, Thomas Jefferson was a well respected man, he was a wealthy man to be sure but he gained his fortune off the backs of others, he was a slave owner of over 150 slaves, all of which grew and harvested his cotton that made him rich but also grew his food, as president he was approached about helping to end slavery, his response was that it was another generations job. He could have made great strides in this endeavor but without slave labor he knew he would not be able to retain his wealth or lifestyle, I see him as being a very selfish man that should have put justice before fortune.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as "Washington", "the District", or simply "D.C.", is the capital of the United States.
The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. The U.S. Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, which included the pre-existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria. Named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia; in 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the District.

I found DC a little disappointing, it was pretty filthy, way over crowded, the people were insane, everyone jaywalked even on the highways through it, as big cities go it wasn't for me.
It makes since that this is where our laws are made because nothing made since or functioned properly there. also they call the white house the peoples house because it's suppose to belong to us but I've never owned a house that I couldn't go in, so that's bogus.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) — formerly known as the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB) and even earlier as the State, War, and Navy Building — is a U.S. government building situated just west of the White House in the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. Maintained by the General Services Administration, it is occupied by the Executive Office of the President, including the Office of the Vice President of the United States.
Honestly this building was way more impressive than the White House, it was easily four times the size with amazing design.

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational foundation chartered by Congress in 1846 that maintains most of the nation's official museums and galleries in Washington, D.C. The U.S. government partially funds the Smithsonian and its collections open to the public free of charge. The Smithsonian's locations had a combined total of 30 million visits in 2013. The most visited museum is the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Other Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries on the mall are: the National Air and Space Museum; the National Museum of African Art; the National Museum of American History; the National Museum of the American Indian; the Sackler and Freer galleries, which both focus on Asian art and culture; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the Arts and Industries Building; the S. Dillon Ripley Center; and the Smithsonian Institution Building (also known as "The Castle"), which serves as the institution's headquarters.



The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in 1937 for the American people by a joint resolution of the United States Congress.

 This museum holds lots of my favorite artist, from degas, to Picasso and many more.


Degas's ballerina's are some of my favorite pieces.

The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
He is one of my favorite presidents, honoring true values that made our country better.







Two of my favorite Lincoln quotes are:

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

All in all this was a great trip, we got to see old friends, learn new things and experience fine art, it makes me remember how much we are divided by our own prejudices and how the best way forward is always to open ones heart and mind to difference and understanding, I pray for our nation that this happens for all of us, because united we stand, divided we fall. As always remember to be kind to one another. 

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html