I’m going to throw these last two days into one post because I didn’t take many pictures. And both days involved a lot of driving.
Sunday we woke up and my dad had made biscuits and gravy. So we all filled up and got ready to head to Pennslyvania.
But not without going on a trip to Ikea!! It is a must if you are near one!
They loved the adventure.
We were just planning on driving to Nazareth, PA to stay the night so we could get up and do the Martin Guitar factory and then go to the Hershey’s Chocolate factory. But as we were driving, I realized we were driving through Hershey. So we pulled off and went there first.
The tour was a ride. It wasn’t the tour I was expecting/hoping for. I was hoping to see the actual process in the real factory. This was set up to be an entertaining ride that just describes the process. Still neat but not amazing.
We finally reached the hotel!!
Since we only had one tour to do the next day (Monday), we decided to try to drive all day and night until we got home. I think our whole family was so ready to just get home at that point. So we packed everything up and headed to the Martin factory. Don was really excited about it and I was happy to go along because I knew how much it meant to him.
The Martin museum
As we were browsing the gift shop (and Don bought a shirt), the worker asked Don if he wanted to play some of the high end guitars. So we went back to a special room with all the guitars set up. I think these guitars are worth around $5-6k. Don can correct me if I’m wrong. So Don played some of his music for us as we sang along.
The tour was about an hour long and very detailed. It’s amazing that it takes so many people and steps to make a guitar. While I’m not big on the subject matter, it was still an interesting tour.
Since the factory is so loud, everyone got a headset to hear our tour guide on his headset. Pretty convenient. And of course, we got stopped along the tour by an Asian woman who thought our kids were cute.
It was finally time to head home!! We left a little after 1pm (east coast time) and had a 14 hour drive ahead of us.
Lots of pretty views from the mountains
I wasn’t able to sleep so I stayed up all night and took over the driving around 3:30 (central time) to finish the drive.
We finally got home at 5am and were welcomed home by these signs!
We’ve never been more excited to be home!
Thank you Lovings for the signs, the poptarts, and for collecting our mail for us everyday!
And after only getting 3 hours of sleep, I do not regret driving all night. We got home sooner and without the crying and bathroom breaks that kids require.
We had such a fun, exhausting trip! We would love to visit the Outer Banks again some day.
But now, back to real life!
