Our Pennsylvania Road Trip: What I Read and What We Did

My husband and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania over the 4th of July weekend to visit some of his Marine Corps buddies. It had been a long time since he had seen them, so it was a nice little reunion. Let’s get into some of the highlights of our trip.

What I READ

The trip from our part of Alabama to Pennsylvania took us about twelve hours, so I had plenty of time to read. I wanted to take a light, fluffy vacation read, but Brandon Sanderson has me hooked. I didn’t want to read anything but The Well of Ascension. However, I learned that this wasn’t the best book to travel with. You really need to focus on this one, and I spent too much time looking around. So obviously I didn’t read as much as I planned, but it was still fun to have when we were stuck in holiday traffic.

What I Snacked on

We stopped at a gas station in Virginia that had these locally made chips. I bought several flavors, but I was most excited about the sweet potato ones. Let me tell you, they were just as good as I imagined. The sweet potato flavor was intensified by the cooking process. I devoured a bag of them in a few minutes. I’m going to have to find out if I can have them shipped to Alabama because I’m obsessed.

What We Did

Crystal Cave

I love caves, so I was thrilled when we visited Crystal Cave. It was a lot of fun. I always forget about the striking temperature difference between the depths of the cave and the outside. Luckily, I had a jacket with me.

I’ve visited several caves, but this one was a little bit different. On some of their walls they had a mineral embedded that made the whole room sparkle, giving it the name Crystal Cave. Pictures couldn’t do it justice. If you’re ever in the area I highly suggest visiting it.

Lehigh Valley Zoo

Lastly, we visited the Lehigh Valley Zoo. I was horrible at pictures on this entire trip. The ones I’m sharing are literally the only ones I took. I think it’s fitting that the only zoo picture I took was of a raven. I watched this little guy for a while. He was very vocal. He also had a porcupine roommate that was very cute.

The Drive Home

I couldn’t talk about this trip and not mention the ride home. We left at like 7:00-ish on the night of the fourth. A majority of our drive we were up on mountains and there were fireworks everywhere. It was beautiful. I was sad because we weren’t going to be able to make it to any firework shows that weekend, but the fireworks we ended up seeing were prettier than any show could provide. And it was like that a majority of the night. We drove up until about one or two and they were everywhere. And then when we made it into West Virginia we saw the crosses that I have pictured. They absolutely dominated the sky. I think I’ll remember this ride home for years to come.

So that was our Pennsylvania road trip. It was a beautiful place with a lot of fun things to do. I think I would like to go back one day. I would love to visit Gettsyburg and some of the other attractions that we just didn’t have time for. So let me know your favorite Pennsylvania attraction in the comments!