Drive home from Philly

   I have always wanted to do a road trip with lots of points of interest along the way but I never do because I usually don't want to spend the time or the extra gas to go out of the way but this was perfect for us-the drive from Philadelphia to Michigan is a 10 hour drive...but not if you have a toddler. I designed the drive home with lots of stops so that our daughter would not go crazy being stuck in the car for that long, I also wanted to give her opportunities to run around and exhaust herself. So we'd drive for a few hours and stop for an hour or so, she'd take a nap and we could drive for another few hours. This did take us a bit out of the way but it turned 'a drive home' into bonus adventures.

Our first stop was only an hour and a half from our hotel to the Haines Shoe House-click on this link to hear all about our visit to this wacky architectural gem.

Our next stop was to Gettysburg. I really would have loved to soak up as much historical knowledge as possible but I knew that was not going to be an option with the little one, which was fine I mostly assumed that it was serve as a wide open space for our little one to spread her little wings. Which she surely did! What I didn't expect was that the town of Gettysburg was so charming, it was large but very quaint with dozens of antique stores and darling little hotels. So I've got something new to add to my life list-spend a long week end in Gettysburg and indulge in all the towns activities-including taking a tour on horse back of the Gettysburg battle grounds.

Beautiful walk to the visitors center

The next stop was an hour and forty five minutes from Gettysburg to a town called Old Bedford Village. It is a place that I have always wanted to stop at all the times I have driven past and seen it advertised on billboards. Unfortunately when we arrived it had just closed but it was still a place we could run around and take some pictures. It's a replica of an old town and the reason I was attracted to stop there was because bares a family name.

My new favorite flattering pose for pictures...you'll be seeing a lot of this!

Thus a 10 hour drive ended up taking us 15 hours with 3 stops to points of interest and many other stops for gas and bathroom breaks. It really helped break up the long drive and I will try to design all my future road trips with my daughter like this. It was a 7 hour drive from the Old Bedford Village to our house, there were plenty of places to stop but it was too late, everything was closed and it was too dark but since it was getting late Z mostly slept the rest of the way home.

Gettysburg

Gettysburg

Old Bedford Village

Old Bedford Village 

The end.

To read more about my 2012 summer road trip to Philadelphia click on the links below...

LIFE LIST: VISIT THE HAINES SHOE HOUSE
LIFE LIST: SESAME PLACE
2nd day in Philadelphia
1st day in Philadelphia
Valley Forge
One night in Pittsburgh
Last minute road trip
I'm back...I went