After Gatlinburg we drove for what felt like FOREVER and made it to our pitstop at Charlottesville, Virginia right at about sundown. The drive in through the scenic Skyview Highway was incredible.
It was Alex’s birthday so instead of trying to book it to one of the wineries or attractions we’d heard about – we took her to the local Toys R’ Us and let her use some of the gift cards from her birthday party. We also let her choose her spot for dinner and, big surprise, she picked Chilis.
We spent the evening hanging out in the Hotel Room playing toys, and woke up early to head on to our next destination, Philadelphia, PA!
The drive to Philly wasn’t nearly as exciting as driving through the mountains – loads of traffic and highway travel. The kids did great but understandably were pretty wiggly and SO ready to get out of the car. Our first Philadelphia destination was the Please Touch Museum, where the kids had an absolute BLAST. Originally, we weren’t even sure if we were going to stop in Philly – but a friend recommended PTM and as soon as I saw what it was about I knew our family couldn’t miss an opportunity to experience it! And I am SO glad we did. The girls’ favorite part of the museum was either the Alice in Wonderland maze or the Grocery Store. It was a little too packed for the girls to really engage in the activities and exhibits because it was pretty chaotic – but we were there on a Holiday Weekend and we were expecting the crowd. They ran up and down and back and forth literally touching EVERYTHING and enjoyed making friends with other kids. They had some fun 4th of July activities set up throughout the Museum which was a really cool bonus, but it was a little too packed to really participate in them. I would recommend this museum to ANYONE AND EVERYONE with children of all ages because there is definitely something for everyone – just not on a holiday. Here are some of my faves from our Please Touch Museum experience.
By the time we got back to the hotel, it was about 5pm and we just hung out in our hotel and let the girls play with their toys for a bit. Then we decided to venture out for some food – and of course the Scooter came along. We scooted through Ritten Square and ate at a British pub called The Dandelion.
We watched the sun go down from our Hotel Window and said Hello to the city lights!
The next day we woke up and explored a bit – we found an AWESOME sidewalk breakfast spot called Luna Cafe. I found it on Yelp and realized very quickly it was the right choice when we walked up to a packed sitting area. Everything is made fresh, the food was AWESOME and the kids’ pancakes were soft and fluffy and just yumsters.
After, we enjoyed walking through the Independence Day celebrations the city was hosting. Since our hotel was in close proximity to Independence Hall, there was lots of walkable stuff to do! We couldn’t go into any of the historical areas because the crowds were pretty intense and the lines were pretty much from the building back to Florida. We found a window through which we could actually see the Liberty Bell without standing in line, so that worked for us! We listened to a few storytellers and saw some of the sights. I worked to try to explain some of the importance of the city in American History, but Alex wasn’t really QUITE understanding what “America was born” or “We declared our freedom from the king of England” actually means. Once we venture into learning real American History I’ll be able to show her some of these photos and hopefully she’ll make the connection.
It was actually a pretty hot day – and we were all pretty tired and ready to get going to our Final Destination: Our cousins at the lake in Connecticut! It was nice Philly – Javy and I will DEFINITELY be back without the kids so we can try all of the amazing food spots we saw.
I leave you with a photo of one of my children who has to go to the bathroom – which has apparently become the theme of this road trip.
Stay tuned for our next stop! East Haddam, Connecticut! <3
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