Family and Touring

Tours are just a part of the reason we wanted to visit here.  Ok, it's why we came here.  But while we're here, we may as well visit family.  The last time we were in Colorado, we set up a yurt for my mom.  My mom then got my aunts to come on up and visit.  Famly reunion--yeah!!!!  

We started Monday with a trip to Herr's.  I love their Salt & Vinegar chips, absolutely love them.  Which is good, because it took us almost two hours to get there.  We had to head into Maryland to get back to the right part of Pennsylvania for this tour.  And the roads are not kind to me.  What a sickening set of roads to get there.  And I think Google maps was just playing a joke on us.  I think there must be some sort of major highway we could have taken.  But we made it to our reservation on time, and what a great way to start our day!  After getting to see their production and learn more about the variety of products, we got to sample and purchase.  And just as we were leaving, the school buses were rolling in.  I love going on field trips with so few kiddos.  And who's doing a field trip at the end of the school year?  We managed a full day of touring (Herr's, George's Furniture, Hershey's) before picking up my mom.  And for dinner, we met up with my aunt and uncle, who also made it in that day.  For my other aunt we had to wait for the following morning.  But she did show up, and the gang of us began our whirlwind tour of the area.                            

We revisited Perrydell and checked out the cows being milked, the calves being fed, and the ice cream being scooped.  Perhaps our first day wasn't nearly as whirlwind as imagined.  But it was tasty.  We also did a couple different potato chip tours on their visit.  But the best tour was the pretzel tour.                  

We visited Revonah in Hanover.  Watching them twist the pretzels so quickly was pretty cool.  And I learned that the pretzels I bought from Sturgis (the only hand twisted ones they sell), are actually made by Revonah.  Sigh.  So I didn't buy any hard pretzels, since the pretzels I already bought were actually from their factory, but I did buy soft pretzels.  They were TASTY!!!!  A few of the people who work at the factory have been connected to the factory for a very long time, so that was pretty cool.                                

The tours were fun, but I had the most fun hanging at camp, playing games, sitting by the fire and talking.  Uncle Ray brought his corn hole game, which none of us except Uncle Ray were any good at playing, but we all had a blast trying.  Uncle Ray kept trying to show us how to throw his fancy way, but I don't think any of us are all the fancy, so it just wasn't working!                                  

                       

                       

We got to visit Painted Spring Alpacas.  We enjoyed our trip in Oregon last summer better, but it's always fun to see how people have set up their farms and what they hope to achieve with it.                    

Right before Mom, Aunt Monica, and Uncle Ray headed out of town, we got one more batch of family.  Yvonne and her family came up and spent a couple hours with us.  While we didn't get to spend a lot of time, it was nice to see them all again.  It's been several years since I've seen my cousin and her family, and many more since my family got to see hers.  Along our trip we've gotten to see many family gatherings at campgrounds, and I've been wanting one of our own, so this trip was a little dream come true.