We drove through Indiana (passing South Bend along the way) and into Ohio via the Ohio Turnpike. We weren’t sure what the difference was between a turnpike and a tollway but once we started driving on it we noticed there were no billboards and plenty of state police. The rest areas were also called “service plazas”.

Since we were in Ohio, Kyle wanted to eat 5 way chili so we drove to a nearby Skyline Chili for dinner. We also tried “Funnel Fries”!

Relaxing back at the hotel-glad it finally stopped raining...

After driving through heavy rain in the mountains we decided to stop for lunch \240after getting off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Kyle wanted to check out Eat’n Park since we’ve never eaten at one before. No idea why there’s an elephant in the parking lot. Inside reminds me of a Baker’s Square.

Kyle and Steve tried the Philly Cheesesteak but weren’t sure how authentic it was. We’ll have to compare when we get to Philadelphia.

We visited the Flight 93 National Memorial in rural Pennsylvania. It was interesting to learn about this flight because I don’t remember hearing as much about it on the news as the other 3 planes that got hijacked on 9/11.

We stopped at a service plaza so Steve could take a power nap. Kyle can’t drive in Pennsylvania with just a drivers permit and I was a little sleepy too so wasn’t much help. The kids and I got smoothies while Steve napped.

Back on the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading towards Harrisburg-we drove through 3 tunnels.

Our first State Capitol building of this road trip! Jenna thought it was one of the prettier ones because of the fountain and colored lights.

After checking in at the hotel we headed to Riverfront Park in Harrisburg. Along with fireworks for the Fourth of July, Harrisburg was also hosting a food truck festival with over 40 to choose from. We kept joking that the whole event was “anti-Chicago”. The parking garage rates went DOWN because it was a special event and the food prices weren’t outrageously overpriced!

We chose to eat on Walnut Street Bridge so we would have a good view of the fireworks. It was our first time watching fireworks from a bridge!

The grand finale!

We stopped by Gettysburg National Military Park and got the second stamp in our national parks passports on this road trip. The park is quite large and can be overwhelming with so many monuments and markers all over the place. We listened to a driving tour guide in the car to get a better sense of the 3 day battle-which troops were where, who did what and the kind of conditions they were fighting in.

We finally meandered into Maryland but it was on a little country road so I totally missed taking a picture of the “welcome to Maryland” sign!

It seems like we’re eating lunch later and later every day. We stopped and ate at a Roy Rogers since we had never eaten at one before.

After checking in to our hotel we decided to check out downtown Baltimore. We drove to Federal Hill Park and got a great view of the city and Inner Harbor,

Since we were in Maryland we decided to eat some crab the way locals do-with a mallet.

Jenna gives it a whack!

After working so hard for dinner (and working up a sweat) we rewarded ourselves with gelato from Pitango’s in the nearby Fells Point neighborhood.

Today we drove to Valley Forge (just outside Philadelphia). We didn’t have a lot of time so we just did a brief auto tour.

We did walk down to see Washington’s Headquarters. Apparently Washington stayed here with Martha and 25 soldiers.

As reciprocal members we were able to get into The Franklin Institute for free. We bought tickets to the Marvel Superheroes exhibit as well as for an escape room experience at 2:30 pm. Because of traffic we barely made it to the museum in time. We did, however, “escape” successfully.

We had time in between finishing the escape room and going to the Marvel exhibit so we hung out at the “Sports Zone” exhibit. Kyle showed he’s got jumps...

The Marvel Superheroes exhibit was pretty cool. You never knew who was going to photo bomb your picture.

We were close to the Philadelphia Museum of Art so we decided to do the touristy thing and run up the “Rocky” stairs. Kyle did it 3 times because the first time he forgot to record it and the second time he thought he was recording it but didn’t.

It was the first time we stayed at a hotel in Chinatown. The location was very convenient-we could walk to Reading Terminal Market and Independence Hall.

We went back to The Franklin Institute since we could get in free and there really wasn’t anything else we were dying to do.

It was less than a 5 minute walk to Reading Terminal Market from our hotel so we went to explore it for lunch. It was quite overwhelming and we had a hard time choosing what to eat.

We had some time before our Independence Hall tour so Steve and I explored Chinatown in search of pastries to supplement the hotel’s breakfast.

We walked over to Independence Hall early so we could explore the complex and pick up our tour tickets.

After our tour we walked over to see the Liberty Bell. The abolitionists were the first ones to call it the “Liberty Bell”.

We cooled off with shakes and slushies at the Visitors Center so we weren’t hungry for dinner until late. Steve picked up some gai lan and rice to supplement our leftovers from yesterday.

After eating Chinese pastries for breakfast we walked back over to Reading Terminal Market. Kyle insisted we should try a Philly cheesesteak while in Philadelphia so we picked some up for the road.

It was State Capitol Day for us-we went to a road trip record 3 state capitol buildings in one day!

Another thing we had a hard time finding was a “Welcome to NJ” sign and a welcome center so Kyle could find a state map. We exited and entered 2 times from Pennsylvania and couldn’t find any. We had to exit and re-enter from Delaware in order to find one.

The next stop was Delaware. We had no trouble accessing the building but Kyle had a difficult time parking because the parking slots were angled in such a way that you had to back into them.

Before heading to Annapolis we detoured to St. Michael to get an up close look at Chesapeake Bay. Kyle drove and complained because the route was all state routes and country roads.

To get to Annapolis we had to drive over the 4.3 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Kyle was driving and I was in the front passengers seat so I got a (too) good view over the side of the bridge as it felt like he was coming perilously close to the edge.

Since we were back in Maryland we got more seafood, but this time lobster rolls and lobster grilled cheese. They were pretty good and a lot easier to eat than the crab!

There was an ice cream shop in the same building as the restaurant so of course we had to check it out and try the cookie ice cream sandwiches...

Our first (and only) national capitol! We arrived early enough to find street parking in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The first exhibit we went to was Music Hall where Kyle took a picture with some Stradivarius instruments.

One of the special exhibits was about the Japanese Americans’ internment during WW II.

We debated where to eat lunch and wanted someplace quick within walking distance. What could be easier than picking up some shwarma at City’s Best Kabobs food truck right outside the museum entrance?

After lunch we walked to the National Mall to see all the historic monuments paying homage to Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson.

For dinner we drove to Arlington to get some Italian food. We tried the “pick your own pasta” option where you could keep getting more noodles to go with the sauce you ordered.

On the way back to the hotel we did a drive by of the Pentagon. We wanted to see the Pentagon Memorial but didn’t want to park and walk over to it so we kept on going.

We did park and walk over to the World War II Memorial so we could see the monuments lit up at night.

On our second day in D.C. we went to another Smithsonian Museum-the National Air and Space Museum. It was a little disappointing because the museum was undergoing renovations so more than half of the exhibits were closed.

It was about a 15 minute walk in the heat from our hotel to the U.S. Capitol building.

We were on the last tour of the day. Our guide was very knowledgeable about all the statues in the Capitol and the history of the building.

We walked over to the Japanese American Memorial on the way back to the hotel.

We were pretty tired after all that walking around in 90 degree heat so we decided to stay “in” for dinner.

Before leaving D.C. we stopped by the Newseum. Kyle had heard positive reviews of it from some of his friends. One of the first exhibits had the front page of today’s newspaper from cities around the world.

There were exhibits that highlighted various “big” news stories throughout history.

One of the more moving exhibits was about how journalists covered the 9/11 attacks,

We finally said “goodbye” to Washington D.C. and drove through Maryland to get to Virginia.

We stopped for a late lunch at a Subway right before we reached Virginia.

We crossed the Potomac River via the Governor Harry Nice Memorial Bridge.

On the way to dinner we stopped by the Virginia State Capitol. It was another one that was difficult to access because of construction.

For dinner we tried various ramen at Tenka Ramen.

We started our day at Tredegar Iron Works-one of the Visitors Centers for the Richmond National Battlefield Park. It was a munitions factory but we also learned about how Grant tried but failed to defeat Lee.

Then we drove out to Cold Harbor where the battle actually took place. We saw some of the trenches that both Confederate and Union soldiers had dug.

Then it was on to the next national park site-Historic Jamestowne. This was the first permanent settlement in North America and there are ongoing archeological digs at the settlement.

We drove along the Colonial National Parkway to get to Yorktown. It was a much more serene route than driving on an interstate!

We did a brief tour of the Visitors Center and the battlefield.

We had skipped lunch altogether so we stopped for an early dinner after Yorktown. Kyle ordered the “Mississippi Peacemaker” which was a sandwich “bigger than his face”.

We crossed Chesapeake Bay again-this time via the Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel. We didn’t know why the first part was a tunnel and then it turned into a really long bridge.

We finally crossed into North Carolina!

So it probably wasn’t the best timing that we were headed for the Outer Banks today. We ran into all kinds of traffic trying to cross the lone bridge on the north side of the Banks. Lots of cars looked like they were headed there for a weekend of relaxation as they were loaded down with kayaks, bikes, fishing gear, surf boards, etc or they were towing along boats.

We had learned about the Wright Brothers first flight at the Air and Space Museum so it was interesting to see where it had actually happened.

We drove further south and stopped at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It was way too hot to climb up the Bodie Island Lighthouse.

Our last stop on the Outer Banks was the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

Kyle had to drive over a couple of long bridges to get us back to the mainland.

We stopped for another late lunch st Columbia Crossing Restaurant.

After checking in to our hotel we took a vacation from our vacation. We saw “Spider-Man Far From Home” and were the only ones in the theater.

We picked up a late dinner of shakes and sandwiches at Cook Out (another restaurant Kyle had heard of and wanted to try).

We stopped in Raleigh to get a picture of our last state capitol on this road trip.

Since we had time we checked out the free natural sciences museum.

We arrived at Guilford a little before it closed so we had just enough time to browse the exhibits, watch the movie about the battle, and stamp our national parks passports in the bookstore.

Our first fro-yo stop on this road trip!

As we continued to head west we started getting into the hills. We’ve seen it all in North Carolina-coastal areas, flat plains, and now rolling hills.

We had a late dinner and decided to make the “safe” choice of eating at Olive Garden. A lot of the nearby restaurants were closed and the other options were Asian. We were hesitant to try an Asian restaurant in a small town after our bad experience in Arizona.

We headed to the hills today and started our drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A view of Grandfather Mountain.

We stopped at the Linville Falls Visitors Center and hiked the trail to see the upper falls.

We stopped for another late lunch in Little Switzerland.

Deer sighting...

Kyle did not enjoy driving on the parkway.

Glassmine Falls looks so small from across the valley!

Of course we had to try North Carolina BBQ while we were here so we headed to Buxton Hall in downtown Asheville. Southern Living magazine named it the best BBQ in North Carolina.

We started our day at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitors Center. We watched the movie and learned all about the history of the Parkway.

Then it was back to driving south on the Parkway. Kyle is getting the whole driving on curvy roads thing down pat!

We’re on top of the world! Well at least on top of the highest elevation on the Parkway...

Time to say “bye” to the Blue Ridge Parkway...

After waiting in traffic because a van slid off the road (the tow truck was blocking cars going in either direction), we made it up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

We picked up a late dinner at Wize Guyz Grill, a local restaurant in Cherokee.

Our day started at a Visitors Center again-this time in Bryson City.

We stopped to see Fontana Dam on the way to Tennessee.

We stopped for lunch at Wildwood Grill which was part of the Fontana Village Resort. The resort and restaurant looked pretty empty, The food was good though.

It was rainy for most of the day which caused fog to rise up from the river.

To get from Fontana Dam to Oak Ridge, TN we drove on Route 129. Part of Route 129 is called “Tail of the Dragon” because it looks like a dragon’s tail with all the switchbacks and curves. This is what it looked like:

We made it safely to Oak Ridge and went to visit the American Museum of Science and Energy. We learned about how Oak Ridge was developed as a “secret city” during WW II. They built a lab here to transform uranium to plutonium for use in nuclear weapons and the city was developed to support all the people who came to work in the labs.

After checking in to our hotel in Knoxville we had dinner at a nearby restaurant.

We started our drive back north and made a stop in Louisville. We had been to the Science Center before since we got in free with our MSI membership we decided to stop to break up the drive.

After checking in to our hotel in Columbus, IN we went out to enjoy our “last supper” on this road trip.

Our last day on our road trip! Just an easy drive past Indianapolis and then home!

A quick stop for lunch.

We made it...