Overheard outside our hotel room this morning: Hey, nice caboose. Well same to you!

We got in late last night and stayed at the Red Caboose Motel (http://www.redcaboosemotel.com/). It's located between Ronks and Lancaster, PA. Said another way, it's out there. Super nifty bunch of old railroad cars retrofitted into lodging. By far the coolest place we have stayed so far. We slept in a bit and then wandered around the grounds looking at all the railroad cars. Very unique place to stay if you ever get the chance. They had an attached restaurant so we had breakfast, did a little gift shopping and hit the road to Philadelphia. Our drive was a wandering one through back road Amish country. Kim is falling in love with rural Philadelphia. Very understated beauty.

Given our later start and leisurely pace, we were limited in what we could tackle in Philly - we visited the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Sonny's for a cheese steak. We could definitely have spent a bunch more time in town, but we traded quantity for a much needed slower paced day.

After Philly we drove to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA (http://longwoodgardens.org/). This is a gigantic gardens facility with a long history, initially founded by Pierre DuPont. Hard to describe, basically Madison folks could relate to Olbrich Gardens on substantial amounts of steroids. A great visit, and then on to Harrisburg PA where we will be for two nights. Bless the extended stay Candlewood Suites. They are great for stays like ours. It has a pool, and anyone with kids knows that you can take your kids to the most amazing place in the world, but they will still be happiest in a hotel pool.

Cheers until tomorrow when we will check in after coming down after getting our chocolate fixes in!

- Jim