December 24 - January 3, 1998: Holiday Trip to Pennsylvania

One of many trip reports under the SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie Grow.
Email me at ajs@frii.com.
Last update: December 13, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1998_1125-29_LakePowellThanksgiving.htm)

From:  Megan Silverstein 
Date:  15 Jan 1999 11:50:51 -0700
Subject:  My trip

(By my daughter Megan Silverstein; edited and HTMLized in 2024.)

I just wanted to tell you all about the trip I took this Christmas/New Years. It's a pretty funny story if you would like to read it.

12/24, Christmas Eve

~8:30am: We are all packed and ready to leave but our flight is not until two-something. Dad wants to get a half day of work in before we leave. We go to HP and stay there until 12:30. In that time I looked on the internet for places we could go, Hershey Park 40-50 rides (only open in the summer).

~12:30pm: Leave HP and go to the airport.

~1:45pm: Park, unload, get to the airport get to the gate all of that boring stuff.

~3:45pm: (Denver time) Take off. DC-10 fairly packed. We fly to Dulles airport which is in Washington DC or somewhere nearby.

~7pm: (Washington time) We have an hour lay over till we take off to Harrisburg in a tiny 19-person plane.

~9:30pm: Land in Harrisburg and watch the plane unload (doesn't take long). Apparently the hour layover was not enough to get our checked bags to our plane... Our luggage is not on board.

~10pm: File a missing luggage report. Meet up with Kathy Glatz. Her and her daughter came out here three days earlier. Have some problems renting a car.

~10:30: Finily head out of the airport in a nice car with no luggage. We are going to Kathy's mother's house for the night. I had heard some bad things and really didn't want to spend Christmas Eve '98 with them.

~11pm: Get there and they turn out to be pretty nice people. I'm really glad that I have some clothes in my carryon luggage.

12/25, Christmas Day

In the morning we did some gift exchange and called the airport repeatedly to find out when our luggage would arrive. It was coming from DC and didn't actually arrive till ~5pm. That evening there was a party across the street and we went to it but didn't stay long.

12/26

Some of us wanted to visit Hershey, PA. So we mid day drove down there and saw some of the town including the Hershey Hotel (neat place).

Later Dad, Kathy, and I went to Hershey Park. They did open parts of it in the winter and were known for the Christmas lights. We took the tour of the "factory". It really wasn't a factory. We shopped and then went into another part of the park called Chocolate World. (That's where the rides were.) We walked all the way around the park, took a train ride to see the lights, I won 3 bears out of a claw machine, took one of the other rides, and walked into many gift shops.

12/27

It's Sunday and Kathy wants to see the Amish lands. (Which we thought would be closed for church.) But we went down there anyway. We stopped in shops, saw the land, and had a good meal. Saw a lot of horse-drawn wagons.

12/28

Get an early start to leave Kathy's mother's house and go south to her sister's for the night. The first stop was a place called Hanover. That town was home to UTZ potato chips, a brand that is common in the east. We got to take the tour of the factory. It was a very good tour indeed.

After that we traveled south to Gettysburg. We walked the town and saw the museum and walked the cemetery. We also drove the actual battle lines before we headed further south.

That evening we met my dad's cousin, Carol Mandelman, for dinner in the nearby town. Which was nice because I had never met her before.

12/29

We went to Washington DC today. The first stops were the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. After car sightseeing those two places we found a parking garage in the basement of an office building that was not too far from an underground train stop. We caught the underground to a stop called Capitol South. Which was not too far from the Capitol and the Mall.

We went to the front of the Capitol building and waited in line for an hour and a half to get inside. It was worth the wait. We took one of the guided tours and it was very interesting. We saw the senate chambers where the impeachment process was going on, we saw the old senate chambers, the house chambers, and the hall of statues, in which every state donates two statues. Neat place, I'm glad don't work there.

After the Capitol which is at 00 point of town, we started walking towards the White House at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. Along the way we stopped in at the National Archives building and used the bathrooms in the back of the building. They wouldn't let us in that way and said that we would have to go though security in the front of the building. Dad and I went to the front to find a hour wait to get in. We gave up on that.

So we continued to the White House and found a long line extending from the east gate all the way around the outside of the gate to the west side of the buiding. Turned out that around the holidays they opened the doors to the public for a short walkthrough. It didn't start till 7pm and right now it was 3pm. Some people had been in that line since 1pm. We decided that it wasn't worth that much time.

We walked across the Ellipse which was all decorated for Christmas still, the national Christmas tree was there, and each state had a tree decorated there. Because the decorations were up we couldn't get out of the Ellipse except for the way we had come.

On the other side of the Ellipse was the Washington Monument and that was our next stop. The Monument was under construction and had scaffolding all around it. Pretty sight.

The next place we went was the Smithsonian. We didn't actually find it. Instead we found the Department of Agriculture, and they wouldn't let us use their bathrooms.

By this point we were all tired of walking and cold, so we caught the underground back to the car. From there we went had dinner and drove into town. We stopped at the Jefferson Memorial and accidently caught a talk about the place, which I found extremely fun and interesting.

After that we tried to go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. We had a lot of trouble finding a place to park. Once we found one, we walked though both monuments. Lincoln was huge! and the words on the walls were so powerful. It was definitely worth going there.

The Vietnam Memorial was so sad because it was filled with so many names. Can you imagine black marble walls at its highest 14 feet and at its lowest ground level... 40 or more feet long filled with names?

That night we drove to a hotel just outside of Philadelphia.

12/30

Today we saw Philadelphia. We met up with Kathy's friend Mary and her son at the Philadelphia visitor center. There we caught a movie on how all of the famous people knew each other -- Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Washington, and so forth.

We left that early and went to Franklin Court Museum to catch a once a day presentation on his inventions. The lady who did the presentation showed us how the glass harmonica worked. I thought that was pretty cool.

The next stop was at Independence Hall. We got there just in time to catch the 11am tour. It was really neat to see the room where they signed the Declaration of Independence. What's even funnier is that in my pocket I had some $2 bills, and on the back of them was a picture of that room.

After the tour we had lunch in this beautiful indoor food court, across from the Liberty Bell. The next place was the Liberty Bell pavilion. I got to stand within inches of that thing. It was a lot smaller than I had always imagined. I thought that it would be big enough to walk around inside of. Turns out it was only 3' high and about 3' wide. And that thing we think was the crack that keeps it from ringing is actually a good repair job. The actual crack was hairline small and ran the lenth of the bell. They were afraid to ring it anymore in fear that it might break in two.

We had tried to see the U.S. Mint in Washington yesterday, but we couldn't find it, so we decided that we wanted to take the tour of the mint here in Philadelphia. So we took that tour and I found it really interesting. They actually showed us where the money was made. We could look down on it from above.

It was around 4pm and we wanted to see the Betsy Ross House before it closed. So we went over there and quickly ran through it. After doing that we walked back to Mary's car. On the way there we stopped in to the Gallery, a really weird mall. We got Kathy's stuff moved to Mary's car and we headed to my dad's sister's house for the night. She lived near Scranton.

12/31

Finally get rolling at 10. We went to hobby shops and malls and fun family-type outings. Dad took a tour at his brother-in-laws work. He worked at some government type place [an artillery factory!]. Went out to dinner at a Lonestar Steakhouse. All around it was a fun day.

1/1

Took the cousins sledding and played, surprised my dad with a cake he could eat, and had a good morning. In the afternoon me and dad took the two older cousins with us in the rental car and explored. We saw the land and had a good time. Got my cousins hooked on a new hobby and we went to a hobby store and got what they needed.

1/2

Not a great day for me. We went out to breakfast at a McDonalds, and my back was really hurting! We spent most of the day driving back to Harrisburg.

Today was my dad's real birthday and we went to see "Prince of Egypt". It was a good movie. After that we went to a spaghetti house that we had gone to earlier in the trip and had a good dinner.

Also I found out that we were going through Chicago instead of Dulles. I thought we were going through Dulles. The problem with Chicago as you might remember was the first large "Blizzard of 99" -- we might not get home.

1/3

~10: We are packed and ready to leave Kathy's parents' house and we start heading for the airport. Flight was at ~1.

~12:30: Still in line to check our bags. Get checked and go to the gate. No rush.

~1: Find out that the flight is on time. It also has a scheduled stop in Allenstown. Allenstown is 70 miles in the wrong direction (east). There will be a 45 min layover. (Plenty of time to get some food.)

~2 (or something): The line in Allenstown for food is really long. (We didn't have time to get food!)

~3:15 (Chicago time): Our flight was supposed to land 15 minutes ago and our next flight will be leaving at 3:30. 15 mins till next flight (we're still taxiing), 10 min till flight, we wait our turn to get off. 7 mins till flight we rush in side to find... Our flight had be cancelled. Well as quickly as we can we look at the board, hmm, one flight in 5 mins.

No way. One flight in fifteen mins, one flight in half an hour but it goes through Kansas City. The next flight listed isn't for another 2 hours. We go the gate with the fifteen minute plane and there was no one there to talk to, all the people are busy and they are closing the doors.

The thirty minute flight is way the heck down there, so we park Kathy and her daughter in the customer service line and me and dad run down to that gate. "This flight is full, your luggage will be on the 5:15"... "Book us on the 5:15"... We run back.

~4: Me and Kathy's daughter are tired of standing and I'm hungry so we go to the gate, now with plenty of time. Kathy is going to confirm our seats so she's still in line and dad went to the bathroom. I told Kathy's daughter that I was really hungry and I'd go get some food, since she had gotten some when we had run down to the gate.

I come back five minutes later, with no food, everything was too expensive and my dad is yelling through the airport, "Where the heck were you? We have to go to another concourse!" He sounded like we had to run down there or we would miss the plane. Instead we sat down at a gate across from the one we were at a moment ago so that Kathy and her daughter could eat. How rude!

Turns out that the concourse we were at was the one for the 5:15 plane, that is also going to Denver. We go over to the other gate and find out that they had added this DC-10 for all the people whose flights were canceled, ours and another plane leaving at 7pm tonight. Our flight out would be the last of the day. We also found out that there was no food on this flight. So me and dad scrounged some money up and got some food.

~5:15: The plane they're using is coming in from Los Angeles and hasn't arrived yet.

~5:35: The plane is here but not really, the gate that we were at was having problems raising to the height of the door on the plane. It was that cold. They moved the plane to the next gate down.

~5:45: Finally we board, and push back from the gate. At this time we start to wonder where our luggage is. "On the 5:15 plane and most of the way there? On the plane that went through Kansas City? In Kansas City? In Denver on the floor of the terminal building? Or did it depart back at Allenstown?"

~6: "Why are we still sitting here?" In the middle between concourses B and C.

~6:15: "Why are we still sitting here?" "Whaoo, there goes a fire truck towards the runways with its lights on. Something must have happened."

~6:25: "Bushhhhh... this is your captain speaking, planes don't like cold weather, just like you and me. Ahh oh ya, some valve won't open and were having a mechanic come out and force it open." "Hey, this is worse than some other plane crashing. The one I'm on is having 'technical difficulties'. We're all going to die!"

~6:40: About an hour since we pushed back we were finally moving. "Our luggage might have landed in Denver by now if it was on the 5:15."

~6:43: My dad is sitting in an exit row, so a flight attendant is sitting backwards in front of him. My father says to her, "Is that ice on the wings?" Never, ever say that to a flight attendant. I said, "It's too late to do anything now," and I was right. Right as my father had said that we had turn on to the runway.

~6:44: "We're alive!"

~8:00: (Denver time) We land.

~8:14: We're where our luggage should be. We check floors, and many other places. It must be on our plane.

~8:18: Luggage arrives. Ours isn't there!

~8:24: Guess what, the 5:15 plane isn't here yet! They had more problems then we did. At Chicago they couldn't get a truck to come out and push them away from the gate. When they landed here they didn't have a gate open and they had to wait fifteen minutes to get one.

~8:45: Our luggage finally arrives off their plane. We met this guy who is taking the shuttle up to Fort Collins. But due to delays he was going to miss the last shuttle for the night, so we offered to take him home.

We finally get home. It is now 11pm. I had a very unlucky day. But I learned from it.

What I learned from the trip home:

Know where you're going.
Know where your plane is going.
Know where your luggage is going.
Avoid the crowds, stay home.
Avoid the weather, stay home.
Avoid people in food service that are having a bad day. (Allenstown)
Avoid going to Allenstown (see above). Don't get me wrong it's a nice place, it's just out of my way.
Avoid the weather, don't go to Chicago in winter.
Never leave half of your party at customer service.
Never assume the worst, there is always something even worse.
Never say, "Is that ice on the wings" to a flight attendant... Especially right before takeoff.
Never assume that you're at the right gate (that happened twice).
Don't miss your flight because you were at the snack bar.
Never assume that you luggage is coming with you (that happened twice).
Don't panic when your luggage didn't come with you... See previous.
"It will get here" is not necessarily a good thing. Especially when it's late at night.

Other things I learn from this trip:

All famous places are bigger in the movies (with the exception of the Lincoln Memorial).
Food doesn't change that much on the east coast.
People change.
You can't find places to park in Washington.
The ball droping is really some thing to do with sailing, not New Years.
Ben Franklin is a neat guy. He lived in PA.
Wars are really stupid.
Hershey is neat, but the theme park is better.
Amish lands, neat people/culture.
Ignore avoiding crowds and weather (on the other set). You will have a good time anyway.

I hope you all had a happy New Year, and may 1999 be the best year yet.

Always,
Megan

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Megan Silverstein
megans@alpha.psd.k12.us
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