The Crayola Factory

Over vacation one of our goals was to take a bunch of fun day trips and our first was to the Crayola factory.  Once we got there it was clear it was a bit more of a "children's museum" than a factory tour.  Evan was a bit disappointed and kept asking when he'd learn how crayons are made.  Disappointment aside, we convinced Evan to do some crafts and he ended up having a good time.  Here's Evan doing spin art on a frisbee wearing the super cool headband he made.

Here we all are by the giant crayon.

And here's Evan with a boat going over a canal lock.  What, you may ask, is this doing at the Crayola museum?  Well, it turns out that the building also housed the National Canal Museum and the top 2 of the 3 floors were dedicated to the canals that brought coal from central Pennsylvania to the steel mills in the 19th and 20th centuries.  It was actually real interesting and the you-operate-your-own-lock exhibit here was pretty amazing.

After our day at the museum, the Canal Museum folks had a boat ride we took on a mule drawn barge down a man-made canal.  It was real neat to hear about how the canal system worked but it was one hundred degrees and Evan and Alexis had had enough by this time.  There was some whining and crying, but we got into the wonderful air conditioning of our mini van just in the nick of time for a long nap back home.