This Mid-Atlantic road trip route is still one of our family favorites. We did this route when the girls were still pretty young (back in 2013) so we would like to go back on this same route now that they are older and may have more of an appreciation for some of the historic sites. Since we have already been to South and North Carolina, we just paused for a brief photo op at their signs before stopping for our first night in Richmond, VA.
We started the next day in Arlington, Virginia at the Arlington National Cemetery before heading on to Washington D.C. It was quite the humbling experience, especially watching the solemn changing of the guards ceremony at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
After spending a few hours in Arlington, we made the short trip on to Washington D.C. We spent some time exploring the National Mall and then toured the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. D.C is another wonderful place to visit with so many FREE options. We were only there for a couple of days so we didn’t have time to explore all of the Smithsonian museums, but I would highly recommend checking them out. Unfortunately, while we were there, it was during a time of government shut down so we weren’t able to see all we wanted to. We were only able to see the White House from behind the fence and the Washington Monument was being restored so we definitely want to go back sometime to see all we missed out on.
We spent our next full day in D.C. seeing many of the monuments and memorials while on a walking tour. This tour has been one of the best we have ever done by far! It is called Walk of the Town and it is lead by a man named Tim who is a retired history teacher who knows his stuff! Check out his website to find more info about all the places you will see. The tour is free, but most people give a tip as a way of saying thank you for such an amazing tour. When anyone asks us what to do in D.C. we always highly recommend taking this tour!
Although we didn’t have time to see all of the places in our nation’s capital that we wanted to see, we did have a few more stops before heading to our next destination. On our last day in D.C., we were able to visit Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was shot and the U.S. Capitol building. Both of these places were free to visit as well. We were not able to take many photos inside of the capitol building, but it was so surreal to be able to see it in person. You can set up a tour of the Capitol through your Senator or Representative.
After spending a few days in D.C., we headed on to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to see where the famous Battle of Gettysburg took place and where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. While we are big fans of Abraham Lincoln (see my previous blog with famous Lincoln sites), this stop was (dare I say) a little bit of a snooze fest with young kids. We purchased a CD at the visitor center that provided narration as we drove for what seemed like hours through the battlefield. My recommendation would be to skip on the CD (your car probably doesn’t even have a CD player anymore anyway) and just make a quick drive though, stopping at the visitor center and to see the spot where Lincoln gave his speech.
Next we headed to Hershey, PA to visit some dear friends of ours who moved away from Georgia (We love and miss you Noll family!). They were able to take us to do some fun touristy things near where they live. Our first stop was to Hershey’s Chocolate World to get to see just how all of that yummy Hershey’s chocolate. They also give away samples! The whole place smells like delicious chocolate and it was such a fun tour.
Next we headed to see how the Amish live in nearby Lancaster. And boy, do they know how to cook! I’m sure you can’t go wrong with any Amish restaurant, but we ate at a place called Plain and Fancy that had been featured on the Food Network and we left stuffed!
We spent our last day in Pennsylvania in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia! Our first stop was to see Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was incredible to visit a place filled with such significance in our country’s history. This is another place you can visit for free! Just outside of Independence Hall you are able to catch a glimpse of the famous Liberty Bell. Another spot in Philadelphia we had to check out before leaving town was the iconic “Rocky steps”. Please notice that I beat Brian to the top! And of course we couldn’t leave Philly without deciding if Pat’s or Geno’s has the better cheesesteak…my vote is Pat’s, but both were amazing!
We decided last minute to change our route back home to drive through a few more states. Instead of making our way straight back to Virginia, we made a quick trip through New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. We were only a little over an hour away from New Jersey so we decided just to wake up earlier and see a few more places! The city of Cape May, New Jersey is full of beautiful Victorian homes and hotels, and even though we just drove through, it was worth the quick stop.
To add a little excitement to the trip, we took a ferry from New Jersey to Delaware so it was fun to say we crossed into a new state on the water instead of the road. I get motion sick SO easily, so the ferry ride was not my favorite part but the girls loved it!
We continued through Delaware and Maryland and we did not really stop to do any sight seeing in either of these states on this trip. For now, we count them as states we have seen since we drove through them both. Another last minute addition to our trip was a stop at Assateague Island that is partially in Maryland and partially in Virginia. I had remembered reading the book Misty as a girl about the wild horses who lived on this island. As I got online to find more info about stopping here, I read about a “Pony Swim” that took place in late July where they would bring some of the horses to Chincoteague Island to be auctioned off. I got so excited realizing that we were lucky enough to be able to be there on the ONE DAY of the year when this took place…until I double checked the date and realized we had missed it by a day!! Unfortunately, we were only able to see them all penned up for the auction and those that were not sold would swim back to Assateague the next day. Even though we missed getting to see the horses running wild and swimming, it still was a fun stop!
On our way to our last stop in Williamsburg and Jamestown we had to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is 17 miles long and slightly terrifying if you don’t like bridges and tunnels!
Finally, we stopped in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia which was such a cool place to explore. The tickets to be able to see every building/exhibit were pretty pricey so we decided to skip out on buying them. You are still able to walk around the town and see in several of the buildings that are open to the public without having the all access pass. I feel like we still had a great experience without dropping $200 to see everything.
We also visited nearby Jamestown the same day and this is still one of Brian’s favorite places we’ve visited. Although, I’m still a little sad the true story really isn’t anything like Disney’s Pocahontas, I still really enjoyed it too. The tour here was much more affordable because kids tickets are free! It was amazing to see how some of the oldest history in our country has been preserved there.
Upon leaving Virginia we made our long trek back to Atlanta with one of my children playing a penny whistle for hours upon hours that I stupidly let her purchase with her souvenir money. This trip was 31 hours total in the car and the girls did great…most of the time anyway. The only long portions without stopping for the evening were between Georgia and Virginia, so this is another one that is very doable, even with young children. Its a great route to see a lot of our nation’s history without breaking the bank!
Traveling Light 
This sounds like a great itinerary and covers a lot of what we are hoping to see on our family trip this summer! Can you tell me how many days you spent from the start to ending in Jamestown, VA?
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That’s great! I hope you and your family has a great time. We just did a day in Jamestown. Our thinking as we were working though the states is do a high level overview and then after we have reached the goal (now) we can go back to places we really liked and spend more time there.
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