Bear, Delaware (State #25)-Lum's Pond State Park

Lum's Pond State Park is where we would spend our week in Delaware. It's a nice, well manicured park with plenty of shade trees at the sites and big, open green areas to run and play. We weren't charged extra because we were not residents and there were no tourist taxes! In fact, they don't even charge sales tax in the state! Woo hoo!

But it was hot and muggy and it rained more days than not. We really wanted to check out the bike trails but because of the rain and therefore, mud, they were impassable.

We didn't do much sightseeing here. Jordan had gymnastics camp all week (and she absolutely LOVED it) and Jacob had a couple of archery lessons.

(End of the week performance; Jordan is in the front middle)

One of our outings was to Herr's Snack Food Factory. It was only about 25 miles away from the campground but it was actually in Pennsylvania. I found it funny that we could leave Delaware, drive through a portion of Maryland and go several more miles into Pennsylvania in only 25 miles of travel. That just doesn't happen when you live in Texas.

The factory tour was pretty good. It was free and lasted about an hour. We watched a short video on the history of the company and then watched the various chips, pretzels and popcorns being made in three different factory buildings. We even got to see what happens when things go awry and start piling up on the conveyor belts! I also learned that Herr's makes chips and snacks for HEB (same recipe, different label). Oh how I miss my HEB!

The best parts were the chips we tasted right out of the oven and SUPER warm and the OOPS! section of the visitor's center. There they have bags of snack foods that did not pass quality controls for various reasons (i.e. too much or not enough seasoning, wrong weight). We stocked up on several of those and bought some of their variety bags and seasonal items like Cotton Candy Balls. For $20, we filled this huge bag full of goodies.

(Really only good on the first bite into them but still hard to stop eating!)

Our final outing was to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island. It was built along the Delaware River in response to the War of 1812. During the Civil War, it would be used to house Confederate prisoners of war.

It was only accessible by boat, so we paid for the short trip there. Upon arriving, a tram was waiting to take us up to the entrance, where upon disembarking we were immediately met by a ranger who gave us a brief history and let us know the programs for the day. I was already liking this place! There weren't many people there probably because the weather had been a little drizzly. We watched a video, saw a gun demonstration and listened to a program by the commissary officer on feeding the large number of people at the fort. 

Then we began exploring more of the fort on our own. The kids both did some laundry.

And Jacob tried to enlist but couldn't even carry all of his needed supplies!  Ha ha

We checked out a couple more rooms then our visit was cut short since bad weather was beginning to move in. The living history staff immediately changed out of their costumes and we, along with them and a few other guests, were transported back to the boat in a downpour for the last boat out!  What a story and experience it would have been if we had been stuck there overnight!!

That's all for Delaware. Next is Washington DC!