We took a short vacation to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at the end of August. There is so much to do in Harrisburg, it was the perfect place for us to visit, especially since it is only about 4 hours away from our home in New York State. We have been visiting the Harrisburg\/Hershey<\/a> area with our kids for years. Our oldest kids loved going to Hershey Park and other nearby attractions like Lake Tobias Wildlife Park every summer.<\/p>\n

We had not visited the area for a few years, and it was high time for a vacation to the sweetest place on Earth and beyond. Working together with the Visit Hershey & Harrisburg Tourism Bureau<\/a>, they helped us select the attractions that best suited our family’s tastes, and then created a jam-packed itinerary for us. They also helped us find accommodations in the Harrisburg area that had ample parking and easy access to all the attractions.<\/p>\n

We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in Harrisburg. Honestly, we were on the go from early morning until late at night and spent very little time in the hotel. We did appreciate that there was a large parking lot, so we did not have to deal with parking garages or pay for parking as we have done in the past with hotels located in downtown Harrisburg. The Hotel Indigo is new,\u00a0 there were a few issues that I chalked up to growing pains. All in all, it was a good experience for what we needed, I will write more about the hotel in a future post.<\/p>\n

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National Civil War Museum<\/h3>\n

Our first stop was the National Civil War Museum<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in Harrisburg. The museum is located up a long driveway that leads to a large parking area. The grounds are clean and picturesque. Inside there is a large gift shop where we picked up our tour tickets for a self guided tour.<\/p>\n

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The museum has 2 levels and we were directed to start upstairs armed with our map. The museum does not allow video or flash photography. This museum is filled with so many exhibits, many hands-on and others that are made up of life size models that add an incredible level of realism.<\/p>\n

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One of our kids’ favorite exhibits was the medical scene where the army medics were in the middle of\u00a0 performing a leg amputation on a wounded soldier.<\/p>\n

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The slavery exhibits were very moving, and there were videos, sounds effects and life size displays throughout.<\/p>\n

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You could easily spend several hours to see everything.At the very least, you should block out about 2 hours. Check out my video slide show\u00a0 of our visit below.<\/p>\n