Travelogue: Summer Road Trip, Part 1

August 2025
Wisconsin → London, ON → Niagara Falls → Cooperstown, NY → Hershey, PA → Gettysburg, PA / Morgantown, WV → Cincinnati, OH → Louisville, KY → Wisconsin

Where We Stayed:
Delta Hotels London Armouries by Marriott (London, ON)
Niagara Falls Marriott on the Falls (Niagara Falls)
Hampton Inn (Cooperstown, NY)
Hotel Hershey (Hershey, PA)
Fairfield Inn & Suites (Morgantown, WV)
Graduate by Hilton (Cincinnati, OH)
Hilton Homewood Suites (Louisville, KY)

Mike had the idea to do a big traditional summer road trip with the kids. We covered A LOT of ground in 10 days – and spent A LOT of time in Mike’s minivan. We had a lot of fun, but there were also moments of frustration, fatigue, and general getting-on-each-others’-nerves.

Here are my bullet-pointed opinions on what we saw and did over our ten days:

Niagara Falls is best viewed from Canada. I cannot recommend this strongly enough. Don’t even bother with the American side!
The Niagara Falls rainbow, in mid/late afternoon, is 10/10 perfection.
We went to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’m not a huge baseball fan, but you can’t deny how impressive the HOF is! Definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the area… which is unlikely because it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.
We also visited (sans kids) the Ommegang Brewery, which is in Cooperstown, and we LOVED IT. Highly recommend it.
After our fill of baseball, we were en route to get our fill of chocolate in Hershey, PA. On our way we stopped in Scranton, PA – which was the weirdest town I’ve ever been to. The vibes were in shambles. No thank youuuuuu. We also stopped in Pottsville, PA to visit the Yuengling Brewery and that experience was a palette cleanser after Scranton!
We arrived in Hershey and checked into the Hotel Hershey, a gorgeous, old hotel. I’m so glad we stayed there so we could get the full Hershey experience.
We spent a few days in Hershey – visiting the museum, Hershey World (aka the world’s largest gift shop of all things Hershey), and of course Hersheypark.
I would only recommend Hersheypark if you love rollercoasters. There isn’t much else to do if you are one (like me) who is nauseated at the thought of a rollercoaster.
Overall, I think Hershey is worth a visit. Very charming town (the street lights are shaped like Kisses!)
After Hershey, we headed to Gettysburg – which was the low point of our trip. It was a hot day and we made the mistake of choosing the FOUR HOUR guided tour. It was too much for all of us – and honestly, Gettysburg is visually boring. You have to know a lot about the history of the Civil War and military strategy to really enjoy the experience.
We spent the night in Morgantown, WV as we were en route to Cincinnati. Not much to report from our time in Morgantown.
Cincinnati brought us the American Sign Museum (I LOVED IT) and the boys went to a Reds vs. Brewers game on a whim. We all also tried Skyline Chili – I loved it but I don’t think anyone else really did! I really enjoyed our day in Cincinnati.
Our last leg of the trip was to visit Buc-ee’s and Louisville. Buc-ee’s was a HUGE hit with the kids – A said it was the highlight of the entire trip for him (LOL of course…)
Louisville brought us the Louisville Slugger Museum, which was a pleasant surprise for me. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would!
We had pizza delivered to the hotel for dinner and packed up to head home the next day.
On our way out of Louisville, we stopped at Churchill Downs. I had no clue that it was right downtown. For some reason I envisioned it being miles and miles outside of the city, but no, it’s smack dab downtown! We visited the gift shop and walked around outside – completely, 100% worth the stop!
Our drive home was smooth and easy – everyone was happy to be back and out of the van!