While some lucky folks (read: smart planners) were frolicking in the sun and sands of Southern U.S. or Mexico, my husband and I decided to road trip around east coast this spring break, and while sudden and extreme bouts of winter made our journey quite difficult, we still somehow managed to make the most of it.

Our first leg of the trip was within Pennsylvania – surprisingly, we hadn’t seen anything outside of Pittsburgh before our trip. We first drove to Hershey, which is rightfully called “the sweetest place on earth”, the town where The Hershey Company was founded. We explored The Hershey Story Museum, learning about how the chocolate company was formed and tasting delicious chocolates from around the world. Following an overnight stay in the town, we took a guided tour of the Indian Echo Caverns that is a huge limestone cave with an interesting history and rich geological foundations believed to have been used by Native Indians. We next drove on to Lancaster County, the largest Amish settlement in the world, before landing in Philadelphia to explore the Independence Hall, see the Liberty Bell and to enjoy some delicious Philly cheesesteak at the Reading Terminal Market.

Our second leg of the trip was to Washington DC. My husband and I both love museums so we decided to keep plenty of days to visit the free Smithsonian museums, the memorials and other famous architectures, and of course, to enjoy the cherry blossoms in bloom. Unfortunately, the prolonged winter and onset of storm Toby meant that we missed the start of the cherry blossom season, and we also ended up having quite an adventurous day when most of the museums were closed due to the storm and we ended up with drenched feet from the non-stop snowfall. But we managed to visit four amazing museums and enjoyed our trip greatly. The newly opened African American museum was an enlightening journey through time, touring the Air and Space museum proved educational and the American History and Natural History museums were extremely entertaining and informative. Because we are foodies, my husband and I also loved the food culture in DC. We enjoyed Ethiopian, Afghan and Pakistani cuisines and also probably the best brisket we’ve ever had.

Though we returned home with head-colds rather than fabulous tans, our Spring Break, scratch that, our Winter Break Part II turned out to be fantastic.