Our final stop in Easton was at the Crayola Factory, where they make crayons, of course. (Ok, not exactly there, but really close by...this is the "museum" factory!) Last summer our darling child was not yet three, so this year being not yet four made a huge difference. Last year he was just learning/trying to cut with scissors. This year he uses scissor well and loves to cut out shapes from scrap paper.
It was a busy day at the Crayola Factory on Monday, with many camps visiting. Despite that, we managed to complete all of the projects we wanted to do and see all the exhibits there too. It's always fun seeing the live crayon making demonstration and maker assembly, although this year the demonstrator wasn't as generous as last year...no free crayon this time!
We also visited the National Canal Museum, which is on the 3rd and 4th floors of the building, TWICE. I think my son loved the Canal Museum more this year, because he could play with water and see train displays. This is the only museum in the country that explains the history of towpath canals and their importance in American history. The National Canal Museum is included in the admission price of the Crayola Factory!
I love crayons, especially all the different varieties that Crayola offers now. At one craft station in the factory you can sit and color with every type of crayon they make.
The craft theme this summer is the beach and ocean, so each craft station featured sea life. At one place we had the chance to make seahorse puppets with popsicle sticks, paper, glue and colored pencils. At another station we could work on under the sea collages using markers, crayons, glue, scissors and boxes of craft papers.
Admission to the Crayola Factory includes three tokens per ticket that can be used to "purchase" crayons, markers and model magic clay from vending machines. Since each ticket gets three tokens, my son ended up with quite a collection of little boxes of crayons, markers and clay. He loved molding the clay into different things at the model magic stations, which included all sorts of clay toys like rolling pins and cookie cutters. 
There is a McDonald's Express inside the Crayola Factory (not sure what would make it "express??") but since we aren't fans of their food, we had to leave for lunch. There were several nice restaurants in the area, but we really wanted to just get a quick meal and get back to playing before we had to head home. We found a Subway shop nearby and were able to order relatively healthy meals off their menu. Surprisingly the little guy ate part of a turkey sandwich, since PB and J or grilled cheese was not available. He is slowly getting more adventurous with food, thankfully.
We finished the day by re-visiting some of the more favorite exhibits and then concluded with a trip to the nearby factory store to buy some brand new chalk and glitter crayons!
And we had to check out the world's largest crayon! Blue of course!
If you go, be sure to get there early and buy tickets ahead of time if you can. Our hotel sold discounted tickets, so we didn't have to wait in line and just checked in to get our tokens and craft bags (to carry around any projects made during the visit.) The Crayola Factory is located at 30 Centre Square, Easton PA.
All in all it was a great mini-vacation, despite being non-stop! And what did the wee one do when we got home? Run to his room and cry. When I asked him why he was sad he replied because he wanted to stay in the hotel for five days, not one and that he did not get a chance to watch the hotel tv, so we needed to go back! Maybe next year!