Ideas on places to visit in Pennsylvania

Alleghney National Forest, Kinzua Bridge, Kinzua Dam near Warren Pa.

Assuming 4 hours one way is ok, we'd strongly suggest Ricketts Glen SP. Check your brakes before you head out.

Lititz Pa. is a neat small town near the Lancaster area.

What about Gettysburg? It is a big place, but the most common way to "see" it is by a self driving tour guided by a CD. Makes it nice with kids, since you aren't walking all over the place. If you have any interest in military history, it is definitely something to think about.

I second Gettysburg! An amazing place with plenty to do.

The memorial in Shanksville to flight 193.
Or do Lancaster and for the son, visit Hershey which is close by.

add on
M'lady just mentioned the Penn Cave, a cavern near State College where you take a Boat ride through the caverns.

Not a small town but.....Steamtown in Scranton! Kids always love steam engines.
https://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm

Crayola museum
Pretzel factory
Amish farms
lots of stuff to do......

If you don't get enough ideas from this Forum do a Google search for `________tourism' and put Pennsylvania or a city of interest in the blank space and read what the specialists recommend.
For a 10 year old I'd look for the closest theme park with lots of rides...

garyemunson wrote:
Not a small town but.....Steamtown in Scranton! Kids always love steam engines.
https://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm

When it comes to trains, if you're heading up from northern VA, you can't beat the Strasburg railroad. It's the highest attendance steam trail attraction in the USA, and it's been in continuous operation longer than any other railroad in the states. For the OP, it's half as far as Scranton, less than three hours from home. The bonus is that you can step off the Strasburg RR and across the street to the Pennsylvania train museum. Once you finish the museum, you are deep in Amish country, with a few hundred options when it comes to what to do, what to eat, and where to stay. When you cross the street at Steamtown, you're in, well, downtown Scranton, which was really something special back in the day, maybe the WW2 era. Today, not so much.

The only warning about visiting the Strasburg RR is that there are several times a year when "Thomas the Train" arrives in Strasburg. This results in thousands of preschoolers, and their parents, flooding this little town. Nothing wrong with that, it's pretty cool to see vast herds of happy little kids, but it's best to know about it ahead of time. Have a great trip, whatever you decide.