Pennsylvania

08
Apr
2016

COLD Jim Thorpe Winterfest Photos

Jim ThorpeI just posted an album of photos from The Jim Thorpe Winterfest back in February. 3 years ago, we went to the annual festival. It’s a fun event that encompasses the entire downtown area of this quaint little mountain town. We decided to go back this year since we had a free long weekend. The big difference from last time was that this time the temperature throughout the weekend was 5 degrees below zero with a wind chill of -24!!! I like the cold, but this was painful cold unless you had the right gear on. I’m quite happy that I bought a new LL Bean parka last Fall.

There was an ice carver and a wood carver creating sculptures on the street. There’s a “mug walk” where you purchase a mug and them show it at a bunch of stores throughout the town and they give you some small item in return. It’s a fun way to get people into every little shop. Of course, our favorite shop is the Country Cottage where the “pickle lady” resides. She makes the best pickles you’ll ever try. This year, the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railroad was also running. We took an excursion on that which made for a fun break from the bitter cold.

Check out the photos here. You may need to put a coat on to look at them.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
06
Apr
2016

Scranton Photo Album

McDade ParkWhile in the Poconos for the Jim Thorpe Winterfest, we headed up to Scranton for the day to visit the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum. I highly recommend stopping in if you ever get the chance. The history and heritage of the miners and their families is a fascinating tale. Living as close as we do to the PA coal mining region, I’m sorry I haven’t explored it more. I hope to head back up there one day and take the coal mine tour since it was closed for the winter. We also visited the Historic Scranton Iron Furnaces. It was here that we realized that we did not wear enough layers for the subzero temperatures and after exploring the furnaces we headed directly to the nearest Wal-Mart for additional hand warmers and thermal underwear!

On the way back down to the hotel in Lehighton, we made a stop at Mohegan Sun Pocono (formerly Pocono Downs) in Wilkes-Barre for dinner and a little gambling.

You can see the photos from our day in Scranton here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
23
Feb
2016

Shady Brook Farms Holiday Light Show Photos

Shady Brook Farms PhotosEvery year we look for fun “Christmas-y” places to visit during Christmas week. One new place we discovered this year was Shady Brook Farms in Bucks County, PA. Their Christmas light display consists of over 3 million lights and includes displays ranging from light tunnels to iconic structures from around to the world to almost anything else you can imagine.You can drive through or ride on a tractor pulled wagon. We opted for the open air wagon ride because who wants to take pictures from behind glass while driving. Of course, I took full advantage of the wagon ride to take a bunch of photos.

You can check out the photos right here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
23
Feb
2016

Review: Country Cottage – Jim Thorpe PA

While this store sells great gifts, pottery, candles and more, the real treasure is back by the register. It’s a wall of pickles. Packaged in Ball jars with a paper tag held on by twine, these are some of the best homemade pickles you’ll ever taste. Besides delicious dills, there are spicy pickles, pickled green beans, garlic, asparagus, salsas and more. Now you understand why the sign out front says “Home of the Blue Ribbon Pickle.” The very friendly owner (locally known simply as “The Pickle Lady” makes all of these the pickles herself. When I was in this area a few years ago, I found myself lugging a heavy bag of pickle jars around with me. This visit was no different. Even in subzero temperatures, it was worth it! It’s hard not to buy one of everything. For those who don’t want to carry many jars of pickles up and down the hills of Jim Thorpe, she told me she also ships. I hope to take her up on that offer. I just wish she had a website instead of having to call.

Posted by Michael in Reviews
22
Feb
2016

Review: Pappy’s Schoolhouse Restaurant and Tavern – Lehighton PA

While looking for a late night meal on a weeknight, your choices are usually limited to diners and bars. Diners around this area aren’t open 24 hours so we settled on Pappy’s Schoolhouse. It’s a small local bar. Bar foo can usually go one of two ways… frozen food that you could have picked up at the supermarket yourself or delicious homemade food. This place falls squarely into the homemade category. All of the food was scratch made. They even smoke their own meat! As soon as I heard this, I had to order a brisket sandwich. I was glad I did! Served on a delicious roll with a side of house made barbeque sauce, I was tempted to another one to go!

It’s clearly a local place where everyone knows everyone else, but they made us out-of-towner’s feel welcome too. The waitress actually stopped by our table a few times just to chat. Our dinner took a little longer than expected due to a minor mix up by a new staff member in the kitchen. We didn’t complain since we were in no hurry, but they voluntarily gave us each free dessert to make up for the delay. When do you ever see that type of great customer service anymore?

Posted by Michael in Reviews
21
Feb
2016

Bethlehem Steel Photos

Bethlehem Steel PhotosI usually go to Bethlehem a few times each year to visit the Sands casino for dinner and a little gambling. I also go to there every year for their Chriskindlmarkt. The striking thing about the city is the long idle Bethlehem Steel plant. The casino is built on part of its former site and the Chriskindlmarkt is now held on another part of the site. However, much of the plant still remains as a monument to what was once the most important business in the city, if not the entire region. This year while at the Chriskindlmarkt, we discovered the new Hoover-Mason trestle walkway. It allows an up close look at the trestle that was formerly used to bring coke, limestone & iron ore to the blast furnaces and serves as a small museum depicting the history of Bethlehem Steel.

You can take a look at the photos I took while walking along the trestle in this album.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
20
Feb
2016

Delaware Covered Bridges and Fall Foliage Photos

Delaware Covered Bridges and FoliageEveryone knows I love covered bridges and that Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. So, what better way to spend a Fall day than visiting every covered bridge in the state of Delaware (SPOILER: there are only 3!) and then driving around looking for Fall colored foliage on the back roads of northern Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania.

Now you can finally take look at some of what we found in this album.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
06
Sep
2015

Tall Ships Photos

Back in June there was a tall ship festival in Philadelphia and the Camden waterfront. When I was a kid my parents would sometimes take us to a park along the Delaware River to see the tall ships when they were coming to Philadelphia. We also got a see them once or twice in Baltimore. So this was a fun chance to check them out up close and bring back some good memories too.

I would have liked to go aboard a few more ships, but the crowds were insane. We chose to go aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle.

You can see the photos right here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
13
Apr
2014

Two Albums of Center City Christmas Photos

RiverRink

I posted 2 new albums from the Christmas season. They’re a little late, but 2014 has been a busy year so far.

For the better part of my lifetime (20 years to be exact), every Winter the Grand Plaza at Penn’s Landing is converted to become the Blue Cross RiverRink. I’ve seen it on TV over and over, but have never visited it. I would likely pose a severe danger to myself and others if I strapped on ice skates. However, this year, they built an entire village around the rink called WinterFest. So we went and checked it out. It was a lot of fun. With the amount of trees and decorations they brought in, you’d never know you were on Penn’s Landing. Check out the photos and a video right here.

This year we visited a newer Christmastime event in Center City Philadelphia, The Christmas Spectacular on the giant video screen in the lobby of the Comcast Center. It was kind of neat. It’s good to see some of the money I give to Comcast every month given back to the community. You can view the photos and album here.

Posted by Michael in Photography, Site Updates
22
Jan
2014

Review: Snydersville Diner – Stroudsburg PA

I’m a big fan of old school traditional diners. I randomly stumbled upon the Snydersville Diner while traveling through the Poconos. Upon walking in, it was clear that this was a traditional old diner much like the one my grandmother worked in many years ago. It’s nothing fancy. There’s plenty of chrome all around. It looks like it hasn’t changed one bit in the decades it’s been open, yet it is clean and tidy.

The food is simple but delicious. There’s nothing fancy; just your standard diner fare. Everything was hot, fresh and made exactly as it should be. Diner’s are about comfort food and that what you find here.

The waitresses are your classic diner waitresses. They are friendly and more than happy to suggest the best items on the menu yet just gruff enough so you know that you probably don’t want to mess with them. The only odd thing is that the waitresses wear what appears to be a uniform you’d find on an employee in a doctor’s office. It’s not a bad thing, just odd.

One of the things that our waitress provided a suggestion on was dessert. Snydersville Diner is apparently well known for baking a huge variety of pies. Since we were there in the Fall, I chose a slice of pumpkin pie. The waitress told me that she suggested that I order a slice of pumpkin cream pie instead. She was right, it was delicious. Though I suspect that it would be very hard to find a pie on their menu that isn’t delicious!

Whether you want a delicious fresh cooked meal, yummy pie or just a step into the past, this diner is worth a visit.

Posted by Michael in Reviews