Pennsylvania visit
9 August 2013 16:58![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserSo, only a couple weeks late, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zammis and I spent a long weekend in Mt. Gretna, a little resort town, just outside Lancaster County (aka Amish land), founded as part of the Chautauqua movement.
Thursday – we headed out in the afternoon for a fairly uneventful trip, only stop was Nissley Vineyard which we hit just as they were closing. Got a tasting in though, wines were ok, nothing special. Arrived at our B&B, Mt. Gretna Inn, which is in a lovely old Victorian house. Also, conveniently, there is a bar, the Hide-Away, within stumbling distance - we head over there for dinner and trivia, placing 5th.
Friday – first our host serves a delicious breakfast (omelette with asparagus), and then it’s off to the Green Dragon, which has a disappointing lack of Hobbits. The Green Dragon is basically a huge flea market, though I didn't find it all that notable other than the sheer size, they mostly had the same schlock as everywhere else - though I did get a root beer made with actual roots, and Zammis found some stuff. Next up is chocolate! Namely the Wilbur Chocolate Company, mmm, chocolate. We stop mostly to procure goodies, but there is also a sort of mini-museum in the gift shop with antique chocolate molds and advertisements and the like which are interesting. After chocolate is wine! A stop at Waltz Vineyards, I think the best of the wineries visited this trip, very friendly and definitely good wine. Their tasting came paired with tasty cheeses too. In the evening we are back to Mt. Gretna and do a little walk through town, the residential section is neat, with many funky houses, most only accessible by foot paths, I don't know where these people park. In one clearing there is a session of musicians playing some old timey stuff, like you do. We continue on to the Jigger ice cream shop, which I think is the town's primary institution. The place is huge, and crowded, we wait in a long line for our ice cream, which does prove to be delicious. On our way back the musicians are still playing, but for us it’s time for bed as we need to get up early.
Saturday – the reason we are getting up early is to see wolves! Since we’re going to miss our hosts breakfast we stop at the cafe/bakery in town, I order a sandwich, expecting something McMuffin like, but no, I get a sandwich the size of my head. Anyway we proceed to the Pennsylvania Wolf Sanctuary, which is a rescue for wolves that can't be released to the wild for whatever reason (most come from someone that thought keeping a wolf as a pet was a good idea, it's not). We saw maybe 20 wolves, they're in large enclosures, with the tours coinciding with feeding times so that they’ll come up to the fence for us to see them. It was cool to see them up close and personal, and the guides seemed very knowledgeable about all things wolf. After that we want to see more critters and so stop at a small butterfly garden in Lebanon, much friendlier than the wolves :-)
In the afternoon it’s time for more wine, this time at Cullari Vineyards, which had quite tasty wines. Lunch is also in Palmyra (at a place that had cheesecake stuffed french toast as their breakfast special - if only I had known!) as well as a stop at a comic book shop - hey, they had a sale on manga, what're you going to do? Back to Mt. Gretna, just in time before the skies open up, we have a psudo-dinner of snacks in while watching the rain. When it lets up a little we walk over to where there’s a free swing band concert, fun, fun, and finally back to the Hide-Away for a real, though quite late meal.
Sunday – we had originally planned to enjoy Mt. Gretna's lake, which has swimming and boating, but it looks like it’s going to be a rainy day so we look for some indoor alternatives. Instead we head over to Hershey and go to the auto museum, which is quite nice, we were especially impressed by the collection of buses! After that we do a picnic lunch, it's still raining, but we find a park with a shelter. For the afternoon, which tourist trap to go to? We opt for Indian Echo Caverns, keeps us out of the rain and is pretty nice as commercial caves go. We still have some time to kill, so play Ingress until it's time for our dinner plans.
Dinner is a pirate feast! Arrrrgh. Done by a brewery which does various themed feasts. The setting is pretty awesome, a large, very dungeon-y set of rooms under the bar, the food was decent (though only one poor server, they really needed more), and the show was ok, though we've been spoiled by our faire friends who I think could do better, the TW pirate feast could adopt the roving masseuses though :-).
Monday – our final day, the weather has cleared up and we start out with a hike up Governor Dick Mountain (as an aside, Governor Dick was not a Governor, and his name was actually Clarence, but once you get a nickname like Governor Dick, it's going to stick) to a nearby observation tower, the climb up the tower looks more intimidating than it is and is totally worth the view.
We drive home via Amish country, stocking up on tasty cheese bread and shoofly pie for another picnic lunch in Bird-in-Hand (yes, that’s a place, near Blue Ball and Intercourse if that helps, heh, heh, Intercourse, yes I'm twelve). Anyway, the trip home is otherwise uneventful, all in all a lovely weekend away.
zammis and I spent a long weekend in Mt. Gretna, a little resort town, just outside Lancaster County (aka Amish land), founded as part of the Chautauqua movement.Thursday – we headed out in the afternoon for a fairly uneventful trip, only stop was Nissley Vineyard which we hit just as they were closing. Got a tasting in though, wines were ok, nothing special. Arrived at our B&B, Mt. Gretna Inn, which is in a lovely old Victorian house. Also, conveniently, there is a bar, the Hide-Away, within stumbling distance - we head over there for dinner and trivia, placing 5th.
Friday – first our host serves a delicious breakfast (omelette with asparagus), and then it’s off to the Green Dragon, which has a disappointing lack of Hobbits. The Green Dragon is basically a huge flea market, though I didn't find it all that notable other than the sheer size, they mostly had the same schlock as everywhere else - though I did get a root beer made with actual roots, and Zammis found some stuff. Next up is chocolate! Namely the Wilbur Chocolate Company, mmm, chocolate. We stop mostly to procure goodies, but there is also a sort of mini-museum in the gift shop with antique chocolate molds and advertisements and the like which are interesting. After chocolate is wine! A stop at Waltz Vineyards, I think the best of the wineries visited this trip, very friendly and definitely good wine. Their tasting came paired with tasty cheeses too. In the evening we are back to Mt. Gretna and do a little walk through town, the residential section is neat, with many funky houses, most only accessible by foot paths, I don't know where these people park. In one clearing there is a session of musicians playing some old timey stuff, like you do. We continue on to the Jigger ice cream shop, which I think is the town's primary institution. The place is huge, and crowded, we wait in a long line for our ice cream, which does prove to be delicious. On our way back the musicians are still playing, but for us it’s time for bed as we need to get up early.
Saturday – the reason we are getting up early is to see wolves! Since we’re going to miss our hosts breakfast we stop at the cafe/bakery in town, I order a sandwich, expecting something McMuffin like, but no, I get a sandwich the size of my head. Anyway we proceed to the Pennsylvania Wolf Sanctuary, which is a rescue for wolves that can't be released to the wild for whatever reason (most come from someone that thought keeping a wolf as a pet was a good idea, it's not). We saw maybe 20 wolves, they're in large enclosures, with the tours coinciding with feeding times so that they’ll come up to the fence for us to see them. It was cool to see them up close and personal, and the guides seemed very knowledgeable about all things wolf. After that we want to see more critters and so stop at a small butterfly garden in Lebanon, much friendlier than the wolves :-)
In the afternoon it’s time for more wine, this time at Cullari Vineyards, which had quite tasty wines. Lunch is also in Palmyra (at a place that had cheesecake stuffed french toast as their breakfast special - if only I had known!) as well as a stop at a comic book shop - hey, they had a sale on manga, what're you going to do? Back to Mt. Gretna, just in time before the skies open up, we have a psudo-dinner of snacks in while watching the rain. When it lets up a little we walk over to where there’s a free swing band concert, fun, fun, and finally back to the Hide-Away for a real, though quite late meal.
Sunday – we had originally planned to enjoy Mt. Gretna's lake, which has swimming and boating, but it looks like it’s going to be a rainy day so we look for some indoor alternatives. Instead we head over to Hershey and go to the auto museum, which is quite nice, we were especially impressed by the collection of buses! After that we do a picnic lunch, it's still raining, but we find a park with a shelter. For the afternoon, which tourist trap to go to? We opt for Indian Echo Caverns, keeps us out of the rain and is pretty nice as commercial caves go. We still have some time to kill, so play Ingress until it's time for our dinner plans.
Dinner is a pirate feast! Arrrrgh. Done by a brewery which does various themed feasts. The setting is pretty awesome, a large, very dungeon-y set of rooms under the bar, the food was decent (though only one poor server, they really needed more), and the show was ok, though we've been spoiled by our faire friends who I think could do better, the TW pirate feast could adopt the roving masseuses though :-).
Monday – our final day, the weather has cleared up and we start out with a hike up Governor Dick Mountain (as an aside, Governor Dick was not a Governor, and his name was actually Clarence, but once you get a nickname like Governor Dick, it's going to stick) to a nearby observation tower, the climb up the tower looks more intimidating than it is and is totally worth the view.
We drive home via Amish country, stocking up on tasty cheese bread and shoofly pie for another picnic lunch in Bird-in-Hand (yes, that’s a place, near Blue Ball and Intercourse if that helps, heh, heh, Intercourse, yes I'm twelve). Anyway, the trip home is otherwise uneventful, all in all a lovely weekend away.