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Someone Else’s Road Trip
This is our Christmas card photo. Shawnee State Park in Bedford County. A Gaffron family favorite. The Pennsylvania Turnpike passes Shawnee. So does Route 30 – the Lincoln Highway. And Route 31. I…
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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi!
This weekend we touristed on the Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour. Jonathan and I do so every year. Here is my previous blog entry on it. Allegheny West, the neighborhood on display,…
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Is This An Eagle? (Adventures on the Clarion River)
Jonathan and I saw this bird flying around the morning after our nephew Peanut was born in early November. The Clarion River drew a line between us and this bird. We were in…
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Holiday Cooking Story
Not my cooking. I wasn’t there. I heard this story from my dad. Decades ago – I think that this was during the 60’s, when my dad was a teenager – one of…
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This Place Could Be Haunted
3 Things about this photo: 1.) Jonathan took this in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm in early July 2013. 2.) This is the former site of the Grandview Point Hotel. I, personally,…
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Pennsylvania Water Platters
I guess that tonight’s hard rain put me in the mood to blog about water platters. I saw them at two different conservatories / gardens on opposite sides of Pennsylvania this summer. Yesterday…
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Vultures
I can’t believe that I’m blogging about vultures. I’m no raptor expert. I learned almost everything that I know about vultures from Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal.” (BTW, I fell in love with “The…
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7 Things to Know About Mount Davis in Somerset County
1.) Mount Davis is the highest point in Pennsylvania. 2.) Mount Davis is the absolute best place to leaf peep in Pennsylvania. 3.) A 50 foot metal observation tower / fire tower sits a…
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The Good Old Days
For the first part of my life, my family lived in an old house in a very small town in Central Pennsylvania. My parents heated the house using a wood burning stove. My…
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Did You Hear About St. Basil’s?
St. Basil (or Saint Basil) Catholic Parish in Carrick was all over the Pittsburgh news last month. They shut down their church festival – their big fundraiser – for safety reasons (social media…