Friday, August 18, 2023

To Harrisburg, PA, Friday, August 18. 2023

    We knew that Anna’s wedding was going to dominate this summer, and we planned to not have a big trip in order to accommodate that, both in time and budget.   True, we had a quick jaunt down to New Jersey at the beginning of the summer, and Canada Day at Sharon Temple, but neither of those short trips were anything like what we usually do.   In the weeks before the ceremony, it felt like we had a wedding related errand or two to run nearly every day.  Now that we are past the wedding and have (pretty much) paid for everything, we’re hungry to do something with the what’s left of the summer.  We came close to going to Disney, but we reluctantly talked ourselves out of it.  We knew how expensive that would be, and more importantly, how blasted hot Florida gets in August.  But Julie wanted to find a theme park somewhere closer, and also one that would have many things that Abby could ride and enjoy.  She thinks she found the solution in Pennsylvania’s Dutch Wonderland.

     We couldn’t go anywhere while Anna and Noah were on their honeymoon this week because we were watching Winfield, but he went home with them when they returned yesterday (Thursday).  Emma wanted to go with us, so we planned to leave after she was done with work.  Julie took her in to UB this morning, and then we rented a car and finished packing.  We went to the Mighty Taco near UB and Emma walked there to join us for dinner before we all- Mom, Dad, Emma and Abby- headed east and south.  

     Our destination tonight was Harrisonburg, PA.  We ended up passing through Williamsport as the Little League World Series was being played.  Traffic wasn't too bad though, since the Round 2 game was already underway under the stadium lights.   

      Abby was very excited to go to a hotel again, mostly because she equates “hotel” with “pool."  Even when we’re driving around at home, she shouts excitedly and points when she sees a building that she thinks is a hotel and begs us to stay there.  Unfortunately, we got there after 10:00, and it was too late for swimming.  The up-side is that we have a small suite for a room, with a living room area and a bedroom.  It's a plain room, but we got it for "free."  We are using "points" that we gained from other hotels on previous trips, so that's nice.