New Wheels

                          

Southern Virginia

After leaving Wayne in Scranton we set off for Petersburg, Virginia. We needed to look for an apartment anyway, so we decided we’d like to spend the weekend with our friends, Christopher and Amelia, in Southern Virginia before scouring the DC housing market. We were surprised that Petersburg had far more to offer then just good company. We toured one of only six churches in the United States with all of it’s stained glass windows made by Tiffany Co. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but the church was lovely and situated on the grounds of the second largest cemetery in Virginia.

Next we headed off to Petersburg National Battlefield where the Union sieged Petersburg for about ten months at the end of the Civil War. We were able to see where some of the most pivotal moments of that battle took place (including the Battle of the Crater) as well as the front lines.

                                                              

                                                                                                             

After an authentically delicious barbeque lunch and a short nap, we headed to an antique tractor museum. Lincoln loved it, of course. There were hundreds of antique (but completely restored) tractors and many trucks as well. Lincoln wasn’t allowed to climb on the tractors, but the nice lady at the front desk let slip that that rule wasn’t strictly enforced on two tractors displayed outside.

                       

                                                                                

On Sunday we went to Church in the morning and were hoping to attend a tractor pull a man at the museum had told us about (we think… he was pretty hard to understand) but it ended up being too far away. Instead we saw the most amazing tree. It is the second largest “cucumber” tree in the United States (but only by an inch or so in the diameter of it's trunk). It was pretty cool. Behind the tree was a museum with a very long winded tour guide, but it was interesting nonetheless.

                                                                     

                                                                                                                      

We were bummed we had to spend all our time Monday and Tuesday in DC when we still wanted to hang out with Christopher and Amelia! We’re happy we’ll get to hang out more when we move down there!

Title Censored

Last Friday Jonathan, Lincoln, and I drove to Scranton, PA to meet up with my friend Wayne who had been visiting New York City that week. Scranton is about half way between NYC and Ithaca, so we thought it as good a place as any to hang out for a few hours. After meeting at Steamtown Mall, we decided to sample the local cuisine at Alfredo’s Pizza Café. We were a little underwhelmed by the pizza. The crust was wonderful. The toppings were delightful. It just tasted like they used Kraft singles for the cheese. I shudder to think what Pizza by Alfredo tastes like.

                                                                                       

After lunch, we decided to take in some of the local sites. I had read on Trip Advisor that tours of an old coal mine were available and we thought that sounded like a fun activity for our afternoon. Unfortunately the last tour left at three o’clock and we arrived at 3:02. So, instead of seeing a real coal mine we visited the Anthracite Heritage Museum at the same location. We were the only visitors to the museum that day and the guest book hadn’t been signed in days. People just aren’t as interested in coal as they used to be. On top of being a museum about coal, about half it was blocked off with caution tape, because they were having some work done on the roof. This turned out to be a good thing, though, because it made the museum much more exciting. We felt like rebels as we threw caution to the wind to get photos of hundreds of antique thread spools. We like to live dangerously.

                                                                        

We had such a fun afternoon in Scranton with Wayne! We hadn’t seen each other in quite a long time, so it was really nice getting to catch up and hang out. I’m really excited we’re going to be living a whole lot closer to him in a little over a month!