Road Trip - Columbia MD to Corning NY

Earlier this week we started our short vacation to the area around Corning NY. It’s an area we have visited more than a handful of times over the past 25 years. The route takes us around Baltimore and heading to York and then Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The Welcome Center as we passed into Pennsylvania has a wonderful display of irises. I remembered that they looked just a gorgeous as the year we drove up for my daughter’s college graduation - about this same time of year. What was different about the rest stop this year was the milkweed coming up in many of the beds; the shoots were so dense that it has to be planted intentionally. Hurray for the state of helping out the Monarch butterflies!

After Harrisburg the route heads toward Williamsport. It follows a very scenic stretch of the Susquehanna. It is possible to catch glimpses of the river. Many of the islands have been designated Wildlife Management Areas. We noticed this time that US 15 has signs that say ‘Future Corridor of I99.’

The stretch of road through the Allegheny’s - where clouds frequently kiss the rounded mountain tops on either side of the highway - is very scenic but there are no rest stops and very few places to find something to eat!

We made such good time that we rolled into Corning early enough that we forged ahead to take a look at Watkins Glen State Park. More about that in a few days….and Montour Falls….and Letchworth State Park.  It was a waterfall extravaganza!

On the Road to Philadelphia

Last week we made the trek into Philadelphia to pick up by daughter after her conference; she’d arranged to spend a few days with us in Maryland before flying back to Arizona. We left after the morning rush hour traffic and I managed a few pictures through the car window.

The Domino Sugar sign in Baltimore

The trees along the highway

The bridges over the Susquehanna River

Some of the big buildings of downtown Philadelphia

And a closer look at a building façade while we drove around trying to find parking.

We were going to the Mutter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the nearby parking along the river was blocked off because of overnight flooding (the water had retreated by the time we arrived at mid-day but the muddy sediment remained).

And then we were on foot and it was easier to get a closer look at some of the buildings. I particularly liked the church courtyard (First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia) next to the Mutter Museum.