The life of the museum actually begins with Theodore Davis Boal who personally organized and financed a private machine gun troop to be joined with the National Guard of Pennsylvania 28^th Division. The troop was later designated Company A of the 107th Machine Gun Battalion and left for the war with the 28th Division in 1918. The museum was eventually constructed at the location of the machine gun troop training camp, known as Camp Boal.

The 28^th Division Shrine

There are many interesting things to see at the Pennsylvania Military Museum including the 28^th Division Shrine. Each year in May the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th Division gathers at the Shrine to honor their own in a ceremony called “A Celebration of Service: Honoring Pennsylvania Veterans.” Events include military exhibits, band concerts, and a 21 gun howitzer salute. It’s an event open to the public and dedicated to the honor and respect of the Pennsylvanians who served and fought for us.

The Battleship Pennsylvania

Commissioned in 1916, the USS Pennsylvania was the lead ship of her Class of United States Navy super dreadnought battleships. During WWII, the ship was involved in many naval offensives in the Pacific and also involved in Pearl Harbor. She earned 8 battle stars and the US Navy Commendation Award for service. But after WWII the USS Pennsylvania was decommissioned and its guns were dismantled and sent to a gun barrel storage yard in Dahlgren, VA. The ship was then used in atomic bomb tests in Operation Crossroads and was eventually towed out to sea and sunk. Its guns were recently rediscovered and delivered to the Pennsylvania Military Museum for permanent display on May 20, 2009.

Military Life and Equipment

While the museum was constructed to honor Pennsylvania’s military soldiers it also provides us a glimpse of what life was like for Pennsylvania’s soldiers. Displays include life aboard the Battleship Pennsylvania and a look into the early trench warfare battle tactic experience. The museum also has displays of various weapons and equipment used in conflict including the evolution of the M1A1 Howitzer, the 4.2 chemical mortars, and the evolution of the machine gun. You’ll also see military vehicles such as the M59 Armored Personnel Carrier and the Bantam Reconnaissance Car which evolved into the Willy’s Jeep of WWII.

Events, Tours and Lectures

The museum also provides school and group tours and a schedule of lectures throughout the year arranged by The Friends of the Pennsylvania Military Museum organization. For more information about the Pennsylvania Military Museum go to http://pamilmuseum.org or call 814-466-6263.

"Pivot" by Bill Brady, Jr.

We have a lot of artists in Northwestern Pennsylvania, but not many galleries. So, when I found out that a new venue, The Graffiti Gallery, was opening in Oil City, I did a small (interpretive) dance of joy.
The Graffiti Gallery sits below street level, down a half flight of stairs at the downtown landmark National Transit Building. The first show, with an opening this Friday is a tribute to Butch Quinn, an outsider artist with work in national collections who came from Oil City. In addition to Quinn’s vibrant work, I was entranced by the metal sculpture of Bill Brady, Jr – another outsider artist who lives in a schoolbus in Centerville, PA and is building a glider airplane in his spare time.

Everyone I ran into at the gallery was unpretentious and friendly. People flowed in from the street –bankers on lunch breaks mixing with a young guy ditching his smoke outside (but keeping his Big Gulp in his hand).

Walking back to my car, I realized how much this gallery is a labor of love and intensity. It’s not a co-op, but local artists put it together, planned and hung the show. Like the outsider artists who fill out the show, artists created this out of willpower – purely for the desire to and need for a space like this.

The Graffiti Gallery is at 210 Seneca Street in Oil City PA 16301. 814-676-5303. The opening reception for “Works in the Outsider Spirit” is Friday September 10th 6-9pm.

Retherford's Pumpkin Patch

A few times a month I travel route 225N over Peter’s Mountain to do some shopping and I never fail to be amazed by the beautiful sights on my trip.  Today I was in for a big surprise on my way to Halifax – Fall has come to Retherford’s Pumpkin Patch!

I wait all year to see the beautiful displays of Fall’s best farm fresh produce, and this year Sarah and Allen Retherford have outdone themselves.  The farm stand is decked out in purple potted flowers and orange pumpkins and it looks just like a postcard.

The Retherford’s have been in this same spot for eight years and each year it just gets better.  Last year they had that giant pumpkin decorated up with the Phillies and Pirates baseball teams, wonder what they’ll come up with this year for that giant pumpkin!

They’ve got lots to look at an even a few photo opportunities to get your family in the festive Fall mood.  Definitely take a few minutes just to look around and take in the beautiful scenery at the foot of Peter’s Mountain.  Not too many places prettier than this one.

If you’re out for a Sunday drive make a point to stop at Retherford’s for the best a farm stand can be.  Take the Halifax/225N exit off of 322W and go over the mountain (maybe stop in for some ice cream at 3Bs in Dauphin first) and look for their stand at 3475 Peter’s Mountain Road on your right.  You won’t be disappointed!

Legacy Used Books and Collectibles

So, living in New Holland Pennsylvania and running our bed and breakfast here in Lancaster County, leads me to be concierge on several occasions. I love starting my guests off with a destination for enjoyment whether for dining, sight seeing or shopping. New Holland is not the commercial hot spot that say Intercourse or Bird-in-Hand would be. You have to do a little research here to find what you are looking for.

I often hear, “we just drove so far… is there someplace close by that we could walk to and do a little shopping and get a bite to eat”? One of the places that always comes to mind would be my favorite little book store right here in New Holland.

Jan, the owner of Legacy Used Books and Collectibles is the proud owner of this unique little shop. Jan has made a comfortable haven for all to enjoy, relax, meet and browse. Her shop is one of the many comforts of New Holland. With Tin ceilings, cozy old fashioned fixtures and plenty of old world charm, this shop thrills all those wishing to slip away into the comforts of a book.

Legacy Used Books has been in business for five years now and going strong. They have won the hearts of all the locals. Whenever we are looking for old fashioned recipes, or an antique, or a gift for someone tough to buy for, Jan comes through with the most unique find.

Legacy is truly a find amongst us lucky enough to live in New Holland. I hope for more of this style shop to open up in our special spot of Lancaster. There is just so much to see in do in our area… I look forward to many years of going to Legacy!

For more information, check out their website at http://www.legacyusedbooksandcollectibles.com

Beautiful Mural Depicting the Immigrant Heritage of Bloomfield

Since my daughters’ orthodontist was located in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, I’ve spent many hours, wandering around the area waiting for various dental appliances – expanders, retainers, braces – to be put in and taken off. So one would think that I would’ve explored every nook and cranny of this primarily Italian neighborhood.

But last weekend, the Burgh Bits and Bites Little Italy tour proved that I was not as familiar as I thought with the best of Bloomfield.  The energetic owner of the company, Sylvia McCoy, was our tour guide. Luckily she gave out a bottle of cold water to all of us at the beginning of the 2 hours plus tour, as it was another 90 degree plus day in Pittsburgh and my middle-aged self doesn’t deal well with exercise (okay, it was just walking at a slow pace) combined with heat.

There were about five stops on the tour and each one involved some history and some food. We sampled pasta, pizza, gelato, biscotti and more.  I learned that the Germans and the Italians used to fight a lot in this neighborhood – they even had separate churches.  Today, they all get along, but it seems to me from all of the Italian food in the area, the Italians won. Just like in my house growing up.  My Italian mother and my German father bickered constantly (they still do), but at the end of the day, everyone moves on to more important things like some spaghetti, crusty bread and homemade wine. But my  mother, the Italian, always manages to be the winner. Just like in Bloomfield.

Wikimedia Commons: Photo courtesy of Renjishin01

ED Note: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

ZOOAMERICA

One of our favorite spots to visit in Hershey PA is ZOOAMERICA.  Much quieter than its next door neighbor Hersheypark, the zoo is open all year round or you can visit it on the same day you visit Hersheypark as part of your park admission.  We love visiting in the fall and winter when the animals are more active and the paths are less crowded.

ZOOAMERICA indoor exhibit

ZOOAMERICA is celebrating its 100^th anniversary in 2010 and they have lots of great activities planned during all seasons of the year.  This time we went to visit their newest additions – the Ocelots named Nib and Bean.

Favorites in our family are the night-time exhibit where you walk through a darkened hallway to see the nocturnal animals and also the Black Bear Exhibit.

During the fall, ZOOAMERICA holds “Creatures of the Night” which we never miss.  Kids can walk through the park with flashlights looking at the animals at night.

Make sure you talk to the ZOOAMERICA staff; they are full of interesting information.  For instance, did you know the black bears at ZOOAMERICA do not hibernate?  There is enough food available year-round so they don’t have to.

King Kone Creamery, Rte 39 in Hershey

After spending a few hours visiting the animals, we love to drop in at King Kone Creamery – our favorite ice cream parlor in Hershey.  This place has everything you could ever want on, or in, your ice cream.

Tons of hand dipped and soft serve flavors and the absolute best milkshakes we’ve ever had.  Much larger portions than Chocolate World or Hersheypark so be sure check out King Kone Creamery when you are in town – you will not regret it.  (Oh, be sure to check out the bathrooms, they’re pretty special!)

After parking, we wandered up to the large crowd of people, assuming that’s where we paid. Between waiting in line to pay and then waiting  for the free bus that took us and our tubes to the launch point, it took close to an hour. However, I don’t fault the folks at Delaware River Tubing for that – it was July 5. And once we splashed into the 80-degree Delaware River, it was totally worth it.

For roughly two hours, we floated down the river. Along with 2,000 other people from Delaware River Tubing, there were also folks from Bucks County River Country, another tubing/rafting company on the PA side of the Delaware.

At the half-way point, we stopped at Delaware River Tubing’s “Famous Hot Dog River Man” stand because as part of my admission, I got a soda, candy bar and two hot dogs. The friendly staff had four lines going at one time, but there were so many people on the river that day, it took about an hour till we got our food, ate and were back on the river. But just like the first wait of the day, it was worth it.

The remaining two hours on the trip surprised us with several sections of small rapids, but nothing like what you’d find on the Lehigh River (which is more suited to rafting anyhow). At the six-mile mark from our starting point, we debarked and waited in the shade of some trees for the bus to take us back to the car.

The water was so comfortable all day long, I didn’t even notice the heat throughout the day … I didn’t notice how much sun I got either. I drove home with some great color on my face, a little burn on my shoulders, and a nasty burn on the front of my legs. But at least I finally got a tan!

This weekend is gonna be another hot one. Who wants to go tubing?

Editor’s Note: There are a variety of outfitters around PA that can assist your tubing/kayaking/canoeing needs. For more info check out visitPA.com

Old Fashioned Shopping at The Outlet Shoppes of Gettysburg

The shopping area is set up like a small town Main Street with the Shoppes set up facing each other and parking in between (as well as behind) the Shoppes.

With places like Old Navy, GAP and Wilson Leather a lot of good bargains can be found for the kids going back to school. 

If you go, be sure to stop in at Guest Services and show your AAA card for a free coupon book.

Not a AAA member?  If you’re lucky Helen will be working and can fill you in on how to get the best deals at the Shoppes. (Thank you Helen!)

Before we left, I made a stop at our favorite coffee shop, Merlin’s Coffee.  I love cats and this cat-themed coffee shop just makes me smile – so do the wonderful coffee drinks!

After hitting the Outlet Shoppes we stopped at Back to Basics Western Wear which is our daughter’s favorite place to shop for jeans.

If you need boots, trust me, this place is legendary.  But it’s filled with other neat stuff too for kids of all ages who dream of being a cowboy or girl.

In just a few short hours our school shopping was done and we headed home.  What a great trip!

View of the crowd at Musikfest's RiverPlace stage. Photo Credit: Glenn Koehler

Last year was the first time I went to Musikfest in over 10 years and I had a pretty good time. Sunday night, I returned to the annual Lehigh Valley event for some of that tasty food (Abe and I ate $32 worth of food between the two of us, the highlight being the Aw Shucks corn) and for my first ever Musikfest concert at the Sands RiverPlace stage to see Sublime With Rome.

The RiverPlace stage is located on Sand Island at the southern end of Musikfest. Apparently, because of being surrounded by water, it can get a bit buggy there, but Sunday night it was cool and drizzling without a bug in sight. I’ve heard some people complain about how muddy this stage can get, but honestly, since it was raining for most of the day, most of Musikfest was a tad muddy; it wasn’t like Woodstock ‘94 or anything, people!

We had seats in the VIP section, which are the rows closest to the stage. For $42 a pop, that was definitely a deal! Directly behind the VIP section is the Reserved section ($37), followed by the Lawn section (only $20). Like VIP, Reserved had seating and was surrounded by a fence that was well-guarded by ArtsQuest ushers (who I’d like to applaud right here and now for how tactfully they dealt with the swarms of intoxicated patrons … I could not do that job). The Lawn was general admission, which means stand where you can find a place and if you want to sit you’re out of luck unless you didn’t mind sitting on the ground. Not a bad thing. I’m just sayin…

I’ve been to lots of concerts over the past 20 years, indoors and outdoors, and I have to say that the sound at this show was fantastic! At our seats 20 rows from the stage, I didn’t leave the show with ringing in my ears but it was loud enough to feel the deep bass lines that make Sublime With Rome’s songs so distinct.

We arrived just as the first opening act, The Movement, was finishing up so I didn’t pay much attention to them. The second opening act, The Dirty Heads, sounded similar to Sublime With Rome so I could groove along with their set even though I’d never heard of them before. It was during their set I was introduced to Rome Ramirez, the lead singer/guitarist of Sublime With Rome who replaced the late Bradley Nowell, when he came out to sing a song with The Dirty Heads.

Sublime With Rome isn’t fun in the way that Green Day is as Billy Joe Armstrong runs around on stage and interacts with the crowd – although Rome did interact with the crowd by:

1. telling them to start a mosh pit

2. asking them what song they’d like to hear next

3. after a guy threw a t-shirt on stage at him, asking for ladies brassieres to be thrown instead, of which he ended up with at least three hanging off his mic stand by the end of the night.

What made this show so much fun was the music. Whether you’re a fan of the original Sublime or not, their songs “Santeria“, “Wrong Way” and “What I Got” are pretty hard not to have heard at least once in your life. The California surf-rock reggae-fusion style of Sublime With Rome’s music – deep bass lines, short “chug-a-chuga” guitar riffs, the occasional wail of a saxophone/horn – is just fun to groove to. The music’s about “the party”, which I could tell that the crowd definitely understood.

Here’s a video, which does the real show no justice, but apparently the person taking the video (thanks, YouTube user Kuz912) was right in front of me, so it gives a pretty good idea of the view I had along with Sublime With Rome’s performance.

What are your thoughts on Musikfest’s RiverPlace stage? Have you ever seen Sublime With Rome?

Not so my kids. Both my son and daughter received a fishing rod from my wife’s father for their third birthdays. Two years ago, after Delton received his Spider-Man pole, Pappy took him to Limestone Springs Fishing Preserve, a trout hatchery near Richland in Lebanon County. Going here with a young kid offers three advantages: no need to purchase a fishing license, several waterholes well stocked with rainbow trout and—best of all—someone to clean and fillet your catch. Granted, this takes some of the adventure out of catching fish, but your three-year old will be too busy having fun to notice.

This year, we made our second trip to Limestone Springs, this time so my daughter Julia could take her Barbie fishing pole for a spin. She was having fun until the first trout her and Pappy hauled out together began thrashing wildly on the ground. She mostly spent the rest of the expedition supervising mommy’s casting, although she wasn’t squeamish about watching an employee gut and fillet our fish.

We put our catch on ice (a fish fry at Pappy’s house would follow a few weeks later) and headed to the Franklin House Tavern in Schaefferstown for lunch. Old enough to have been once known as The King George, oil paintings and neon bar signs seem equally at home in this restaurant where Colonial Williamsburg meets typical small-town Pennsylvania bar. The menu prices were a bit steep, but the food, especially the hand-cut French fries and beer-battered onion rings, was top-notch.

Afterward, we went to the local Good’s Store to see about a present for a friend’s birthday party. Good’s has several locations in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties and caters the area’s Mennonite and Amish communities. My wife Aleisha likes to shop there because it is one of the few stores that still sells fabric. I like to go because it reminds me of the old five and dime stores my family frequented when I was little. We also thought about going to a nearby scratch-and-dent store, BB’s Grocery Outlet, but didn’t think the kids could handle any more Central Pennsylvania excitement!