familythattravels

Mike your photos are incredible thank you for taking the time to organize them and describe them in such detail. I live about 35 minutes North of Philadelphia in Bucks County (also beautiful) we have several covered bridges that are still used.

I enjoyed the familiar places (Philadelphia, Longwood Gardens, Princeton) and became intrigued with Pittsburgh.

Thanks again - safe travels wherever you are off to next.

Coquelicot

Mike, you make our state look so good! There really is a lot of scenic beauty in PA.

Gettysburg is my home town, and you showed it to me through new eyes. You might be interested in a book about the civilian experience, Days of Darkness by William Williams. If you're in the Gettysburg area again, a drive through the apple orchards might be a nice way to spend a few hours. That's really pretty country!

You've encouraged me to spend more time browsing in museums, and your strategy of doing that in the heat of the day appeals to me.

You came very close to where we live when you visited the covered bridges.

Thanks for your great photos and commentary.

tuscanlifeedit

Mike, I didn't say it was great pizza, just the neighborhood in Pittsburgh for pizza! ;-)

Your pictures reminded me of how very cool it was to be a student at the U of Pittsburgh. I had dozens of classes over the years in the Cathedral of Learning and although I cursed the building many times (elevators only went to certain floors) it was truly atmospheric and on good days, entrancing.

brookquarry

mjneenan:
I can confirm that the women you photographed at the market are almost certainly Amish, and yes, you should probably not have photographed them , since it is against their religious convictions- although I would expect this happens to them multiple times a day, so they probably have learned to put up with it.
@birdie is correct, however, that many of the Pa Dutch stands at the Market are operated by the somewhat less strict Old Order Mennonites(men need not wear beards, women can wear dresses with printed designs-rather than merely solid colors, much more widespread use of electricity)

At any rate your photos are spectacular and really capture Philadelphia.

Mjneenan

@ Familythattravels ...You are quite welcome. It does indeed take me quite a bit of time to organize the photos, but mostly it's time consuming to write the captions. But having these web albums helps me a lot to recall trip details for my own sake - and I might as well share them with others, too. Hmmm, I do hope you check out Pittsburgh if you haven't spent too much time there. I was really amazed at all it had to offer visitors.

@ Coquelicot ... Thanks for the book suggestions - sounds like right up my alley! I actually did have the apple orchards around Gettysburg on my wish list for my two days in the area, as well as the nearby Appalachian Trail museum and maybe even Mister Ed's Elephant Museum, as a quirky half hour of weirdness. But I decided instead my second day to just focus instead on the town of Gettysburg, since I hadn't given it any time. ... And thanks for your kind words - PA is for sure a beautiful state.

@ Brookquarry ... Thanks for the details about the PA Dutch stand. In light of your comments (and those from Birdie, as well), I just took down that photo of the Amish vendors and replaced it with a different one from Reading Terminal Market.

Birdie

I should have added that I don't think many Amish check out the trip reports on Fodors so would probably never know where their photos ended up.

Mjneenan

I agree, Birdie ... I just thought in light of what you said, that you were right about the fact that I shouldn't of taken the photo in the first place. I wasn't aware that having their image taken is against their religious beliefs, but I am now.

AliciaJ

Thanks for taking the time to create this report - very helpful!

schmerl

WOW! I just went through your photos of Philadelphia. I was born and raised in Phila. and now live in the suburbs. I often forget what a beautiful city Phila. is. When you live in/near a place you tend to take it for granted. I am going to have to take some day trips into the city and experience some of the things you did!

Mjneenan

I know what you mean, Schmerl ... We live in the Chicago suburbs and have for many years, but there are still quite a few touristy things that we have yet to do in the city, that I know we'd enjoy - just never get around to it. ... Glad you enjoyed my photos of Philadelphia.

gardendiva

Thank you for sharing. The photos are beautiful.

jayne1973

A weather question: I was planning a Pennsylvania trip in June, but someone told me that it was not a good month because it was too rainy. Is that true?

bmw732002

I focused on Gettysburg where I will be going this year!

Beautiful photo's!

I hear that you should take an experienced ranger, who rides along in your car, for a well detailed experience. Do you agree?

Thanks for posting. It looked llke a labor of love

PS: Where did you stay in Gettysburg?

-john

Mjneenan

@ Jayne1973, I was in Pennsylvania in mid July to late July, so it's hard for me to comment about the weather there in June. It was generally good weather there in July, but it did rain a few times while we were in Philly - no issues, though ... plenty of great places to duck into to escape the rain. It would have been much more of an issue had it rained all day in Gettysburg.

@ Bmw732002, I looked at the option to take a guide with for a personal tour, but the options I saw were for only two hours and I knew I wanted to spend far more time at each stop than a two hour tour would allow for, especially for photography purposes. I never saw anywhere that national park rangers could be hired - I am pretty sure that would be against their own rules. But there are certainly local guides for hire. I personally thought the option I went with, using a CD played in the car with a companion booklet worked well for me. But I also came in with a great deal of knowledge about the three days of fighting from prior reading and DVDs I had watched at home. If you knew very little before arriving, I personal guide would be quite helpful, I'm sure because he could answer any and all questions. ... When on such long road trips, I keep my motel costs pretty low by staying at budget places. In Gettysburg, I stayed at a lower cost place called Budget Host Three Crowns Motor Lodge. It was about $80 a night, met my needs fine and was right in the center of town. There are many motels in town - quite a lot to choose from.

Amy

Jayne, June can be gorgeous...but of course there's a chance of rain at any time of the year. I wouldn't say that June is particularly rainy...and neither would the stats, actually.
For instance, here's a June day in Doylestown: http://missalg.smugmug.com/Travel/Pe...8210933_RWvXLS and one in North Philadelphia and Bartram's Garden (SW Phila): http://missalg.tumblr.com/post/25266...artrams-garden

Bmw732002, the Gettysburg Battlefield Guides have been excellent in my experience. They go through very rigorous testing. Here's a site that tells more about them: http://www.gettysburgtourguides.org/

Slw

Mj, I really enjoyed your album. Thanks for taking the time and sharing it with us. My dad was from Pittsburgh but I've only been there a couple of times and that was long ago.

jayne1973

Thanks for the pictures, Amy and the thoughts on June weather. Maybe we will try for later in the month. We want to hit a couple of the history amusement parks so need good weather for those days.