Trips

Just posted over on Tumblr: "Confessions of a Disney Addict." Yes, it's become impossible to maintain an ironic detachment from Walt Disney World. I like the place and the quality family time we have there.

I now have a ton of work to do that coincides with the poverty of having blown the bank account. That means I'll be working a lot, so don't expect a lot of posts here on the Quaker Ranter until after I've caught up a bit.

A visit to Middletown Meeting, which I've been attending the last few years, and then to Longwood Garden's whose new Children's Garden just opened. Here are yesterday's pictures and below are samples and links.

Middletown Monthly Meeting: My "middletown" tagged photos Meeting website	Longwood Garden: My "longwood" tagged photos Longwood's website

This weekend we took off for a family trip to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania--Julie and me, the kids and my mother Liz. I won't have time to do a long blog post, but highlights were the Verdant View farm B&B (link) where we stayed; the Strasburg Railroad (link) whose line runs through the farm's backyard, the Choo Barn model railway (link); and the amazing Cherry Crest Farm (link) with its corn maze and its simple games for kids of all ages (who knew you could have so much fun with a hill and a piece of burlap?!).

See the See the photo set on Flickr for more pictures and stories. Every shot is mapped, with links.

Large photo: Family at Strasburg RR: Martin, Liz, Theo, Julie, Francis. Below: Julie and the kids walking through fields at farm, Francis playing kung-fu with the farm dog, Theo running in terror from said dog, Engine 90 ready to pull out.

Yesterday the kids and I took a road trip to Apple Pie Hill, a summit of loose gravel that towers over the South Jersey pinelands from a dizzying height of 209 feet above sea level. A fire watch tower on the summit adds another few dozen feet, enough to get a visitor over the treetops. On a clear day it's said you can see the skylines of Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Fortunately for me it was an quintessentially beautifully fall day--clear and crisp. It was easy to spot the cities, both thirty-two miles away (mostly to the south and mostly to the west respectively) and here's blowups of the two resultant photos:


More pictures, from left: Sand road to the hill, the fire tower, the view down through the steps of the tower (the kids were left in the car), two year old Francis eager but thwarted attempt to repeat Papa's climb up tower. Click individual photos for enlarged and geotagged versions. More photos of this and out stopover at Atsion later in the day on yesterday's Flickr page.

For those interested in repeating our journey, here's a map showing our route up and back. I was mostly winging it, depending on these directions from NJPineslandsandDownJersey.com starting from nearby Chatsworth NJ, self-styled "Capital of the Pine Barrens."



Other map views: View Larger Map | Satellite with Route Map

Last week we left Julie's church to find a beautiful late Summer afternoon so we took an unplanned road trip over to Pennsylvania's Longwood Gardens. It's not particularly close but it's beautiful and its car-free acreage makes it very kid-friendly so we have memberships there (thanks to Martin's Mom these last two years!). Below: scenes from Longwood's Fall model train exhibit, orchid room and waterfall.

More back blogging from our Ohio trip, this photo from a vegan eatery a few miles off a rural Pennsylvania turnpike exit. Prices were steep and the homemade non-dairy ice cream servings small but we ate everything from our plates.

Photo: Vegan food & messy boy at Maggie's Mercantile off exit 91 of the Penna Turnpike, an hour or so east of Pittsburgh. Enlarged photo.

Our our way out of Ohio the other week we took a scenic train ride. Kind of funny that the engines and cars both resemble current NJ Transit stock but hey, trains are always fun. A drizzly day made the two-hour layover in the historic-gone-touristy town of Peninsula, Ohio rather unpleasant (matters weren't helped that the shoppes were mostly closed). We finally ducked into the lovely Fishers Cafe and had a nice lunch.
 
Photo: Locomotives sit waiting in the Peninsula station. Enlarged photo.