Pocono Talk

On Monday the Danbury Depot in East Stroudsburg was pretty much gutted by a fire:  http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091027/NEWS/910270328 Dansbury Depot has been an essential part of the Poconos history for many years, it is a National Historic Landmark that originally was a train station.

We would eat at the Depot about once every few months, usually after church, and my 6 year old would have the best time watching the occasional train pass right by the large windows and watching the model train run on the track above where we were eating.

The restaurant recently went under new  management at the beginning of they year and was under the process of being renovated.  It really saddens me to see such an iconic symbol of the Poconos destroyed like that.  I hope that they will rebuild – and being a historic landmark keep within the character of the original building.

Which brings me to my next point…I was going to discuss today about pizza in the Poconos and where you can get the best slice(in my opinion).

The pizza places in the area underwent “pizza wars” last year as I like to call it…where the owner(at the time, he later took his own life in jail) of the Continental Grill tried to vandalize Capri pizza in Cresco, was suspected of burning down Capri Pizz in Canadensis and the Kasa’s Pizza & Taco Bell (on 940).

There has been a string of unusual fires over the past few years, understandably fires happen, but fires that completely destroy buildings by a “fluke” don’t happen that often.

I’m not sure what the case is with Dansbury Depot but I hope it is rebuilt to it’s original glory and that it wasn’t an act of vandalism.

I passed by the Giant supermarket that is going in on 611 over the weekend and there are signs outside saying that it will open on November 4th.  The number of cars out front is deceiving though as almost the entire parking lot was filled – I assume with people stocking shelves.  It makes you wonder though if there will be enough parking when it does open.  Keep in mind there are stores going in right next to it and with holiday overflow…who knows.

One good thing that has come out of the old Crossroads restructure is 611 – it has gone from 2/3 lanes in parts to 5 lanes in some and has also been totally repaved.  The test of time will be over the holidays – and unfortunately none of the road changes will relieve the crowding that happens from the 80 exit just past Olive Garden down almost into town.  It is always PAINFULLY slow and crowded over the holidays.

There is also a Giant gas station going in as well – Weis has tried to make preparations over the summer, forcing everyone to get new swipe cards that you can use accumulated points to get discounted gas.  The only problem is that personally there is no Weis gas station within a 30 minute + period.  If I wanted to spend that much time driving to get a discount I’d just shop at the Giant down in WindGap.

So if you haven’t seen 611 in the past 2 years you’d probably be shocked with the changes…in a “down economy” new construction and new stores is a good thing so I’m not complaining.  What is a shame is that the Poconos as many people knew it is quickly fading…between the stores, construction and more trees and open land getting destroyed by the day it is getting less rural and more city by the day.

Shawnee Mountain has a variety of events throughout the year, one event that I wanted to get to but I’m just way too busy this weekend is the Timber & Balloon Festival.  This past week has been a mess weather wise – snow, rain, cold.  The festival ran from Friday night through Sunday, Saturday morning it was snowing so it probably would have been pretty miserable, but today seems like it would have been a nice day.  It’s definitely on the cold side with the wind, but it would be a nice day to get out before winter really sets in.

Adult tickets range from $8 in advance on Friday to $15 at the gate on Saturday & Sunday, and kids tickets range from $6 in advance on Friday to $12 at the gate on Saturday & Sunday. You can also purchase multi-day passes to save some money as well.

So what do they have?  It’s the Timber and Balloon Festival – the Timber part consists of “IRONJACK Timber Team Lumberjack Shows: As seen on OLN; Log Rolling, Pole Climbing, Axe and Chainsaw Competitions, Buck Sawing and More.” http://www.shawneemt.com/s_timberballoonfestival.html and the Balloon part consists of Hot Air Balloon Launches as well as Hot Air Balloon rides(limited availability purchase in advance).

I think for both kids and adults alike Hot Air Balloons are one of those hidden fascinations – seeing how large the balloons actually are, the logistics of how they operate, the thought of being up so high (or actually being one of those brave souls that take a ride) and the awe of their brilliant colors.  I hope to be able to go next year, and I definitely want to hit up the Garlic Festival at Shawnee as well(unfortunately we were sick this year and highly disappointed we didn’t get to go – but there’s always next year).

If one thing is for sure, there is never a shortage of fun and special things to do in the Poconos!

It gets me every year…just when I think that snow can’t begin, or end, too late here it comes.

It’s just barely mid-October, it’s the peak week for the fall changing of the leaves and what’s this?

From my weather.com email alert:

“AS THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVES FARTHER OFFSHORE THE INTENSITY WILL LESSEN OVERNIGHT AND ACCUMULATING SNOW SHOULD COME TO AN END DURING THE DAY ON FRIDAY WITH TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 5 INCHES.”

No, not a dusting…an actual coating, even a few inches possibly…

I haven’t even raked my leaves up yet!  They’re still on the trees!

So we ended up getting about 3 inches, most of it has melted by this afternoon, but there is still a good coating in certain areas.  It is very odd to see an entire lawn covered in snow, then a big blank spot – because the tree above it still has all of it’s leaves and is covering the area.

If you’re a photographer it must be great to get some shots of beautiful colored leaves with snow on them. For me I’m just wondering how long it is going to take for the leaves to dry out enough to be able to pick them up now.  I usually get in a routine of putting all of my flowers and pots away, raking every other week, tarping everything for winter…Well this caught me off guard(although I should know to expect the unexpected by now) and my poor flowers are all drooping from the heavy snow.

In all honesty I don’t mind it, I just want a good week to be able to store everything and get ready for winter.  It seems like winter comes on out of the blue and if you don’t have everything ready you’re at a loss.  3 years ago I figured I’d hustle to get leaves done the one weekend.  Luck would have it the very next day we got a few inches of snow and it didn’t stop until spring.

I’m feeling a snowier/colder winter then usual coming on.  Time to clean up, buckle down and get ready to ride it out!

Monday was Columbus Day so we left work a little bit early to head out to do some pumpkin and apple picking.  The problem is I really couldn’t find anywhere that had both available.

PUMPKIN PICKING
When “pumpkin picking” you really need to be sure that you read the fine print so that if you’re actually expecting to pick pumpkins off the vine that they have it available.  Many “pick your own” places pre-pick the pumpkins then lay them out in a field for you to choose from.  It’s a fun step up from getting them out of a bin, but there is something great about being able to actually pick them off a vine.

Places I know of that you can actually pick them off a vine(please call them to make sure, late in the season they have them pre-picked).

OFF THE VINE
Klingels/Mazezilla: We took my son there with his preschool and they take you on an open hayride of sorts out to the patch to pick your own pumpkins:

http://www.mazezilla.com/patch.html they are probably the closest in the Poconos.

Donaldson Farms (NJ): Again, we took our son out there last year with his preschool, we actually got to walk in the field and pick out our pumpkins.  They also have flower picking early in the year(I really want to try that as well!)  http://www.donaldsonfarms.net

PUMPKIN PATCH
Strawberry Acres(near Allentown): They are available off the vine but for the rest of this season YOU CAN NOT GET THEM OFF THE VINE.  If you want to go there be sure to go early in the season. They have pumpkins available to choose from in a field.   http://www.strawberryacres.com/pumpkins.html

Old Homestead(in Leighton): They are also available in a field, there are farm animals, a pumpkin sling/shooter thing, they also have food stands. http://www.oldhomestead.com/ppatch.html

APPLE PICKING

Apple Picking

So I really really really wanted to go and pick apples this year.  I am constantly teaching my 6 year old son about where fruits/vegetables come from and it’s really cute to see his reaction of  “so carrots are in the ground?” or “bananas in trees?”.  I searched around and found that many places that normally have apple picking available do not have it this year due to the weather(I assume the rain).  I also wanted to combine that with pumpkin picking – but I unfortunately could not find a place that did both at this time of the year that was close.

So we headed down to Strawberry Acres which is right past the Allentown mall to do some apple picking.  Like many of the places we visit it had farm animals(I love llamas), a big “tube slide” for the kids(if you haven’t seen/tried one they’re a good laugh), pony rides, pumpkin picking(available off the vine usually, but we went to late in the season so they were in a field), a farmers market with Mums, fresh fruit, and of course APPLE PICKING!  We grabbed 2 boxes and hopped onto what I can only best describe as a school bus convertible…it’s like a hayride in a school bus, with the top off, minus the hay…you’d have to see it…and were taken a few minutes up the road to where the trees were.  I was slightly disappointed that the trees are so close to houses…it looses that “outdoor” feel that you get with being up here in the Poconos.  It is about an hour away though and should be expected, but it seems that their pear trees are a lot further out so if you went there to do pear picking(you can also do cherry picking and peach picking) it would seem a lot more rural.

Regardless, once you’re in a sea of apple trees everything else seems to fade away.  I’ve been apple picking before where you use baskets on a stick to collect them since the fruit is up so high.  In this case the trees were on the “small side” being that the apples went from almost the ground all the way up to about 20 feet or so.  It was great for my son since he could grab the apples himself and it really gave him a hands on feel.  Since there were a lot of riper apples up top my husband hoisted him up a few times to grab them off the trees which delighted him.  All in all we picked probably close to 40-50  apples which ended up costing us about $35.  more expensive then store bought but definitely worth it for the experience.

Needless to say I’ll be baking a lot of apple pies in the next couple of days…

Lastly, Christmas is quickly approaching so I thought I’d mention that if you’re looking for a place to cut your own Christmas Tree in the Poconos   that Old Homestead Tree Farm has tree cutting available:  http://www.oldhomestead.com/xmas.html I have yet to cut my own Christmas tree so maybe we’ll try it this year!

Apple picking, pumpkin picking, cutting your own Christmas tree…they’re all great ways to get some quality family time together and to create some lasting memories.  It takes a lot more time and money then the pre-cut/picked stuff, but it’s well worth it!