harrisburg

Yesterday Angel and I went to pick up the girl child at camp Wood Haven. It's about 40 minutes from Harrisburg so we decided to do one of the Harrisburg walks.

We left Easton around 10 and arrived in Harrisburg around noon. Traffic was a nightmare entering the city. I felt like I was going to Philly. We found the hotel easily but parked on the wrong side of the building. Then had to find out way in. That was fun. Ultimately we found the door, and signed in. The directions had us start in the back. Who knew. We actually found the perfect parking space. There was a map with the directions, but it wasn't marked. I know why. Lots of loops! Bonnie would have hated it.

The directions began by having us walk around the building. It was HHH yesterday so we chose to retrace our steps through the building. Stay in the AC as long as possible. Then we hit the trail. We were no more than a block away and they suggested the first tour. I believe there were five. I don't know how the walk and all those tours could be done on the same day. We skipped all tours.

First stop was the train station. The second was the capitol. We skipped this loop. We crossed 2nd to get to the train station at 4th and they had us going back to 2nd, and coming back again at 3rd. We could see the dome of the capitol. We went straight up fourth and back to third to enter the complex.

We walked about a 1/4 way around the capital, and then in thru the park to the fountain. As I read the instructions, I'm see a lot of right onto whatever street, not marked, then right onto whatever street, not marked ...  you get the idea. Clearly they were walking us around the government complex and back to 3rd. Ignoring the directions, we walked around the government building and back to 3rd.

At that intersection was another suggested stop, The State Museum of Pennsylvania. One of my grad school classmates used to create displays there. Some state museums are free. Ours is not.

Then we headed up 3rd.

We were supposed to turn on Fulton Street, I think, but I saw this mural further up 3rd and I had to see it. Angel went in the convenience store for more water. We went through a lot. (I had more than a half-gallon of water or frozen water in the cooler when I left home.)

We circled around a few streets and then back to the riverfront and entered the bike trail. That's when we saw the Kissmobile. I was hoping they would get the light. Give me a chance to compose a pic, but alas they had a green arrow. I am delighted I actually got a pix of it, and then I forgot to Instagram it. Drats.

The bike path and Front Street ran next to each other. Sometime the bike bath went closer to the river and back up. The bike path was sunny. Front Street more shady. I chose to stay a lot on Front Street. I'm glad we did. Look at all the "dino-mite" dinosaurs we found. And a couple leftover bulls from a previous project. Harrisburg artists want you to have a "dino-mite summer". Groan all you want. They we cute!

We skipped taking the pedestrian bridge to city island. That loop, plus crossing the bridge twice, would have added about 1.5 miles to our walk. But it was nearly two and we needed to be at camp between 3-3:30 and mama bear was already getting anxious. (Okay, she was anxious when I picked her up.) She really wanted the tween back. (I figured they'd be fighting in 15 minutes but they weren't. Actually they didn't fight the whole way home.) I'm glad we did. Traffic was dense and slow.

We stopped at a Turkey Hill for some snacks before heading to camp. We arrived at about 3:15. She didn't catch a glimpse of the child until 3:45. I was not sure Angel would make it thru closing ceremonies. Then the child broke out of line, ran over and gave her a hug, and ran back to the line. That held her together for the next half hour. Barely.

Tween collected, we headed thru Friday night traffic to come home. Another reunion with daddy awaited.