The Worthington House. The trail head to the Brooks Hill Loop is to the left of the house (as you face it). In a perhaps apocraphal conversation, three decades after the Battle of Monocacy, which had taken place on July 9, 1864, former Confederate Major General John Gordon was introduced to Union Major General Lew […]
Geocaching Along Clearfield County’s Five Trails
Geocaching has seemed like something I’d like to do — I just didn’t know how to get started or what was involved. Not familiar with it? Has the idea of treasure-hunting every appealed to you? Geocaching is similar, except that it’s real, unlike the myths of gold buried in them thar hills. In fact, gecaching […]
Kid-Friendly Baltimore: 11 Fun Things to Do!
Few cities have quite as many kid-friendly activities and destinations as Baltimore! If you’re looking for a kid-friendly daytrip destination, consider checking out Baltimore. Whether you’ve got toddlers or teenagers, you’ll find plenty to do by exploring the 11 options below! You may just find yourself spending several days exploring them all! 1. Explore Industrial […]
Winter Morning Hike at the Prettyboy Resevoir
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) Trail is a 4-mile combination loop and out-and-back trail. Although it’s likely you’ll encounter other hikers, the trail isn’t crowded and most of the time you’re alone on the trai With an elevation gain of just over 300 feet, this is an easy trail and a fun way to spend a […]
Art Omi — Fields Sculpture Park
Bernar Venet, “Arcs in Disorder: 4 Arcs x 5, and 83.5 Degree Diagonal Line” An art museum and hiking? Great idea! You can enjoy both at Art Omi, an 120-acre sculpture and arts park in upstate New York. Dan Colen, “Yellow M&M, Brown M&M, Red M&M, Orange M&M“ The scuptures frequently change, so what I enjoyed […]
HIking the Coot Peninsula in Liberty Reservoir
Coot Peninsula Loop is a 4.2 mile popular loop trail that is simply delightful. The trail brings you through some lovely woods and then onto a peninsula (as the trail name suggests) that has you walking within sight of water on both sides, until finally the peninsula widens, like a spoon, into the Liberty Reservoir. I […]
Scenic Drive Along the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive
The Skyline Drive – Blue Ridge Parkway together form an historic scenic drive that runs 574 miles through Virginia and North Carolina through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachia. That time I almost lost my phone hanging out the window taking a photo along Skyline Drive. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a […]
Table Rock Hike in Monongahela National Forest
What’s a little mud when the view is this? Table Rock is a massive rock outcropping on the western side of Canaan Mountain, overlooking the Dry Fork and Cheat River valleys. The hike out to it will carry you through a hardwood forest as well as rhododendron thickets; it’s unlikely you’ll encounter anyone else, so […]
Overlook Mountain Trail Hike
Overlook Mountain is located just north of Woodstock, NY. In fact, if you walk down the main thoroughfare of Woodstock, you can see it clearly. It’s a popular trail — one of the most popular in the Catskills, in fact. You won’t get any solitude but that’s because the payoff is amazing. Three payoffs, actually. […]
The Holiday Spirit Goes Wild at Zoo Lights at the Maryland Zoo!
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do Don’t want a doll, no dinky tinkertoy I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy I couldn’t stop singing this cute Christmas song by Gayla Peevy, first released in in 1953 as we approached the Maryland Zoo to see its annual Zoo Lights. […]
Winter Festival of Lights at Watkins Regional Park
Bring a little twinkle to your holiday cheer at the spectacular Winter Festival of Lights at Watkins Regional Park, featuring a variety of fun and dazzling displays. I always get a kick out of the claims of how many hundreds of thousands, or in this case, millions, of lights there are — but this holiday […]
Octagon Mountain House: Nature is Art
I’d always wanted to live in an octagon shaped house, and when I saw the Octagon Mountain House on AirBnB near where we were planning on vacationing in the Shenandoah Valley, I leapt at the chance to rent it for a week, to serve as our homebase while we explored the hiking trails, historic sites […]
Holiday Cheer at Bull Run Festival of Lights
Brighten your holiday season with the magical 2.5 miles of illuminated light displays of the Bull Run Festival of Lights. Because of Covid 19, the annual fair and carnival at the end of the light displays is missing. Don’t let that dissuade you from visiting this holiday lights display — I do believe it’s one […]
Let Holiday Lights Displays Light Up Your Holiday Season!
If you’re looking for a way to enjoy the holidays, then check out some holiday lights in and around Maryland — whether drive through or walk through, holiday lights displays are a family-friendly holiday activity! Whether drive thru or on foot, this is a fun way to get some holiday cheer while letting your inner […]
Riding the Houtzdale Rail Trail and Discovering Local Rail History
Running just shy of 10.5 miles, the Houtzdale Rail Trail is a delightful little trail in Clearfield County between Oceola Mills and Smoke Run, PA. We had just enough time to ride a few miles in each directions, so we headed for the near geographic center of the trail, Houtzdale itself. The railtrail as it […]