Visiting in Pennsylvania

Monday

Had a good nights sleep in a new bed, that does not always happen.  My sister was up and Molly was so happy to see me she came upstairs before I could get into the bathroom.  You would think I am her long lost brother.

Meet Molly

She calmed down pretty quick this morning but she does like to be close to you.

She would prefer to be a lap dog but settled for laying next to me

I caught up on my emails and blog reading now on to the rest of the day.

We had a nice lunch and watched the cat and dog try to catch a bird that keep coming to the back door to peck at its reflection.  She kept Molly interested for hours.

Emma spotted the bird first

Then Molly took over

 Later in the afternoon I watched the finals of the Amazing Race via Slingox on my iPad.  Then my sister and I headed over to see her Dr.  looks like her knee surgery will keep her off work for a few more weeks. His office is in this old house.

Nice location for a Dr office.

 Once home Molly was never far away.

She can look so sad if you do not let her snuggle

My niece Jennifer and her son Dan came for supper.  Dan enjoyed playing with his toys and reading a book.

New toy

 Joe did a chicken on the Set It and Forget It rotisserie for dinner, with veggies and stove top stuffing.
Delicious!  Dan had a good appetite too, seems to eat better than his mother.

Great chicken

Dan really enjoyed his brownie

I love my dessert

We enjoyed the rest of the evening visiting and watching a little TV and some computer time.

Tuesday

Not raining when we got up this morning so we decided to go out a do a couple things.  Sharon's knee is still sore so we skipped GeoCaching.  She suggested a couple things and we decided to head to Daniel Boone's childhood homestead which is close to here.

Looks like he was here 16 years

My sister and the visitors center

 Not much going on here today and most of the buiding were not open.  The one volunteer tour guide was tied up with a group of school kids.  So we got a map and went on the self guided tour.

A nice large loom in the visitors center

The sheep pretty much run loose.

The Boone house

 Daniel was born in a log cabin that stood where the left side of this house is now.  The basement and foundation are original.  The Boone's added the right side of the house on to the log cabin and then a later owner replaced the log part of the home with the stone that is here now.

You can see where the house was added on to.

 This barn and blacksmith shop were moved here from a nearby farm.

Example of a German barn.

This freight wagon could haul 12,000lbs

This wool was sheared from the sheep on site and has been set out to dry.

Looks like she would like her wool back

 This is a water powered saw mill.  It does not operate now but at one time it did.

Old saw mill

Saw mill and carriage

The dam at the mill pond

The water ran under this wheel to power the saw.

From there we headed over to:

This is the remains of a coal blast furnace that never really worked properly.

This is a typical charcoal hearth that was tended by a man called a collier.  It took hundreds of these to produce enough charcoal for the smelting furnace.

This is a view of the water wheel that operated the circular bellows on top that provided the blast of air to the bottom of the furnace.

The site was not maned today either so the building were not open.  I did manage to take the next few pictures of the bottom level of the blast furnace through a crack in the door.  I managed not to drop my phone as I held it through the crack between the doors.

To the right of the furnace

The bottom of the furnace

To the left of the furnace

The Ironmasters Mansion

He could keep a close eye on the furnace

The weather had been looking like rain for a couple hours as we headed to lunch.  After lunch we picked up some papers at the Dr. office and headed home.

Sharon headed for a haircut and said she was picking up dinner.

Wednesday

Looks like it rained all night but no rain this morning.

Took it easy until after lunch and then we headed for Strasburg in Lancaster County.  We stopped first at the outlet malls.  I wanted to look at Black & Decker.  There were two of them in the mall but both are closed and out of business.  Sharon looked in a couple stores and I relaxed in the car.

Then we headed over to the Millennium Sight and Sound Theater to see their production of Jonah.

Waiting for the start

 The place is huge.  The main stage is huge and there is a large stage on each side also.  During the play they used all three stages.

Main stage

By the time the show started almost every seat was filled.  This was the second show of the day.  The production was fantastic and we really enjoyed it.  There is almost too much and I tend to go into sensory overload and can not keep up with all that is going on.  The show lasted about 2 hours and twenty minutes.  Afterward we headed home with a stop at Red Robin for dinner.  We ran through a little rain on the way home but no storms.  Its nice and cool out tonight so should be good sleeping tonight.

Its been a good and fun week with my sister.  Looking forward to a good family dinner tomorrow night and then I will be heading home on Friday.

Thanks for checking in.