3rd anni getaway trip

Col surprised me once more this year with our anni getaway.  He hates that I "always know everything" and guess his surprises, so this year he made sure that I wouldn't find out.  I had no clues whatsoever except a PowerPoint rhyme spoken by him about what to pack.  He did let it slip that the location was out of state when we were discussing what we would do should we have been picked for our last profiling opportunity, but that's all I knew.  We left Sunday morning, and I navigated with directions that had destinations blacked out on them (which were hidden underneath my seat in the car).

We entered Pennsylvania, and stopped at a shopping center.  Our first stop was Scranton to take a picture with the sign that's in The Office.  They moved it to a mall a couple years ago because so many people were taking their pictures with it that it was dangerous (being on the side of a highway and all).

Afterwards, we drove for another hour and pulled into a cute little town which I immediately loved.  I noticed an inn and stated how cool it looked, and Col parked in front of it.  We were in Jim Thorpe, PA and we had arrived!  It is an old mining town which had a lot of Irish heritage.  There were lots of little shops, pubs, and a lot of the buildings were old, like the row houses that many still live in.  We stayed in the original inn (the one I saw) from the 1800's.  

Sunday we explored a little but wanted to keep most of it to Monday.  The weather was finally warm and sunny which was perfect because we walked around most of the time.  We had a mid-afternoon lunch at a little cafe, gathered some information and figured out our plan of action for Monday (unfortunately all of the tours - for the jail, mine, mansion, etc. - did not open until Memorial Day weekend, so we'll have to go back someday!), spent time on the inn balcony, got pizza slices for dinner, took a walk, and watched the Amazing Race and HGTV (our cable fix).

Monday we had breakfast at the inn outside, and then walked the length of the town, exploring all the little shops.  We met a very nice older woman in the toy store who loved showing us all the toys she had and was so sweet when our answer to, "Do you have kids?" was that we were in the process of adopting.  We had homemade ice cream for lunch (I, chocolate covered strawberry, and Col, milky way), read the ghost stories that took place at our inn, checked out the local mansions from when the town was first built, and then decided to walk the half an hour to see the Jim Thorpe memorial.  The town used to be named Mauch Chunk (which I find so amusing), but I guess when it was struggling at some point in the 1900's, they re-named it after the famous Olympian Jim Thorpe.  He later ended up being buried there even though he had no affiliation with them previously.  So we figured that we might as well go see it even though we had never heard of him.  Well, unfortunately Google maps does not give you terrain with it's walking time, and we found ourselves hiking up a hill most of the way.  It was warm out so we were pretty spent by the time we got there.  All for some guy we had never heard of ;) The walk back was much more pleasant going downhill.

That evening we ate at the local pub and the burgers were delicious!  We got a piece of triple chocolate cheesecake to go, and settled onto the balcony for the evening.  It was fun to relax and watch the town, while a musician played down on the sidewalk (we called him the town troubadour, like in Gilmore Girls).  We took once last walk through the town before bed.  And that night when I couldn't sleep, I swear I heard something in our room, all because Col had to read about the haunting at the inn!

(The best part?  Those doors opened automatically when you got close.  It felt so fancy and like the old days, except the doormen were invisible!)

Tuesday we once again enjoyed breakfast at the inn but had to sit inside because it was pouring.  We drove to a huge country store, and it was massive, walked through it, ogled at the animals, and headed home in intense rain which became snow (boo).  It was the perfect little getaway, relaxing, fun, and together.  Major kudos to my hubby whose plan was great!

(This monstrosity was for sale, and his hand was a little seat.)