Family Time in Pennsylvania

We left central Pennsylvania and drove east to the Pocono Mountains where we had a campground reserved to park the trailer as we planned to be in the area for around three weeks.  Our plan was to park it at my parent's Pocono house but we weren't positive it would fit so the campground was a backup.  Parking in the campground first gave us a few days to assess the situation at the Pocono house.

 

We've been careful to try to avoid Covid during our travels and were successful so far.  I didn't want us to bring it to my family.  Well, when we arrived, we learned that my parents spent a weekend with some of their friends who came down with Covid the day after they left.  After I was so worried about giving it to them and now we had to wonder if they could be giving it to us!  My parents and us went to get tested and we all were negative!  Phew!

After that scare was over, Dad came to visit our trailer parked in the campground.  He found a comfy spot and made himself at home.

 

 

We decided to wait until after the big birthday party to move the trailer to the Pocono house driveway.  In the meantime, we made a visit to Al's favorite hoagie restaurant in Southampton.

I was in the mood from some pizza.

Another day we did a nice long walk on the Perkiomen Creek trail.   The trail is a 19 mile long trail that runs along the Perkiomen creek from Philadelphia to Green Lane.  We did a portion of the trail that is close to my parent's house in Schwenksville. 

We spotted a nice mural painted on the side of a building in town.

It was a hot and humid day so we got pretty sweaty on this walk. 

Other days we hung out with my parents at their house helping them with little projects, enjoying cocktail hours, eating meals and watching movies together.  Some days Barb cooked and other days Al cooked.

My Dad turned 80 in January and we had tickets to fly to be with him for his birthday but decided to cancel due to the pandemic.  So instead we towed the trailer all the way across the country to celebrate his birthday with him and our family.

In attendance was the Birthday boy, Dad/Pops, Barb, my brother, Jay, and his girlfriend, Mel, Jay's kids Jackie and her boyfriend, Greg, and Zach, and Al and me. 
 

Nancy, Jay, Mel, and Dad

Zach and Dad

Jackie, Zach, and Dad

Zach and Dad

Barb

Back:  Greg, Jackie, Jay, Zach  Front:  Barb, Dad, Nancy, Mel with Al taking the photo

Zach and Pops

Jackie, Pops, and Zach

Jackie, Barb, Pops, and Zach

Nancy, Dad, and Jay

Zach, Nancy, Dad, Jay, and Jackie

Al and Zach

Al and Nancy with our little nephew, Zach

The birthday boy finally got his belated 80th birthday party and all went well.  It was nice to get our whole immediate family together.  

Next project was to move our trailer from the campground to the Pocono house property.  There was some concern about it fitting.  Here Dad is watching Al hook the trailer up to the truck.  He really wanted to be with us to "supervise" the movement of the trailer to it's new location.

After all the spots Al has managed to back the trailer into over our three years of being on the road.  This one was not so bad.  Al got it backed in to the driveway and parked next to the house with no trouble. 

 

Some locals came by to see what was going on.

 

 

Now that the trailer was nicely parked on my parent's property, we could check that task off the list and go have some fun.

 

The LA Angels were playing the Baltimore Orioles so we drove down to catch a game and bag another MLB stadium.  

It's Old Bay Season!  (Love that stuff!)

 

 

The Oriole Bird

LA Angels Shohei Ohtani at bat!

The game starts and Shohei Ohtani is the first batter as he was playing in the DH (designated hitter) position for this game.  Boom! 

Home Run #41 of the season!

And just like that the Angels are leading 1-0.  Unfortunately that was the only run the Angels got all game and they lost to the Orioles, 13-1.  Ouch!  Well, that breaks our streak for the home team losing in games that we attended. 

We did get a Mike Trout sighting in the dug out.  He was on injured reserved since May and ended up not returning to the line up the whole season. 

Mike Trout sitting on the bench

On the drive home we stopped off at a crab shack while still in Maryland to get a half dozen of blue crabs.  This is my favorite food!  The next day my Dad and I set out an old tablecloth since we didn't have the usual newspaper, got some nut crackers and beers and got to work eating the crabs.

Blue crabs with Old Bay seasoning.

The next day we drove down to Philadelphia to catch a Phillies game.  But first, it's tradition to stop off at Pat's King of Steaks for a cheesesteak.  This tradition was something my Grandpop and I did before every Phillies game we attended.

Citizens Bank Arena in Philadelphia:

#32 Steve Carlton

Mike Schmidt

World Series Champions 1980 and 2008!

World Champions 1980 (I may have skipped school that day to attend the parade!)

Some Phillies players I watched as a kid are honored with plaques:

The Phillies stadium had a great area for kids.

A few Bryce Harper fans

Cool climbing wall (Independence Hall with the Phillie Phanatic)

Bullpens

Ashburn Alley dedicated to Richie Ashburn, all-star player and broadcaster for the Phillies.

 

Retired Phillies Numbers

 

Philadelphia skyline from the ballpark

And my favorite feature of the Phillies, the Philly Phanatic!  He always brings a smile to my face with his crazy antics!

It as an exciting game as the Diamondbacks tied the game in the top of the 9th and the game went in to extra innings.  Both teams scored 2 runs in the 10th and then the Phillies scored in the bottom of the 11th to take the win.  Final score:  

We had a lot of meals with Dad and Barb sitting around the kitchen table.  One night Al cooked us some of his famous "fall off the bone" ribs.  Yum!

We visited my brother at the American Legion where he is a bartender.

Battle Ribbons  If you earned these then you belong here!

On Labor Day there was a big party at the Pocono house. 

Cheers!

And the food just continued......the day after, Al cooked us taquitos!

Barb, Dad, and Barb's brother, Lenny

We did visit other friends but forgot to take photos and we didn't push too much with get-togethers due to Covid.  Just such a strange time!

After three weeks, it was time to move on.  We sure enjoyed our time visiting my family, our friends, and eating our favorite local foods.  We're headed to Cooperstown, New York next.

If interested, I started keeping a list of the MLB ball parks we visited since going full-time in our RV: 

Major League Baseball Stadiums:  https://imagineourrvdreams.blogspot.com/p/major-league-baseball-stadiums.html