Staying Local This Weekend

 

With all the driving that I have done over the past two weeks going to Scranton and Erie, this weekend I wasn’t about to sit in the car and go on another long road trip. However, we still needed to get out of the apartment so we settled on one of our nearby stand by destinations… Harvest Books in Fort Washington. And it actually worked out well as we both needed to pick up a couple cheap books to read. So, the destination was decided but we had to do something a little different so I began searching for a new place to grab lunch. After a few minutes of searching online and reading reviews, I found a place that looked pretty darn good.

We drove into Fort Washington at about 12:30 and continued down the road listening to Siri send us in the completely opposite direction. As we turned around we reloaded the directions and began heading in the right direction. With no actual store front or sign along Bethlehem Pike, we circled around the block a couple of times before blindly turning into the parking lot with the matching street address. Finally, we arrived at Hungry Bear Café.

 

It is a really small little café in the old train station building tucked along the side of the tracks but the friendly and inviting atmosphere and tasty options listed on the brunch menu more than made up for less than desirable location. After enjoying an excellent cup of coffee the food arrived at our table looking better than the high expectations set by the ingredients. Not only was the Brioche Benedict a tasty combination accented with homemade sausage and sautéed mushrooms but the pancakes we ordered on the side are, hands down, the best that I have ever eaten.

 

However, the most impressive and kind of surprising discovery was the Au Poivre Burger that my wife reluctantly let me taste. With all of the burgers that we have had in our lives, we didn’t realize such an amazing example of burger precision could be found in Fort Washington of all places. I am not one who usually votes online for various contests but I will definitely make an exception this time and vote for Hungry Bear Café in Philadelphia Magazine’s Battle of the Burger. We will be back to try more.

After lunch we headed over to our favorite book shop right down the street from the café. While prices have increased slightly, Harvest Books is still one of the best deals for those of us that still enjoy our books in a non-digital format. And there are always a few things that I discover that I can’t pass up, especially at $2.50 apiece. And it should be no surprise that I found a number of books on Freemasonry that I had to take home with me and a few that I will be purchasing at a later date (if they are still there). Of course, my wife picked up a couple of books as well so we both headed back to the apartment with some books that we will eventually find the time to read.

While it may not have been the furthest that I have traveled recently, it was still a great local day of travel and one that I was able to enjoy with my wife. Things should be back to normal next weekend, the long holiday weekend, when we will head back out on the road and explore a new Pennsylvania destination. With that said, I still have no idea where we are going to go. I guess we will have to find out next weekend.

Eating Buffalo In The Mushroom Capital

Well, the summer day trips have officially begun. Of course, that means more pictures that I will be sharing some photos of the places that we see throughout the commonwealth. Well, at least this part of the state. For the first trip of the summer, we drove down to Kennett Square to spend a relaxing afternoon walking along the main street through town.

Having slept in to recover from the long short week, we got a bit of a late start on the drive so by the time we made it there (it is about an hour away on a less than smooth road) we were ready to find a quiet place to grab some lunch. With our first mission in mind we walked by a small breakfast place with a rather large cock outside…

 

…and a more reserved looking place with spring flowers hanging from the awning, nice lamps mounted to the brick, and metal tables and chairs on the sidewalk.

 

Finally, we remembered a place that we saw on the Travel Channel just a few nights prior. With a place in mind, we made our way to Half Moon Restaurant & Saloon where I could break down one of my wife’s food barriers with a buffalo burger (highly recommended for great food at good prices).  

After an excellent meal in a nearly empty dining room we just sat there for a few extra minutes looking out the front window. It is nice to get out sometimes, go to different places, and just people watch. It’s also nice to look around at all the old buildings that line the street and the balconies that overlook the constant flow of tourists and cars.

 

With bellies full of buffalo (and mushroom bisque), we walked up and down a few of the small side streets weaving in and out of shops. While we were unsuccessful finding some inexpensive Wizard of Oz books for my wife (one store didn’t have anything old and the other one was closed by 4:00pm (Really?)) we did manage to find a nice little tea shop, Mrs. Robinson's, with surprisingly reasonable prices (and, no, we did not run into Simon or Garfunkel).  

 

Not surprisingly, we walked out with a small sample of a few teas selected from the hundreds that lined the shelves (including Carrot cake tea which should be interesting). Small splurge in hand, we slowly made our way back to the parking garage but not before taking a few extra pictures. While most of the storefronts seemed to be thriving, there were a few beautiful buildings standing there, vacant, with balconies empty, waiting to be used.

There were also a few alleys that I could imaging being packed full of people every fall for the Mushroom Festival.

 

Just before turning down the brick path to the car, I had to take a final picture of Marilyn posing in the middle of the Mushroom capital of the world.

It was a great trip for the two of us and a nice easy way to get us back into the routine of our adventurous weekends. While some of the places will be repeats there will be a few new destinations like our trip to Kennett Square. Stay tuned for more travel blogs throughout the summer as we continue our explorations of Pennsylvania. There will also be a few surprises this year!