Go Big And Go Home - Day 25 - Exploring on Foot

 

Since we made the decision to hunker down for a couple of days waiting for the rain to pass, we decided we would continue to explore, but on foot.

We have stopped in Williamsport before and really enjoyed our time as well as the Bull Frog Brewery!

We headed first to the Williamsport Visitor Center.  This building was originally built as a bank around 1903.  It is very reminiscent of Lackawanna Station both in its’ history and the new life given by community minded developers.

Pictured here is the boardroom that sits above the entrance.  With all the original framing, glass and hardware, the windows to the outside open as do the windows above the bank floor.  Because these are single pane, they would have been very cold in the winter which is probably why they had 3 very large wall brass grates on either side of the room entrance and one side of the kitchen doors (seen at the end of the boardroom table).  The woodwork and the marble stairs were all original.  So we went there for a map and information and got an architectural tour!  The wonderful lady at the Visitor Center also pointed us in the direction of some other older buildings in the area.  One of the other interesting things we found out is that the rope used by Nik Wallenda when he did the tight rope walk across Niagara Falls (2012), Grand Canyon (2013), Chicago Skyscraper (2014) and Wisconsin State Fair (2015), were all made by Wirerope Works made in Williamsport.  Who knew!

After all the walking around we were a little thirsty and a bit hungry so we pulled into the Bull Frog to sample some brewskies and a crab dip.

When we stopped here in 2018, we were with Con and Terri…this is where we had our photo taken by the Van that had “Carpe Diem” on the back.

It hasn’t changed much and the people here are really sweet and so nice.  

We have rearranged our luggage to access our cooler weather clothes and we have put all of our warmer weather clothes into a compression bag.  By the looks of the weather forecasts, we won’t be needing them in the next little while.

Tomorrow we have to move rooms to the other side of the hotel…one of the reasons we stayed here is because this is Homecoming weekend in PA which means there are a lot of college alumni in town and in the area.  It was hard to get a reservation in Scranton at our chosen hotel so we opted to stay here.  The Holiday Inn and the Holiday Inn Express are two separate hotels connected.  This hotel was completely booked for tomorrow but they did have a room next door, lucky for us.