by Here is a collection of some of the sites we visited on our trip through Pennsylvania. Above is a photo of our van at a winery in eastern Pennsylvania — a very nice place to spend the night!
This is a pretty pond and memorial in Pittsburgh to honor “industrial hero” George Westinghouse. Over his lifetime he formed 60 companies and obtained 361 patents. He was considered an enlightened employer for setting 9-hour workdays, half days on Saturdays, establishing a pension system, and hiring the first female engineer!
The memorial was financed by funds raised by his employees in 1930, 16 years after his death. Though born in New York, he moved to Pittsburgh as a young man and raised his family here.
We toured the Herr’s Snack Factory in Nottingham, Penn. This was a full guided tour through the factory, where we got to see potato chips, popcorn, tortilla chips and pretzels being made (they also make cheese puffs, but those weren’t running while we were there). The most exciting part was when the guide went onto the factory floor and scooped up hot potato chips for us right off the line. Those were melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside the plants.
The company was founded in 1946 and is still run by the Herr family; they sell their snack products throughout the US and in 40 countries.
As we were driving over the Conowingo Dam between Maryland and Pennsylvania, Doug said “Hey, isn’t this dam famous for eagles?” I kid you not, we look over and see a tree with eight eagles in it — and then another right next to it with more — and then more over there — and holy cow! Needless to say, we figured out where the viewing area was and stopped by later in the day.
Prime viewing months are November to January, when well over 200 eagles can be spotted. In other times of the year bring, you might see just half that number, which is still a lot of eagles! More than 200 other bird species like this location, too, including cormorants, gulls, herons, and ospreys; the great blue herons were absolutely majestic! The only “problem” was the birds were just too far away for nice pictures with my camera, but fortunately, we both had our binoculars for some great viewing.
