Longwood Gardens--Kennett Square, PA

What a week! Monday I felt so completely rejuvenated going into work. It was wonderful knowing that I had gone on a new adventure and that another one was to come at the end of the week. Of course, this bliss was short lived due to some frustrating and confusing personal issues, but I digress. Let's just say that this trip was a welcome change to the end of my chaotic week.

I decided on Longwood Gardens since it was another day trip and it was a *mostly* an outside venue. I really wanted to experience some nature this weekend. I do confess, though, that I have been here once...when I was little...and I don't remember much of it. All the more reason to go, right?

I purchased the tickets the night before for me and my parents ($20 per person and you have to pick an estimated arrival time), which made entry pretty seamless.

Upon passing through the visitor's center and ticketing, we went to the right toward the Italian gardens and what I think was the bird watching house. Admittedly, I think we came a little too late during fall to appreciate the changing of the leaves. The bird watching house seemed to be more for kids or perhaps that was my perception since it seemed like that's who was mostly in it. The Italian garden itself was closed and uneventful since all of the flowers that occupy it are not in season. We made our way through the barren flower walk (although the entryways and topiary was gorgeous), passed the Dupont house, and walked passed the rose garden. The way the gardens were laid out, I'm sure it is all a sight to behold in the spring, just not so much for November.

We headed for the conservatory, which is where the real show is. The Chrysanthemum Festival is happening right now and boy, was it gorgeous! They have artistically trained a lot of the flowers into pots and designs. They also have a lot of Chinese lanterns around since this actually comes from an Asian tradition.

There are many rooms to be explored in the building--bonsai room, orchid room, chrysanthemum festival, cactus room, and others. My personal favorite was the orchids. They had some of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen--bright purple, white with orange inside, orange, pinks, the works. Simply gorgeous...and the smell!! Wow.

As we made our way through and out of the conservatory, we decided to stop for a bite to eat at their cafe/restaurant area. Unsurprisingly, it was quite expensive ($50 for sandwiches, a side, and drinks for 3 of us). To be honest, if you can hold out, I wouldn't eat here. The food was...less than desirable, to be honest. You could tell it was sitting there for awhile. Also, for anyone who cares, it is not gluten free friendly.

After eating, we made our way past the topiary garden, which was closed for maintenance, and headed back toward the visitor center to leave. It was getting really cold by now, and frankly, we had pretty much seen all of the highlights at the conservatory. Again, November is not the prime time to go. I would definitely revisit in the spring. Although, apparently their Christmas season is very popular too.

All in all, it was an enjoyable experience. I think I would've enjoyed it more had it been a little warmer and if it was earlier in the season (all things the venue itself could not control). I would really like to revisit in the spring once everything has begun to bloom. I'm betting the flower walk is incredible.

Next week I will likely be cooling my heels and won't be traveling, but I'll probably pick back up (or should I say, pack back up...har har har) again the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Thanks for traveling with me :).

Downtown Lancaster

Downtown Lancaster was my first trip for this blog. What can I say? It's local, so it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone, but I still had never seen it before so I could look at it with the same sense of wonder as if I was in some other distant place.

As I was driving there, of course, my inner-self was conflicted. While I felt utterly and indescribably free leaving all of my problems and crap I didn't feel like dealing with behind, I still felt nervous about what lie ahead. "Hopefully my car doesn't breakdown." "Hopefully [insert something bad] doesn't happen." You get the drift. Ah, fear and anxiety--you can be such a buzzkill. At any rate once I hit N. Queen St, it was too late. I was at my destination.

Inserting my quarters into the meter (for the record, it's 10 minutes per quarter), I looked ahead of me. It was cute and clearly worn. There were plenty of food options and LOTS of antique shops. The crowd of people were overwhelmingly young (college age) and diverse.

As I made my way up the street, I went into my first antique shop, Mommalicious. It was super cute--tons of handmade items and vintage items.  I'm not talking about the vintage items that are stacked up to the point where it looks like you just stepped into a hoarder's dwelling. I'm talking the classy vintage with cute chair and table displays and vintage clothing already accessorized on a mannequin. As someone who isn't really into antique things, I thought this shop was one of the highlights of my trip.

After this shop, I made my way up the street for about another block, passing more antique shops, a skater shop, and some other art galleries that were either closed or whose buildings had been condemned (!). This was a theme on this trip. I noticed that while Downtown Lancaster tries to promote itself as cute and historical, it's clear that there is a bit of plight and it needs a facelift. In a few minutes I realized I was going to start walking into a residential area, I turned around and went down the other half of N. Queen St toward the government center and traffic circle.

There were a couple of gems (actually, literally at the Gem Den in the Central Market Mall) including Issei Noodle, which I didn't realize had a Lancaster location. The Central Market Mall was definitely the highlight of this half of the street. It also has a hookah bar, which is the second one I saw. Other shops include a skin care shop (it looked like handmade soaps and other products), some specialty clothing shops, a bread bakery, and a veg cafe. The mall itself was a little confusing. To be honest, I'm not quite sure that I saw all of it. The layout wasn't easy to understand.

One observation I had at this point was how different the clientele looked at this half of the street. Clearly kept up, this half of N. Queen St had more upscale shops and dining. The customers were also older and less diverse. I just thought it was amazing the difference one or two blocks made.

At this point my trip to Downtown Lancaster was pretty much over. I felt I pretty much had the gist of what it was about. Plus my meter was running out!

After Downtown Lancaster, I made my way to Tanger Outlets, which I've been to before. I felt it would be a nice way to ease back into my comfort zone without having to go home and ruin my "travel buzz". What struck me was how different this was in comparison to downtown. Class inequalities were strong here. I say this because I witnessed a homeless man searching every trashcan in the plaza for food. He seemed to go unnoticed as he traversed through the crowd of shoppers with a beat up backpack and sleeping bag on his back.

After perusing the stores, I decided to venture home. I know that there was growth today because as I was driving home I kept on hoping that I would notice a sign that said "scenic overlook next exit", which I was willing to stop and check out with no fear or anxiety to stop me. To be honest, I can't wait to see where my next trip takes me.