ABC Wednesday "B" is for 'beautiful"

Beautiful indeed, and smart, too. This is my cousin's little granddaughter, Sophia, who accompanied us on our tour of the Chocolate Town Exhibit in Hershey. Naturally, we treated her afterwards.....

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How sweet it is!

Comedian Jackie Gleason said "How sweet it is!" about Brooklyn on his show "The Honeymooners," but inhabitants of Hershey, Pennsylvania, America's chocolate town, believe it's sweeter here! I took a tour of the Chocolate Town Exhibit, which is a far cry (for the better, in a way!) of the tours I took as a kid. Back then, you could tour the real factory, come finger-licking close to the vats of chocolate, and no one had heard of safety precautions! All the same, this tour was fun.

A typical Pennsylvania country scene

I continue my Pennsylvania journey down Memory Lane. For me, this image reminds me so much of the Sunday drives in the country we used to take when I was a kid. Some things don't change much.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Ah, who says you can't go home again? In Pennsylvania I enjoyed tasting some of my favorite foods from my youth....they just tasted a bit different, or is it my tastebuds that have changed? In any case, here you see the sandwich-meat-of-my-youth, Lebanon bologna, the sweet kind, a pack of Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets, and in the back, a bottle of Birch Beer! (For those readers not familiar with Birch Beer and its relative, Root Beer, they're not alcoholic beers, but rather brews originally made from bark/roots, more like soft drinks now.)

Can you guess which treat I was most anxious to taste...?

Fire!

Inside the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg are many wonderful exhibits. Here, my cousin, who was a volunteer fireman, is photographing an old firetruck. Very pretty and quaint, but I think most of us are happy the modern ones will arrive much faster.

"Bibi's" birthplace

Finally moving on to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, my birthplace. In this photo I am standing on a stone map of Pennsylvania that lies in front of the Pennsylvania State Museum. I visited the museum to see again (saw it a long time ago) a painting done by my great-great grandfather, which had been donated a while back. My mother's side of the family has been in America since 1739, which I guess is a long time for a "Yankee."

The White Peacock

My friend and I were surprised by this white peacock (actually, I think it was a peahen) while visiting the garden beside the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. Her companion, flaunting much bolder colors, chose not to model for me as she did.

The white peacock/hen is frequently mistaken for an albino, but it is a color variety of Indian Blue Peacock.

Tomorrow, it's on to Pennsylvania.

This photo comes to you courtesy of my cyberfriend Bob in Nevada, who managed to salvage photos I had somehow saved on cd in a format I could not open! Thanks again, Bob.

ABC Wednesday "A" is for "all alone"

I'm winding down my NYC photos; about to move on to Pennsylvania.

So sad to see someone all alone like this lady, or seemingly so, in a huge city.

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Imagine...

I came across this young woman mime in the subway. Here she was holding a 'bird' that she had 'caught' to this little girl, who was enchanted by her performance.

A BLT and Ham and Cheese, please!

When I'm in the US, I want to eat American food. Not the junk stuff, but good old standard fare, like the two sandwiches above. I did not eat both. The BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) was mine, and my new friend, Alexa, from The Road is Mine (see sidebar!) ordered the ham and cheese. Lily Hydrangea, from Long Island Daily Photo (see sidebar!) ordered a vanilla shake....and a grilled cheese sandwich!

Moving on to Pennsylvania later this week.

Composition in Red and Yellow

Fire escapes are soooo New York. I took at least a hundred photos of them, all kinds, everywhere. This one is atypical in that it is painted a nice shade of yellow/orange, which makes it contrast nicely with the red painted bricks. This building is just off Union Square.