Friday, August 19th, 2011 (continued from last blog post)
After Centralia, we drove in the direction of our hotel, through more mountains and villages. The valleys were completely shrouded in fog from the previous rainfall and it all looked so pretty with the sunset in the background.
Our eventual stop was in White Haven, PA at a Holiday Inn Express off the side of I-80. It wasn't too far from the outlet mall, plus it came with a complimentary breakfast. It was clean and comfy, nothing special or fancy.
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
Sorry, there won't be many photos here, but lots to write about! The last day of our trip through New York and Pennsylvania already! The time has just flown by with lightning speed.
We woke up at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express in White Haven. Before leaving, we had a couple of items from a standard continental breakfast - nothing special, really. All in all, the hotel stay was nothing special, plus we were woken up in the night and morning by annoying children running and screaming up and down the hallway, paired with equally annoying loud-talking parents. Oh well.
The Crossings Premium Outlets was about a 20 minute drive away in Tannersville, PA. Shopping at the outlets was an awesome experience for the both of us and we both found things that were just our style! Arriving right at 10am was a good idea because we had no problem finding a prime parking space. I ended up finding a striped tee at Rue 21, a navy blue cardigan at DKNY, a big wallet that fits all of my cards at Fossil, a whole assortment of shirts at J.Crew, a denim dress at Guess, pajama pants at the Gap and a whole assortment of treats at Harry & David! I picked up so many yummy flavours of coffee, two different kinds of trail mix, and root beer float flavoured Moose Munch popcorn (as featured on the Food Network!). Poolie bought a lot of clothes, too, which was fantastic because it is tougher for him to find clothes that he likes. He had no problem at this outlet mall finding a DKNY sweater, a Lacoste gingham collared shirt, two pairs of Levis, a whole bunch of shirts at PacSun and boxers at the Gap. I may be forgetting some things but suffice to say, we had a great shopping day!
Even the pizza we had at the food court was delicious and there were loads of vegetarian choices.
After a serious day of shopping, we drove up to Scranton to the Waffle House - the same Waffle House that we visited on our NYC trip in 2009! Thankfully, it hasn't changed one bit and we devoured our hash browns. I got a double of hash browns, scattere and smothered, with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side. Poolie got a triple hash browns (a whole plate full!) scattered, smothered, covered and capped! (onion, cheese, and mushrooms) Yum! We only wish there was a Waffle House closer to home, but I suppose that makes it all the more special to visit when we travel.
After lunch, we started driving home - a good 5 1/2 hour drive from Scranton - through Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Some of the highways were so interesting - both sides of the road are super far apart at times, even with a swamp, stream or trees dividing the road. We even saw one place in Pennsylvania on a mountainside where the road split and there was a small valley with a house in the middle of the highway! The scenery was just beautiful and made the long drive seem much quicker.
We had to wait a really long time at the border, nearly an hour. They were much stricter than usual, especially for coming back into Canada! We eventually made it across without incident and finally arrived home.
I have a feeling we will be back to Watkins Glen at some point to explore the Finger Lakes further! We could spend many more days at the breathtaking gorge and take in the views from across the lake. We had yet another wonderful vacation!
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