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Just a few photos from a recent vacation to Bushkill Pennsylvania. Now I know why the Poconos are highly regarded as a vacation destination.


Bushkill Falls from near the entrance.


We walked down to the lower level at this point.


I like the overgrown boulders.


You can see how the walkway winds down the side of the rock face. There's quite a few elevation changes if you walk all the way around the park.


My girl.


The whole park is just beautiful.


I think pretty much everyone stops for a photo at this tree.


Rebecca stretching out on a rock. I know you teenaged guys are thinking "Oh come on, she's old enough to be my Mom", but trust me, if your girlfriend still has a body like this in 20 years, you will feel like you won the lottery.


Everywhere you look in this place, it's like a postcard.


This is the scenic overlook off Route 611, above the Delaware River.


Uh oh, the boys are starting to tussle ...


And now comes the round-house kick ...


Winner: David!


I laughed my ass off when I saw this sign in a Pennsylvania shopping mall. Only in America is it your patriotic duty to shop.


Matthew and David sitting on the back deck of our villa.


Yes, we're slobs.


The master bedroom. This is where the fun begins ...


It was actually a pretty nice villa, except for the plumbing. The kitchen waste disposal unit kept clogging up, and the water pressure was pitiful (although that may be a function of being located in Bushkill; I have grown accustomed to Toronto water, which blasts out of the faucet like a jet).

Rest of the pics here. Next year I need to finally go to NYC. We took a single day-trip there, but I didn't bring my camera. Ate at the Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant at Times Square, went to the Museum of Natural History, and took a bike tour around Central Park. Enough to whet our appetite for more. The cabbies were exactly as I expected them to be: fucking insane. I drove through the Lincoln Tunnel and parked at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and that was about as far as I wanted to drive into the city.

Great pictures, Mike. Looks like a fantastic vacation spot. And those must be some of the best pics of Rebecca you have posted. She looks lovely.

I laughed my ass off when I saw this sign in a Pennsylvania shopping mall. Only in America is it your patriotic duty to shop.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Next year I need to finally go to NYC. We took a single day-trip there, but I didn't bring my camera. Ate at the Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant at Times Square, went to the Museum of Natural History, and took a bike tour around Central Park. Enough to whet our appetite for more.

I think you finally need to get your can't-stand-flying-self on a plane and take an international trip

Seriously, you need to go to the Met at NYC - the military exhibits there - especially the shitloads of suits of armor of all types and eras, have to be seen to be believed.

Those look wonderful! How was the weather? Cool, or tropical and uncomfortably humid?


Also:

CELEBRATE THE STIMULUS

I'd buy that for a dollar.

Would you want to know more?

Damn, those 80s action movies (and Paul Verhoven) are frighteningly prophetic.

Great pics indeed! I used to live in the general area and loved hiking and driving around it. Your pics have made me a wee bit homesick!

Looks like you had a lot of fun, although I'd recomend Washington state or Colorado, the Rocky mountains next time you go on a family vacation .
It's closer to you, better views, lots of similiar lakes, and has lots of hotel-houses to rent for families. (My family used to do so a lot, before we could camp out or my sisters got old enough to vote in what we'd do on our trips).

Great pics. The waterfall came out particularly nice. And it is motivation for me to do some more traveling around my home state. Sometimes I forget how nice it can be.

About Uncle Sam's exhortation to shop for freedom, I've never seen anything like that around here. Too funny.

Vympel wrote:

I laughed my ass off when I saw this sign in a Pennsylvania shopping mall. Only in America is it your patriotic duty to shop.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Sadly no, it's very real. The sign was in the food court of the Stroud Mall near Stroudsburg PA.

FSTargetDrone wrote:About Uncle Sam's exhortation to shop for freedom, I've never seen anything like that around here. Too funny.

Well, capitalism'll do that. If you can find a way to convince a schmuck to buy something, or create an ideologically appealing product, no matter how absurd, then go for it.

I remember over in Berlin, among the thousands of products created to cash in on the fall of East Germany, they sold these gummi-candies shaped like the so-called "Ampelmann" (the little guy in the street lamps that signaled when to walk and when to stop) that was prevalent at the stoplights all across East Berlin. As me and my friend were splitting a bag and perusing the other souvenirs of East Germany being hocked, my friend remarked, "You know what? Communism isn't dead. It's delicious!"

To the OP, it's remarkable how you can go from bucolic wonder to the most built-up modern urban area in the world in the span of about 70 miles. Rural PA may be to chock full of fundamentalist loons, but it does boast some very impressive natural scenery.

It was actually a pretty nice villa, except for the plumbing. The kitchen waste disposal unit kept clogging up, and the water pressure was pitiful (although that may be a function of being located in Bushkill; I have grown accustomed to Toronto water, which blasts out of the faucet like a jet).

I think living near the Great Lakes does tend to spoil a person like that. I recently moved away from Buffalo and I still haven't gotten over how weak the water pressure is now. Not to mention that the faucet water tastes like crap. No wonder the water bottle industry is so damn profitable.

That's a nice kitchen, especially the cut-through portion to the living room.

Alferd Packer wrote:

FSTargetDrone wrote:About Uncle Sam's exhortation to shop for freedom, I've never seen anything like that around here. Too funny.

Well, capitalism'll do that. If you can find a way to convince a schmuck to buy something, or create an ideologically appealing product, no matter how absurd, then go for it.

Oh, I know, I just don't see any of that sort of thing here, even in the Philadelphia Suburbs. The most overt sort of excessive patriotism seems to be politically-themed bumper stickers on the backs of cars.

My aunt, who is originally from Hawaii (Filipino), moved to the Scranton (Jessup) area with her sister when she married my uncle after he left the Army in the 60s. For some reason, they found the area around Scranton to be preferable to Hawaii, so much so that my aunt's sister came back to the area to live after returning to Hawaii for a time and she worked at one of the resorts up there near where DW stayed at, in Bushkill.

Hawaii vs. Scranton. Hm...

I spent much of my youth up there. Of course, then it was nowhere near as developed as it is now. It's still beautiful, though; love the mountains. I'll probably wind up living out my later years up there.

Thanks for pictures of my second home.

Holy cow, I've been to those places. I had family near Bushkill for a long time. The overlook and everything- there was a cave near that overlook where an old store was set up with the cave as its free refrigerator.

Just because that picture looks very familiar, Mike, if you don't mind my asking, was your house near a Shawnee Mountain?

Nice hat.

Also, what is that black and glass contraption by the spa? For the life of me I cannot fathom out what the hell it is.

Man, I don't think I've seen that much natural green in my entire life. Seriously, plants aren't supposed to be green. They're supposed to be brown and shit.

Time for the patented Mega Combine-Into-One Voltron Post:

Edi wrote:Great pictures, Mike. Looks like a fantastic vacation spot. And those must be some of the best pics of Rebecca you have posted. She looks lovely.

Thanks!

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Those look wonderful! How was the weather? Cool, or tropical and uncomfortably humid?

The weather was good. Every day, they forecast rain, and every day, they were wrong. It was bizarre. I had the feeling that the mountains made weather prediction difficult.

The MuffinKing wrote:Great pics indeed! I used to live in the general area and loved hiking and driving around it. Your pics have made me a wee bit homesick!

The people of the region are really blessed when it comes to scenery. It's too bad there are so many fundies.

DEATH wrote:Looks like you had a lot of fun, although I'd recomend Washington state or Colorado, the Rocky mountains next time you go on a family vacation .
It's closer to you, better views, lots of similiar lakes, and has lots of hotel-houses to rent for families. (My family used to do so a lot, before we could camp out or my sisters got old enough to vote in what we'd do on our trips).

Ummm, you might want to check an atlas. Washington State and Colorado are not closer to me than Pennsylvania.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Great pics. The waterfall came out particularly nice. And it is motivation for me to do some more traveling around my home state. Sometimes I forget how nice it can be.

People often do neglect to travel their own home region, while traveling elsewhere to see things which are often no more impressive. It's strange.

Kuja wrote:I think living near the Great Lakes does tend to spoil a person like that. I recently moved away from Buffalo and I still haven't gotten over how weak the water pressure is now. Not to mention that the faucet water tastes like crap. No wonder the water bottle industry is so damn profitable.

Where are you now?

Shinova wrote:That's a nice kitchen, especially the cut-through portion to the living room.

I've gotten spoiled by villa-style vacations. Ordinary hotel rooms with no kitchen seem really plain and crappy to me now.

Phil Skayhan wrote:I spent much of my youth up there. Of course, then it was nowhere near as developed as it is now. It's still beautiful, though; love the mountains. I'll probably wind up living out my later years up there.

Thanks for pictures of my second home.

I'm a little surprised at the idea that it was once less developed than it is now. It still seems pretty rustic to me.

Qwerty 42 wrote:Holy cow, I've been to those places. I had family near Bushkill for a long time. The overlook and everything- there was a cave near that overlook where an old store was set up with the cave as its free refrigerator.

Just because that picture looks very familiar, Mike, if you don't mind my asking, was your house near a Shawnee Mountain?

Ah yes, "Cold Air Cave". That was cool (literally and figuratively). I had to laugh at the southern tourists who went in for a couple of seconds and then came scurrying out while shivering and saying "It's soooo cold!" Pussies. Anyway, our place was on the Fernwood golf course, so it wasn't particularly near any mountain.

Ford Prefect wrote:Nice hat.

Also, what is that black and glass contraption by the spa? For the life of me I cannot fathom out what the hell it is.

It's a gas fireplace. As for the hat, Rebecca is actually sick of it. Later, she picked up a new hat which I nicknamed her "Shania Twain" hat.



That was at the "Claws and Paws" zoo, which we visited on the way out of Pennsylvania. It was nice to get really close to the animals, but I felt bad for them because of the small pens. The Toronto Zoo has huge pens so you can't get as close to the animals, but you have to think the animals are happier.

Lusankya wrote:Man, I don't think I've seen that much natural green in my entire life. Seriously, plants aren't supposed to be green. They're supposed to be brown and shit.

They have this cool stuff called "fresh water" in Pennsylvania. Not like you people down under

Fantastic pictures, and yes...Rebecca is still very lovely.

Though the stimulus picture makes me laugh even harder. One part it's the sheer hilarity that it's one's patriotic duty to shop, but that they are using that half assed messed up monstrocity as a reason. Thanks for that, I'd wonder who would use Bushie's stupidity as a reason to shop.

Mike, I've stolen the picture of the stream running beside the walkway for my desktop at work.

LadyTevar wrote:Mike, I've stolen the picture of the stream running beside the walkway for my desktop at work.

Want a higher resolution version of it?

Darth Wong wrote:

LadyTevar wrote:Mike, I've stolen the picture of the stream running beside the walkway for my desktop at work.

Want a higher resolution version of it?

*snickers* You actually assume my work computer can handle higher resolution? The one I saved from this page worked perfectly.

Darth Wong wrote:

Qwerty 42 wrote:Holy cow, I've been to those places. I had family near Bushkill for a long time. The overlook and everything- there was a cave near that overlook where an old store was set up with the cave as its free refrigerator.

Just because that picture looks very familiar, Mike, if you don't mind my asking, was your house near a Shawnee Mountain?

Ah yes, "Cold Air Cave". That was cool (literally and figuratively). I had to laugh at the southern tourists who went in for a couple of seconds and then came scurrying out while shivering and saying "It's soooo cold!" Pussies. Anyway, our place was on the Fernwood golf course, so it wasn't particularly near any mountain.

Okay, yeah, I know Fernwood too. Had to make a left there to get to my grandmother's house. I actually have pictures of Fernwood when I was there snowtubing in younger years, but I think they happen to be lost forever. Fernwood was where I got the lovely picture of a sign that read "CAUTION: FIRE IS HOT."

On the subject of the cave, I'm reminded of a trip to Epcot where the TestTrack ride suggested you would be subject to extreme cold. It was, maybe, sixty degrees. Florida, thou knowst not cold!

That was at the "Claws and Paws" zoo, which we visited on the way out of Pennsylvania. It was nice to get really close to the animals, but I felt bad for them because of the small pens. The Toronto Zoo has huge pens so you can't get as close to the animals, but you have to think the animals are happier.

I was there once, but I was so little I never noticed that the enclosures were so small. I've noticed that it's a big problem associated with smaller zoos with accordingly smaller budgets. People don't pay to see big cages, but rather a lot of animals, so the cage size gets the shaft. It makes sense from a solely business perspective, but it's rather heartless.

The Philadelphia Zoo, which was about two hours south of you, is much more humane.

Qwerty 42 wrote:

That was at the "Claws and Paws" zoo, which we visited on the way out of Pennsylvania. It was nice to get really close to the animals, but I felt bad for them because of the small pens. The Toronto Zoo has huge pens so you can't get as close to the animals, but you have to think the animals are happier.

I was there once, but I was so little I never noticed that the enclosures were so small. I've noticed that it's a big problem associated with smaller zoos with accordingly smaller budgets. People don't pay to see big cages, but rather a lot of animals, so the cage size gets the shaft. It makes sense from a solely business perspective, but it's rather heartless.

The Philadelphia Zoo, which was about two hours south of you, is much more humane.

Claws and Paws is not AZA accredited. I'm sure if they were you'd see better pens and enclosures.

Well, that re-confirms my conceptions about the center of my native state: The center of the state is like the deep south, but gosh durn prettah.

Shroom Man 777 wrote:CELEBRATE THE STIMULUS

I'd buy that for a dollar.

Would you want to know more?

Damn, those 80s action movies (and Paul Verhoven) are frighteningly prophetic.

It's sad because it's true.

Qwerty 42 wrote:The Philadelphia Zoo, which was about two hours south of you, is much more humane.

It's America's first zoo!

Of course, not only do I recommend a visit to that, but also to Philadelphia in general.

Darth Wong wrote:People often do neglect to travel their own home region, while traveling elsewhere to see things which are often no more impressive. It's strange.

Yep. Looking for novelty, I suppose. Lately we've been tooling around the various state parks which I hadn't really been to in years. Nice for a a short day trip.

Speaking of waterfalls, I've always wanted to visit Falling Water. Hell, I wouldn't mind living there.