Pennsylvania, New Jersey

 Sunday we attended the Doylestown Ward, Philadelphia Pennsylvania Stake

Monday we saw this guy not far from our campsite. I think he was looking for breakfast in the pond.

 

It was kinda funny to see this at the end of a line of golf carts

 

I guess these are school bus stop shelters? I haven't quite figured out what they are, usually there is a bench in the back though.

 

Our first stop of the day was Pearl S. Buck's home, in Pennsylvania. She spent most of her life until adulthood in China, but spent the rest of her days here.  It's a beautiful stone home with magnificent landscaping.

 

Then we headed into New Jersey!

 

 

 

When we got to the visitor center, we found out there was such a thing as a banana magnolia! 

 

We were headed to the spot where Washington crossed the Delaware

 

 You know, this painting:

The Mr. teased J and S and said that George Washington was only standing in the boat because if he sat down, they'd hand him an oar... 

When we saw the river, J said he expected it to be more Mississippi-sized. Well, crossing in December, ice everywhere, lots of people to get across as quietly as possible, it might as well have been Mississippi-sized!

Washington was marching his troops to Trenton, New Jersey. They had a marker showing where the road was that they used.

Right next to the river was the Delaware and Raritan Canal and towpath

 

We headed to Trenton next ourselves, to try and see the capitol building. Well, it's under construction plus pandemic precautions. This was as much as we saw!

 

We were off to Princeton next!

 

We were looking for the cemetery, not an Ivy League education

Aaron Burr is buried there, in the Princeton University presidents section, his dad was a president of the university and has the oldest grave in the cemetery (and the entire inscription on Aaron Burr Senior's grave is in Latin!)

 

And we saw Grover Cleveland's grave

 

We saw some lovely scenery on our drives

 

 

I love the old stone farmhouses

 

New Jersey is pretty fierce about masks and the like!

We headed back to our campsite, barely over the state border in Pennsylvania

 

Tuesday-Thursday we didn't adventure anywhere because we had online school commitments for the upcoming school year

Friday we headed to Morristown National Historical Park in New Jersey. This was where George Washington had his headquarters after Valley Forge, he was hoping to build up and train his army but the harsh winter really impacted that.  The museum building was his headquarters

And the Ford Mansion is where he and his staff stayed, it was just up the hill from the headquarters building

We were lucky the museum was open. So many visitor centers are closed, the park film is not available, there is only a "visitor contact station" out front. You miss out on learning a lot about the park when the film and visitor center/museum isn't available. Even though these digital kiosks were not available, we got to see the exhibits.

Including Revolutionary-era surgical tools!

 

There were lots of signs ALL over the building about keeping your social distance.  I'll just go get me 2 coyotes, line them up between me and you, okay?

 

Apparently, this couch was owned by Alexander Hamilton (the entire room was the contents of a private collector that had been donated to the museum)

 

 We headed to Thomas Edison National Historical Park

This three story building was his laboratory, we got to walk though it all!

The entrance to the entire complex

This was his library and at the top right, that's a rolled up movie screen. They would watch very early movies in here.

All the machines, so many people were working here every day, experimenting and trying out new things

This was the music room, there's a piano and a few Victrolas

I liked this vintage sign

 

We briefly went to see his home. We could only walk the grounds. 

 

We saw his and his wife's graves

We stopped by Grover Cleveland's birthplace. It was not open to the public due to construction.

 

We headed to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park and were surprised to find a beautiful waterfall! Paterson was founded by Alexander Hamilton and was a manufacturing town because of the water power

 

 

 

 

 

Now for some scenery:

A barn quilt square

 

And a beautifully painted silo

We drove through Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area 

 

And took the Dingman's Ferry Bridge, a privately owned toll bridge, $1 to cross.  

 

 

We were back in Pennsylvania!

 

Before the day was over, we had seen the following signs, the first one had J and I quoting from The Princess Bride

 

The interstate signs in New Jersey say "New Jersey" right under the word "Interstate"

 

 

I thought these ones were clever

Interesting milepost signs in Delaware Water Gap

 

And elsewhere

Saturday we started the day in Scranton, Pennsylvania

We went to Steamtown National Historic Site to see the trains!

 

SO many trains. J was in heaven! The Mr. enjoyed it also. They have a working railyard right there and there is a roundhouse too.

 

We headed into New York again. When we were here last we only did upstate and western New York. We had so much left to see and do!

 

 

If only we had known, before we zoomed past it, there was a rest stop right over the border where you could stop and get your photo with this "sign"

 

 

Snowmobile signs

 

Farms and farmers on tractors signs

 

Another barn quilt square

 

And the Finger Lakes!

 

We were headed to the Priesthood Restoration Site of the LDS Church 

 

 

 

We saw the cemetery where Isaac and Elizabeth Hale were buried. The new headstones encased the old ones, which were fragile.

Also, the headstone of Joseph and Emma Smith's firstborn who didn't survive birth

 

This is a reconstruction of their first home

And a reconstruction of the home of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale

 

We went down to the Susquehanna River to the section where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery baptized each other

 

Our last stop of the day was to visit Harriet Tubman's home in Auburn, New York and also her grave

 

 

 

Lots of mementos at her headstone, including a Maryland flag-themed face mask