Last summer, more than 300 people came to Gifford Pinchot State Park for a free sailboat ride, free munchies and a day of fun courtesy of the Pinchot Sailing Club.
Saturday, they'll do it again.
Come to the Conewago day use area dressed to get wet between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and you can float around the lake on a club member's sailboat. A picnic lunch will be provided free for those who sail, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
For details, visit www.pinchotsailing.com.
A PennDOT press release that landed in my inbox says they installed 73 "wayfinding" signs in support of visitpa.com's Civil War Trails in six counties.
Thirteen are in York County, 11 in Adams County, 18 in Cumberland County, 4 in Dauphin County, 20 in Franklin County and seven in Lancaster County. They confirm for motorists that they are on a Pennsylvania Civil War Trail.
I haven't seen any of them yet (although apparently there is one on Main Street in Mechanicsburg near where I live.) Have you? Where are the York County ones?
Finish reading 'Have you seen any?' »
I was delighted that my final assignment of the day Monday took me to Monaghan Township. I had seen an ad in a community newspaper for pick-your-own cherries at Elicker's Orchard in the northern York County municipality (E. Ridge Rd.) and wanted to check it out.
Now, I'm no stranger to the pick-your-own game. I gather strawberries at some local farm or another nearly every spring. The summer after my junior year of high school, I worked picking strawberries five mornings a week to help pay for a plane ticket to visit my penpal (pre-Internet term) in Spain.
But I had never picked cherries.
Half an hour after I pulled into the orchard, I had purple-stained fingers and half a pail. That's probably more than I can consume before they go bad, but at $1.25 a pound, how can you skimp? I'll share.
Geeze, I was just there a little more than a week ago and already they have a new exhibit going that I'm not going to get to see. It looks pretty cool though. Check out the USA Today story here.
Today, a photographer and I tagged along with some York folks who went to Reading to check out the GoggleWorks center for the arts in that city's downtown.
We planned to spend a few hours. We stayed for nearly twice that. There was just so much to see and do.
Finish reading 'Goggle, not Google' »OK, as promised, here is my list of the Top 10 Free Attractions in or near York County. Now, it's your turn. Shoot me an e-mail and we'll add your suggestions to the blog.
1. Gifford Pinchot State Park -- The lake here is my favorite peaceful kayaking spot
2. Heritage Rail Trail County Park -- I like to ride my bike here, especially the southern part
3. Central Market (well, free to browse until you get tempted to buy something)
4. Cherry Lane -- catch some midday music or just chill in the midst of downtown
5. Allegro Vineyards -- free and friendly wine tastings, like the billboard says (or any of the area's wineries, for that matter -- most will let you sample for free)
6. Greybeards Antiques in Jacobus -- once again, free to browse till you find a treasure you need to buy
7. Gettysburg National Military Park -- I'm not a history buff, but I know this place is a local treasure. Admission is free, and if you're lucky, maybe you'll see some ghosts!
8. Factory tours. Many area companies offer free peeks at how they make everything from chocolate to motorcycles certain days and times.
9. Safe Harbor petroglyphs. Ancient messages carved in rocks mid-river. If you paddle out to see them, please obey the guidelines to protect these treasures.
10. Harrisburg's Riverfront Park. Like York County's Rail Trail, it's great for biking or walking. Benches with a great river view offer prime chilling spots on a nice day. Or, meander across the Walnut Street Bridge to City Island.
TripAdvisor.com recently named the country's Top 10 free attractions. Because we're all about saving money these days (note $4/gallon gas prices and $40 for a bag of groceries) and because I like Top 10 lists, I want to know what you think are the best free attractions in this area.
The national list included spots like the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, Arlington National Cemetery, the Golden Gate Bridge, Zion National Park, the Pacific Coast Highway, Boston's Freedom Trail, etc.
Post your Top 10 list as a comment, or e-mail it to me and I'll post it here on the blog as an entry of its own.
I'll think about mine and post my list here tomorrow, so check back.
I love it when I discover someplace new not far from home. (Duh, you say, that seems to be half of what this blog is about.) I know. Anyway, after seven months of training, I was given my first wedding to photograph solo earlier this month.
When I called the bride to go over the information on the papers, I asked her about the request for cemetery photos. Cemetery pictures? On your wedding day?
Of course, when someone is paying you to photograph their wedding, you don't ask questions. Well, not those kind of questions.
Turns out, it was one gravestone in particular they wanted their picture by -- that of Edgar Allan Poe.
We're nowhere near becoming an East Coast Napa Valley, but York County's wine scene will soon get a boost with the addition of Browns Vineyard and Winery.
In this story from last week's YDR, the name frequently associated with to-die-for baked goods might soon become linked with to-die-for wines.
Of course, we won't know for a while yet. Fruit wines and white varietals will be ready for sale later this year, but reds won't make an appearance until the fall of 2010.
Still, it will push the number of wineries on the Uncork York wine trail to an even dozen. Maybe the critical mass will draw even more locals and visitors to the wineries.
We'll toast to that.
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