Results matching “letterbox” from Only in York County

I talk a lot about the programs offered by the York County Heritage Trust, like this weekend's Book Blast and the recently held "preserving your memories" class.

More recently, the trust issued a release about a new exhibit produced this summer by their Junior Curators, called "From Artists to Athletes: A History of Entertainment in York County."

The exhibit marks the second time the trust has had the Junior Curators put something together; last year's was about the history of the York Fair and was super-well-received.

This year's opens with a free reception, complete with light refreshments and music by the Little Ivory Blues Band, from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Historical Society Museum. If you can't make that event, don't worry; the exhibit is open until Oct. 30.

According to the trust: "The Junior Curator Program enables those high school juniors and seniors as well as recent high school graduates with an interest in the museum profession to gain an insider's perspective to the museum field. Meeting two days a week from June to August, teens gained practical experience working with artifacts, creating exhibits, and participating in various other projects they may encounter within the museum profession."

If you head to the museum to check this out, why not take a look for the letterbox that's hidden there?

Oh, and keep an eye out for something that might or might not still be on display - a small "digital exhibit" of Revolutionary War documents called "The Pen is Mightier..." (You can also find a version of it here.) Yours truly made that, way back in 2002 or so! If you happen to see it, let me know. I haven't had a chance to go through the museum in the last couple of years, so I'm not sure if it's still around.

Yesterday evening, Hubby, Sarah and I took Coby the dog for a LONG walk on the rail trail.

We parked at Brillhart Station and headed two miles to the Howard Tunnel to find our next letterbox (this was No. 6), then hiked back.

What a walk! Even the dog was beat by the end. Here are Coby and Sarah at the tunnel (halfway point).

The good news is, while walking, we ran into my doctor and a friend, also walking. So next time he says I should exercise more... Hahaha!

You know how I said I was spending Saturday in the Hanover area?

I used my weekend plans as an excuse to try a Hanover-area specialty that I hadn't had before - the downtown Famous Hot Weiner!

Despite being pretty familiar with the Hanover area, I'd never eaten at the original location at York Street and Broadway, just the newer one over at Dart Drive and Eichelberger Street.

So when Hubby suggested that we stop in with Sarah for our Saturday night dinner, I was totally up for it.

I went with a twist on my favorite - hot dog with ketchup and mustard - the twist being the last-minute addition of bacon after I heard another diner order it.

Sarah went with plain dog. Nothing on it.

We all shared some really, really good fries..

And Chris went for it, ordering two "famous" weiners with their "everything" - onions, mustard and the special Famous Hot Weiner chili sauce.

I have never seen so many onions in one place before!!

All in all, it was a good meal. I like my dogs basically burnt, so mine was a little light for my taste, but still yummy. Chris polished almost all of his two off, and Sarah did a great job on hers. And the fries... wow! I really liked those. (Yes, I'm a big kid at heart.)

The whole weekend was great, and I have some more pictures to share of letterbox hiking, the Summer Blast and more, but those will have to wait. Back to work for now!

Sorry for the sparse posting this week - if you're a reader of our print edition, you've probably noticed it looks a little different, and I'm spending a little more time than usual working on it to make sure it looks as nice as can be.

But I wanted to take a minute and invite you all to some fun stuff going on this weekend, including some places my family expects to be out and about.

First up is Codorus Summer Blast at Codorus State Park outside Hanover. It started today and continues tomorrow and Sunday. We're planning to head out and spend the day at the park tomorrow (weather permitting), not only to check out the event but also to find the two letterboxes hidden at that park. Multi-tasking, yay!

(Interesting side note: You know where I found out about this event? On a placemat in McDonald's. Yep!)

Second event, courtesy of my friend Nina and delivered via text message this week, is a note about a quarter auction at the Springetts Fire Hall next to Home
Depot on Saturday, to benefit York's Habitat for Humanity. Doors open at 6 p.m., cost is $3 at the door.

Habitat, which is also holding a 5K run/walk tomorrow starting at 8:30 a.m. on Allen Lane in Dover, is a great organization, and quarter auctions are a ton of fun, so I'd really encourage you to head out if you're free!

Of course, if you've been following the ol' blog here for a while, you'll remember our family's quest last summer for all 30 "letterboxes" in the "Catch the Activity Bug" summer library program.

Yes, we found all 30, and WOW, was it a great way to spend the summer.

This year, the program continues again, with the kids being asked to make rubbings from 30 "creativity stations" instead of collecting ink stamps. (If you've got kids in your life - I really encourage you to take part; visit goyork.org and your library for details.)

So far, we've found our first three - one Wednesday at Farquhar Park in York, where we also found tons of ducks and geese, a beautiful heron and what we think might have been a baby hawk or vulture - and two Saturday at our favorite place, Pinchot State Park.

Here's a shot that Hubby took of Sarah and I on "Pinchot's Rocks," a formation along one of the trails.

And here's Hubby's own blog post about our adventures so far. I was so happy; I think it was the first time I made HIS blog!

We're looking forward to many more hikes this summer. In fact, by the time you read this, we might have found even more!

These library books show just a few of the things the library can help you do - beat debt, kill clutter, get in shape, and more.

Today's post will be one of the notable exceptions.

At the meeting of the Southern York County Business Association I went to earlier in the month, I had the privilege of chatting with Demi Fair, library director at the Paul Smith Library in Shrewsbury. At the time, she mentioned that certain proposals at the state level stood to cut library funding significantly, and I heard similar news at my last visit to my own library in Dover.

Today, I received an e-mail from the library system, asking me to write to my legislators to ask them to reconsider cuts to library funding. As I'm not normally an "activist" of any sort, I almost passed it by. Then I started reading. The e-mail, from York Libraries President Trish Calvani, says:

Blog readers who've been around since last summer probably know what made my finger stop before hitting the delete key - the possible cuts to summer programming. You might remember that we spent all last summer finding 30 "letterboxes" as part of a partnership between the libraries and Keystone Activity Zone. It was free - and educational - and essentially comprised most of our family time last summer. If funding for activities like that were cut, we'd all be heartbroken.

I'm no political genius, but I do know that if library funding does come, it will be at a cost elsewhere. While I realize that, I also know how much the library has brought to my family, and I'm willing to explore other cuts in order to keep this valuable resource around. You're welcome to disagree, and if so, thanks for reading this far and for respecting my opinion. If, however, you happen to agree, I'm sure the libraries would appreciate your support in their letter campaign.

Well, it's official; our Keystone Activity Zone Kids summer challenge to find 30 letterboxes hidden in various parks around the county is over - and we got them all!!

The picture above was taken in late July or early August, by Hubby, when Sarah, he and I found the 20th in our letterbox quest. I believe this was at Kain Park, near Lake Redman.

And this one was from our very last letterbox, in Rocky Ridge out in Springettsbury Township. This one was a HIKE AND A HALF. But we did it - and the girl was so proud!

All in all, I can't say enough about this way-fun summer activity. I hope the libraries and the parks get together to do it again next year.

For the first time in... wow, I don't even want to think how long ... I'm off for a holiday!

I was off Sunday, too, so I have a rare two-day weekend. (I normally am off Sundays and Wednesdays, which is great in that it breaks up the week but not so great in that I never have two days together off.)

Anyone doing anything fun for the holiday? Going to the parade at Kiwanis Lake or up to Kipona in Harrisburg? Today is the last day you can look for letterboxes, so we will probably finish up our quest for all 30 of those (only 4 to go!)

Let me know how you spent the day - especially if you ate anything good (JO!)

I've been saying for a while that I need to get healthier. I had lost about 40 pounds back in 2005, and while I certainly haven't gained it all back, I'm probably close to 20 pounds heavier now than I'd like to be.

I've also gotten a sudden motivation to get skinnier over the next year - my very best friend from high school proposed to his fiancee, and I've got to be a "groomsman" in his wedding. Now, if I could wear a tux like the other groomsmen, I'd be set, but I'm worried that his (very awesome) fiancee is going to put me in a dress that shows off my belly fat in nasty ways.

So, it's time to get fit. What's the plan, you ask?

The good news is, I might talk about food a lot, but I also talk how I like to hike a lot. One would hope that balances out?

Recent hikes looking for letterboxes took us around southern York County. We found the lost stamp at Apollo County Park, collected three more around Lake Williams and Lake Redman at Kain and Nixon parks, and hit the rail trail to find a fifth.

That's Hubby and Kiddo (aka Chris and Sarah) pictured along the rail trail, just past the Railroad parking area.

Like a couple of our other park adventures, this marked the first time I'd really gone any distance on the rail trail. It was fun! We still have another letterbox to find, this one near Brillhart Station, so we'll be out along the trail again soon.

Any rail trail hikers/bikers out there? One of our Exchangers is keeping a Rail Trail Journal of his biking experiences - you should check it out!

Our quest for letterboxing stamps with daughter Sarah led us all around southeastern York County last week. We did good, finding stamps at the Hopewell Rec complex, Red Lion's Fairmount Park, Lower Windsor Township's Rexroth Park, and Samuel S. Lewis State Park overlooking the river, also in Lower Windsor Township.

But we couldn't find the stamp at Apollo County Park in Chanceford Township! It was rainy, the roads were gravel, and it was basically not a good day to go thrashing about the underbrush! But, we did find one cool thing...

A turtle! Hubby saved him from the middle of the road (though if another car would have come along that road that day, I'd have been shocked...) But we took him into the car first to see if he'd stick his head out and say hi to Sarah. He didn't, so we put him down on the side of the road and went on our way.

Cute, though!

In our ongoing summer quest, we spent an evening last week up at Pinchot Park, planning to look for the three letterboxes hidden there.

We only got to do two, because it ended up getting dark (boo!), but we had a great time. This time, we brought Big!Fluffy!Dog! (also known as Coby) and let him "hunt" with us. Poor thing. He's very furry, and he got VERY hot and lazy about halfway through, but he was a good sport.

During our second excursion at Pinchot, the letterbox clues indicated we'd pass a rock shaped like a big cube. Never a family to resist a challenge, we (OK, they) climbed on up! (The top of the rock was about even with my shoulders, so I stayed on the ground with the trusty cameraphone to be the recording secretary.)

First, we had hubby plus dog (THAT was an adventure, getting 90+ pounds of dog up there!)

Then, the girl joined in...

Just found out that yesterday's post was my 200th. Somewhat appropriate, as our country marked its 232nd year... Shame I couldn't make an extra 30-some posts yesterday, huh?

We're doing another of our Eight for Eight hikes today, weather permitting, in Rocky Ridge... I'll keep you posted on how it goes. I've also got an update coming on my daughter's search for letterboxes around the county... this time, we took The Dog on our adventure. I've got pictures, too, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow!

Colorado potato beetle; image from Wikimedia

Daughter Sarah and I collected our third letterboxing stamp and read some facts about beetles today at Sunset Lane Park in West Manchester Township.

A nice walk around the park - which I found out has horseshoe pits, how cool is that?!

And, did you know there are more types of beetles than there are types of plant species total? Scary.

I mentioned my daughter's work in the letterboxing challenge sponsored by the libraries, the local parks and Keystone Activity Zone.

Well, on Sunday, we were out at the Book Nook Bonanza at York Suburban Middle School - brought home four new boxes of books, yay! - but, after lunch at Perkins, we figured we'd check out some of the eastern York County parks, as we don't often get out to that end of town.

So, that's where Sarah got her first two letterboxing stamps - and learned some bug facts from her logbook - one at Springettsbury Township Park and the other at Rocky Ridge.

Bill Styer and his reptiles are a big part of Repile Week at Nixon Park, but 4-year-old Jake Sampson of Salem, Va., wasn't quite sure he wanted to experience the 75-pound Burmese python in this photo by Bil Bowden.

What I forgot to say was that it was the beginning of "Reptile Week" there, which continues through Sunday.