Beautiful Day, part 2

What could possibly be waiting for us in Downtown Scranton? you wisely ask. We had no clue, but by jiminy we were going to find out. Nestled in the mountains it looks like any other former mining town in PA but as we drove into the city center we were amazed Check out the Lackawanna County Courthouse and the Electric Company Who knew Scranton was so lovely? We were a bit dazed by the sudden revelation that there is more to Scranton than The Office and we were starving so we parked and walked around for a bit. Unfortunately it seemed like everyplace to eat was closed. It was weird. Finally we ended up at a mall - the Steamtown Mall to be exact- and figured that there would at least be a food court. I was a bit disgruntled cause i wanted to eat fun neighborhood food, not crappy food court food, but i was way too hungry to argue and there really was no other choice. Munching on my corndog from Nathan's i noticed that there was a walkway off of the food court and it seemed to go by some trains. Figuring that looking over a train yard would make up for having to eat at a mall we ventured outside. And into the Steamtrain National Historic Site!!! Trains upon trains upon trains. We thought the long pedestrian bridge might take us over the trains, but no, it took us down to the trains where we could wander freely (as long as we watched out for them moving). I loved that you could see the rainbow reside on this oil carrier and that this wee locomotive was sitting by itself. There was no signage saying that you couldn't climb on the trains, soooooo It was so freaking fun to explore these relics. You could wander through a passenger car and then look up to see an engine right on you. Or you could pretend to be a lookout watching for cattle on the tracks. I have always been fascinated by large machines. These coal engines were amazing and powerful. How in the world did we ever invent such a thing? There were little storage areas in every nook and cranny. Hey, i wonder what's in this seat locker Hi Matt! Guess i won't put anything too valuable in there. I assume that being a National Historic Site means there is a museum or some sort in the roundhouse, but we never got that far. In fact, it was so late that the pedestrian bridge to the mall was being locked up as Matt and I made our way back. I will definitely have to return when i have a whole day to explore. I never thought i'd find a reason to return to Scranton!