Looking for a vacation idea? Why not look in your own backyard!

We moved to the Tuscarora Mountains because Mr. Alphabet absolutely loved the mountains. He grew up his entire life in the city and wanted a change of pace. I had lived several years in the country, although I preferred city living. However, the concept of moving to the country brought back some very happy nostalgic memories of raising chickens, cows and turkeys. I spent summers biking to the river and splashing in its cool waters. The mountains were gorgeous and we went skiing and sledding along Mount Rainier. When we moved from Washington State to Germany, we still lived in a more setback area. Woods were in the back of our yard. We spent hours playing at the local castle and in those woods. So, I agreed to a move to the country.

Our move to this location made sense. We are 90 miles from two great cities--Baltimore and Washington D.C.. We are about 60 miles away from Harrisburg. Both of our families were with two hours' drive. And, we were within 20 minutes from some state national parks.

This area is a gem that tends to be overlooked. It's a cozy small town nestled between many great attractions. James Buchanan was born here and it has seen many other great national moments: the Revolutionary War/Constitution was discussed here, the French and Indian War, and the Civil War all occurred within these mountain ranges.  

 James Buchanan State Park, here is a marker where James Buchanan's boyhood home used to be. The original log cabin is now owned and has been moved to the propery of Mercersburg Academy.

This areas is filled with rolling hills and farmland.

A covered bridge. There's several in Pennsylvania. This one is Martin's Mill Bridge in Greencastle, PA. It is no longer used. But it is still available to see to the community.

A view from Cowan's Gap State Park. This is absolutely a gorgeous area. Lots of camping and a lake to swim in.

Antietam Battlefield

We had a family reunion on my mom's side this weekend which was on the same day as the Antietam Battlefield's fireworks. Since these are by far some of the best fireworks, I was slightly disappointed. However, we managed to make it by going to the reunion until 3:00pm and then heading the hour to Antietam, making it there by 4:30-5:00pm (with stops of course).

The fireworks were the best ever this year (see the picture below). This event is always free and usually 35,000 people come to it! We go with friends for some old-fashioned family fun--sharing in food and merriment. The kids always have a blast. The Maryland Symphony Orchestra plays a concert before the fireworks. Did I mention it's free?

Railroad Station

My eldest daughter was dropped off at Girl Scout camp, 2 (gulp!) hours away from home! While I'd like to say I can deal with the distance, I do have butterflies floating in my stomach, about allowing such a distance from me. However, she is 10. And, as the stage of tween sets in, she rolled her eyes, and basically kicked us out of the camp as fast as she could. *sigh*. She's independent, just as I wanted her to be. But, I am realizing I don't have to like it.

Since it was Father's Day, we made it into a realizing trip. K's check in was at 1:30pm so we drove up early and had a brunch at The Bricker House Restaurant in Ephrata, PA. I ordered a gyro omelet and it was delish! Then we drove into Lancaster but with not much time ended up driving back to the camp. We got one hour of dropping off the Tween and then drove to Strasburg, PA where Thomas was supposed to be. However, we were too late. But, to a two year old, just seeing the trains was pure excitement! So, we ate at The Red Caboose right next to the Strasburg Railroad and watched trains go by. Both E and G were super excited. The Red Caboose was a diner and it's atmosphere was as such. It's a converted caboose which thrilled the children to the core. Plus, there's a gift shop with model trains we could look into while eating. It's actually a motel where you can sleep in the train cars too if you want. We want! But, not this time. By the time we left at 5:30pm, we drove to my mom's and rested (bathroom breaks...she's halfway between Strasburg and my house) and then home. WE made it home by 9:00pm. It was a very nice, peaceful day. I highly recommend the drive for any other backyard tourists.

My new cell phone

I got a new cell phone. This definitely qualifies as a "splurge" as I am paying $30/month more than I used to (I am eliminating the house phone). However, I am loving this splurge!

My new cell is the Samsung Replenish has a solar panel unit (for the battery). Oh, my tree hugger self is loving that! I can save the earth (maybe not my brain since this cells now are back on the blacklist of tumor/cancer creators...*sigh*) while chit chatting. I actually like texting better and I can hear people better on speakerphone than when they are to my ears.

This phone is a droid. I went from a trakphone to this so I am making a HUGE LEAP into the technology world. This may skew my whole take on this phone to start. I don't know.

The thing is the phone will save us money in the long run. An app on my phone is a coupon app which tells me all the deals closest to where I am located. We've been using the phones to discover where kids eat free, gas prices, etc.; therefore, decreasing the phone's monthly cost. Having Internet on the road is incredible.

I always said that keeping Internet would be my number one priority as the Internet is a source of a ton of free stuff! Television is not the same. Plus, television is free on the Internet. When you are buying "splurges" in your life, I highly recommend sitting down (it took us 3 months and a lot of deal searching to go with Sprint and Samsung) to really think through the pros/cons of them.

Backyard Tourist

I have a knack for getting ideas that become trends. I wish I had this knack in high school and college--maybe then I would have been a trend setter. No, most likely it would be the "weird" thing I did until two years later Ms. Cool decided it made sense.

A few years ago, (more like five) I had this bright idea that I live in a very historical region and yet every summer I pack up and go on vacation AWAY from my area. A friend once said that the place you should live would be the place you'd visit. At the time I thought I'd write a newspaper column strictly about being what I deemed "The backyard Tourist" and then Bam! "Stay- cation" was deemed. Personally, I still like being called the "Backyard Tourist". *sigh*

I live in the four state area of South Central Pennsylvania. I am roughly a 90 mile drive to DC, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Baltimore. I am within an hour's drive of Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry and Shepherdstown. All of these could easily be "day trips". I mean people pay to stay in my area and spend weeks on end visiting the area. We have family in DC, Baltimore and Harrisburg so we've done a ton of visiting. However, we don't VISIT these places. We visit the people we love. A few years ago, we stayed with a relative and actually spent a week visiting the museums of DC. It was a relatively inexpensive vacation (the concept gave us a chance to "splurge" on festival food and a few good places to eat we'd not normally done). Plus, the children had a blast.

This summer since we are trying to get out of debt, I am going to do a ton more Backyard tourist places. However, I am going to try to find those "gems" that are free or relatively inexpensive that you can visit but wouldn't have thought to visit.