Grand Circle-New York and Pennsylvania

Author: Jerry Ashfield
Date of Trip: October 2012

My wife, and I, have always wanted to see Pennsylvania’s Amish country and Niagara Falls. We chose October as a travel month so we could incorporate the colorful fall foliage in our trip. We arrived in Philadelphia, from Santa Cruz California, on a Saturday evening. We rented a car at PHL and spent the evening at a motel nearby, as our flight arrived in PHL in the early evening, and we wanted to start the trip the next morning.

The next morning we drove to the small town of Lititz PA, a small town on the way to Gettysburg, PA. Lititz is a small, charming town with storybook houses and buildings. With a population of approximately 8,200 people, Lititz was founded in 1756 with Main Street an 18th century treasure. On the way to Lititz we passed through Amish country and enjoyed the farms and horse carriages on the streets, driven members of the Amish families.

Next stop was Gettysburg, a very sobering experience. The Gettysburg museum is a must see as well and the National Cemetery; location of the Gettysburg Address. On our way to Niagara Falls we stopped in Williamsport, PA, home of Little League International. The ball park and gift shop is open year round, except for some holidays, and would be a good stop for youngsters.

Niagara Falls was next and is was as beautiful as expected. We stayed two nights here so we could see the falls and walk into Canada. You have to bring passports to do this. We walk the trails along the Niagara River, close to the falls, and took the Maid of the Mist boat tour. It was fantastic. The boat approaches both the American and Horseshoe Falls. We were very fortunate with the weather and were able to get great pictures of the base of the falls, highlighted by rainbows.

After Niagara Falls we drove to Cooperstown NY and visited the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. A truly memorable experience for baseball fans of all ages. Cooperstown is a very cute “Village”, well kept and full of baseball related stores.

From Cooperstown we made our way to Limerick, PA to visit with relatives for a few days before going back to Santa Cruz. On the way we stopped and several small towns to break up the drive. From Limerick we drove to PHL and spent the night at a motel near the airport as we had an early morning flight to Santa Cruz.

We allowed 10 days for the trip, not including the time, 4 days with relatives.