Monuments, Memorials and Mable leaves

I’m sitting in the motel room in Niagara Falls, Canada. Outside it is windy and raining a lot. I just came back from a walk with my sister Andrea having a first look at the Falls. She is visiting us for two weeks and the two of us are on a 12 day road trip.My clothes are soaking wet and I’m still convinced it was worth to get a first look at the Falls from the Canadian side.

Andrea arrived last Sunday evening just after my return from NYC. On Monday evening the both of us went to D.C. to hop on a bus tour to see the ‘Monuments by moonlight’. The tour took some 2 ½ hours during which we had a few stops to get some pictures. The next day we went to see a couple of monuments, the Capitol and the White House during daytime. Finishing off the day in picturesque Georgetown we had dinner with my wife.

On Wednesday Andrea and I left College Park to drive the 300 miles to Warren, Pennsylvania, our first pit stop. There were lots of Halloween decorations countless pumpkins around many houses. Warren is a nice, small town located in the Allegheny National Forest, through which we drove today on route 59 and 321.
The weather has been quite ‘moody’, lots of rain showers, mostly cloudy and a fresh 45°F (7°C).  The scenery was unbelievable. Mostly leaf trees with all kind of shades of red, green, yellow and brown made this unforgettable. At Rimrock Trail a short hike took us to a place overviewing Kinzua. We caught a break weather-wise and it actually saw a tiny but of blue sky. Hopefully we'll have one day with blue sky and sunshine to get those colors even stronger. I can only recommend to anyone visiting that area to take this route. You certainly will not complain about too much traffic. In many ways this reminds me of Finland.

Getting closer to the Canadian border a boring stretch of highway made me start writing on the netbook and download the pictures from my camera. I considered how easy it would be updating the blog online. Eventually I came to my senses and closed the lid. I thought about the insane digital information age we live in.
As internet access is getting easier, people tend to use the opportunities more and more. Have you noticed when riding a bus or train that most of the people take out their mobile device almost right away after being seated? Is it getting more difficult for people just to be? With people being so ‘attached’ to social networks I fear creativity is suffering. I can speak only for myself but I noticed a huge change in my mind (especially for writing) when being longer time away from the nine-to-five routine.

Hey, I should get back to the travel part now. Crossing the border into Canada turned out to be quite easy. A passport control with a few casual questions and we were in. The rest of the day you already know and now it’s time for bed...

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

United States Capitol

Washington Monument with Capitol in the background

The White House

 

Autumn in Pennsylvania

Somewhere along route 321, PA

Pumpkins, did you get yours already?

Niagara Falls at night

Sometimes umbrellas are useless..