Tannersville, PA and Bushkill Falls

We continued to Tannersville where we checked into Cranberry Manor, a bed and breakfast that my mom recommended. She and her friends have stayed there a couple of times and had nothing but good things to say. One of the owners, Ric, met us, showed us around and took us to our room on the third floor.

Part of the room, which was cute and comfortable. It was getting late so we decided to drive over to the nearby casino for some dinner and a little gambling. The buffet was about the worst we've ever had (yuck) and Rich won 15 bucks. haha

The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast and chatted with our fellow travelers before setting off to hike Bushkill Falls. Here are a couple of buildings along the way.

Bushkill Falls is called "The Niagara of Pennsylvania," with 8 waterfalls along the trail. There are four trails of various difficulty, and being seasoned Unalaska hikers :) we were sure we could do the "red trail," the hardest, which was supposed to be "steep" and would take about 2 1/2 hours. Part of the trail consisted of wooden steps and the rest wound through the forest.

The day started out drizzly so I brought a light jacket, which I never needed. It was almost a perfect day and we were sheltered from the sun by all the tall trees.

We were actually feeling pretty smug, making fun of the description of the trail as "difficult" or "steep." Some parts indicated that they were only for "serious hikers." Honestly, it was super easy. What the heck!

We had a great time and Rich took a lot more (better) photos than these but he has not edited them yet. :) I'll put them up later.

When we finally started climbing back out of the falls and up to the exit, I had to admit that the hike got quite a bit harder. There were SO many steep steps and they seemed never ending. We had to eat our words a little bit by then! Arriving at the end, sweaty and tired, I took back some of my arrogance and bought a Tshirt that says, "I survived the red trail--1267 steps." Whew!

The next morning, we sat out on the porch and visited with our housemates before breakfast.

Sherry and Bill from CT listening to one of Ric's funny stories. Our hosts were extremely personable and made our stay extra nice.

Amanda and Jim were from PA. Jim was telling us about his adventures the day before, when he got to ride along in a race car at the nearby NASCAR track. Pretty exciting!

My half eaten breakfast--one of Sharon's specialties--peach upside down pancakes. Wow!

That's our lovely hostess Sharon (owner with Ric) and Ted, a visitor from Canada. I love B&Bs--really enjoy interacting with people and having a little bit of a personal touch. In fact, Rich and I were talking about how it might be fun to have a B&B ourselves one day. We have had this conversation before--I like chatting with people and I don't even mind cleaning house (haha), and, of course, he'd be the chef. Who knows! Maybe you can all come to see us in our own little B&B one day! I even looked at B&Bs for sale on line when we got home. I am amazed at the disparity in price--you can get some for less than you'd pay for a house (but I wonder what condition they're in and whether we'd ever get any guests!) and others are millions of dollars. Well, you know we will not be buying anything in the million dollar range. It's probably just another one of those ideas that never goes anywhere but it's fun to think about.

Soon after breakfast, we packed up and turned the car toward south Jersey--back to Mom's for one more night. And--oh yeah--a U2 concert in Philly!