Day 41: Our Last Hurrah

Our friends from Pittsburgh gave us some recommendations on what to do this morning. Since it's the last day of our trip, we go crazy.

First Stop: The National Aviary

James' eyes lit up when Vanessa mentioned this last night. I woke up this morning to James on his computer telling me what time we needed to be at the Aviary.

It's like a small zoo for birds only

Penguins are just plain funny

We were soon herded into a room for a Wetlands feeding. I didn't know what this was, but the staff got very excited. I guess they were feeding the birds?

As soon as we sat on the bleachers, this little guy decided he wanted to sit next to James. He came over and started poking around in James' pocket. He stayed there almost the entire feeding. 

The gave people worms so they could feed the birds. This is James holding worms. I did not participate

That blur is a bird flying down to eat a worm out of James' hand

This one had a mustache

The trainer asked who would like to hold the bird.  While I did not volunteer, he decided I should hold him. At least it didn't poop on me. 

The aviary is definitely worth a visit if you are in Pittsburgh. It's a small, quiet venue (unlike a zoo). You can also opt for additional 'experiences'. James is a big fan of hawks so he wanted to do the 'raptor experience'. I went along for the ride.

This is a falcon. James thought it was super-cool that he got to hold it.

He bonded with the bird.

After the Aviary, we went to the Andy Warhol museum... also recommended by our friends from last night. I'm a fan of pop art and really enjoy Warhol's work. The area around the museum was getting crowded because the Pittsburgh Pirates were playing. Their stadium was just a couple blocks from the museum.

The museum had a pricey entrance fee, but we decided it was worth it. When we walked in to the first gallery- a timeline of Warhol's life- we were greeted by Andy Warhol's nephew. It was great to hear an account of Warhol's life from a family member who knew him. Not only did we get the details you could read in a book, but we also heard memories from the perspective of someone who loved him. It was quite a unique experience.

Sorry, no photography allowed inside the building. 

Time to go! We still have a 4 1/2 hour ride to Lancaster.

It's starting to look like fall. We realized that we haven't seen fall in a while. There aren't a lot of trees where we lived in WI., so we kind of missed it last year. 

The ride went by pretty quick and we were at our bed and breakfast before we knew it.

This is downtown Lancaster. We were staying outside the city at a bed and breakfast, but the town is really cute. 

Our B&B is an old amusement park that shut down in the 70's.  This is the old carousel house. 

The old roller coaster cars. It was actually less creepy than it sounds- no clown pictures

After being greeted by our host, we went back into town for dinner. We found this place on Yelp

The Horse Inn was down a small alley

Inside view

A self portrait of our last night out

I had onion soup as an appetizer. It was very good, but there wasn't a whole lot of soup involved. It was 80% bread

I had a salad for dinner. I think I am tired of eating all this food.

James had the burger. It was also very good. It tasted like it had been cooked on a charcoal grill. 

And that was the end to our night. We went back to our room at the Rocky Springs Bed and Breakfast. It is one of the most comfortable rooms/ beds we have had on the trip. It was a nice final evening for our road trip.

While we are still going to be traveling (as we are technically homeless), we will be staying with family and friends on the East coast. I am sure that would make for interesting reading, but that's a whole other blog. There will be one final post that we'll have by the end of the week with highlights. Stay tuned...