Of postcards and cute town explorings

 I grumped and groaned a lot before I came on this work trip to PA. I didn't ant to travel, I didn't want to leave Rana, and I super didn't ant to miss Big Night (amphibian migration aka my super bowl). But in classic fashion, the second I got there I started having a nice time-- in the first 24 hours I went climbing and sauna-ing with Marston, met Megan and John's very new baby Willow and got to hold her and feed her, and met up with Laura for ice cream.

Then I started to "work" aka cook for ten people, which at this point for me is a super chill very easy number compared to my usual 30-40, or 140 from last summer. And it's cooking for the org that has been part of my life since 2009-- heck my boss from that time is still my boss for these PA trips. I'm getting paid to travel and visit my friends, make whatever food I want, and explore new places. What a dream! But I suppose I had to complain a bunch to appreciate it, or something.

Anyways, all to say, I had such a good random day yesterday. Following Laura's suggestion,  I drove out to Bellefonte, PA (passing a couple post offices on the way of course). My ultimate destination was the American Philatelic Center. I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn't know just how much. I'm not sure if it convinced me to become a stamp collector/ stamp nerd, but I definitely found my people there. The front desk lady took me directly back to the old post office exhibit to start my self guided tour. The post office has been transported twice from its home in formerly Hampshire County (aka home of my camp), now Mineral County, WV, and now lives in the stamp building!

 

Once I pulled myself away from this old post office, I found so many other treasures. A veritable mountain of stamp, silly stamp art, stamp art that I super want to create, and then the ultimate treasure trove: binders and binders of tehemed stamps. The lady in the gift shop saw me poking around and asked if there were any stamps I was excited about finding. I panicked and said "frogs"and she lamented that there weren't very many frog stamps out there. A shame! She walked out and czem back 5 minutes later with a frog stamp she had found. Simultaneously I had opened an animal stamps binder and found pages of amphibian and reptile stamps from all oveer the world, for 25 cents each, so safe to say my need was satisfied!! I plan on putting them in a neat from from Goodwill and having a frog stamp collection as part of my future amphibian wall. Thinking ahead!

By some miracle I only spent 17 dollars at the gift shop, then had to yank myself away because I had more exploring to do. I exited the museum after chatting with the front desk lady about how great sending postcards is (she does Postcrossing), and mailing an actual postcard from there because it is a functioning contract Post Office, and then went on my merry way to see more of Bellefonte.

Next stop, sending a postcard from the actual Bellefonte Post Office, of course. Then I wandered, admiring the flowers and fresh leaves and cool buildings, and made my way to the Italian market to procure some tiramisu and a matcha. I next wandered to the visitor center by the train tracks, hoping for postcards. There were postcard being sold for a dollar, which is against my relgion. It better be a frickin' gorgeous postcard if I'm going to pay that much. Postcards should cost 25-35 cents and I will die on that hill. The man at the visitor center was truly the chattiest man I've ever met-- he convinced me to stroll around town to admire all the historic Victorian houses of Bellefonte, which I did though I was starting to feel a bit time stressed about having to still grocery shop and cook dinner. Moral of the story: Bellefonte is an excellent town to spend a couple hours in, and I would definitely like to come back someday!

So now I'm writing from a brewery-- soon I'll head back up into

the mountains to cook African Peanut Stew, squash rolls, and tabouleh for dinner. Tomorrow I'll boogie to WV and pop into opening weekend at camp and keep the social visit train rolling. It's been a great trip. Am I back to blogging after a 3 year hiatus? Maaaaybe!