April 18, 2006 - Sunny Sunday

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

April 18, 2006 - Sunny Sunday

Me in the Bellefonte park

Sunday morning we all got up around 9 a.m. and my sister and her husband made us breakfast. They made scrambled eggs and pancakes with a strawberry topping. Delicious.

We all took showers and got changed, then took a nice walk downtown in Bellefonte. We didn't really have any goal in mind, although we wanted to check out the Cool Beans coffee shop to see if they were open. Naturally, being Easter Sunday, they weren't. In fact, very few stores we passed were open.

Since we were only a block away, we walked down to take a look at the pile of rubble that used to be Schnitzel's, the German bar and restaurant along the creek. The Gryphon and I had eaten there last year around the time of my sister's wedding. A fire had destroyed the entire historic building, which included an old vacant hotel and a couple other businesses.

They don't know what happened, except that they think the fire started in the hotel portion. Being empty like it was, it was probably a fire hazard. Between that and old wiring, it was probably destined to happen sooner or later. It makes me wonder how safe the other historic buildings are in Bellefonte, of which there are quite a few.

Strangely, much of the timber that was left didn't even look charred. My sister explained that the restaurant portion had merely collapsed, while the hotel portion had burned. She told me, too, that the owners are planning to rebuild, to bring all the businesses back. Of course, that will take quite awhile.

There were some interesting things in the wreckage, such as a burned out old safe, which had probably been empty for decades.

I wish I'd taken a camera with me when we visited last year. I remember the entrance, through the old hotel lobby, was like stepping back in time, into the 1940s. Hopefully, when they rebuild, they'll try to recreate some of that retro atmosphere.

Then we crossed the street to the park. A lot of families were out. It was a beautiful day: sunny and warm, perfect for a leisurely stroll. As we walked, I took pictures of whatever caught my eye. Through the center of the park is a creek stocked with fish and home to many ducks, which lent itself to some nice pastoral shots.

On the other side of the park were some intriguing old factory buildings, currently abandoned. At least one of them is being partially used by the National Philatelic Society, and my sister says there's talk about developing the building as a shopping center. I think that would be a great use of it, provided they can get it up to code.

There were railroad tracks that are still in use, although they looked like they'd seen better days. The rails themselves were rusted in spots and were falling prey to metal fatigue. Still, the railroad bridge made for an interesting shot.

One thing I found amusing was in the George Grey Barnard Sculpture Garden (although I only noticed one sculpture; maybe I wasn't looking hard enough). It was a bust of an unbearded Abraham Lincoln on a tall marble pillar, surrounded by wrought iron fencing. I found it strange to see a bust displayed in a public park like that. Usually a bust is displayed indoors, whereas park statuary is typically a full-sized or larger than life sculpture of someone's entire body.

This sort of looked like they were displaying his head on a pike. I found this fascinating, so I took a number of pictures.

Another interesting thing was an old tree that looked like it had been hit by lightning. Underneath it, a woman lay next to the creek, taking a nap, seemingly unfazed by the yellow police tape.

And although the sun was a little too bright, I got a nice shot of The Gryphon sitting on a bench under a tree.

Near the old railroad station, which has been converted into offices, I got a great shop of the wheels on an old painted cart parked nearby.

My sister's husband had to take off to get to work on time, so he gave us all hugs. The rest of us continued our walk. We decided to go back a different direction, and we took a route that wound through a residential area we didn't frequent as often. There are a lot of Victorian houses in Bellefonte, some kept up better than other. Some people really go to town with restoration, and many of them have been turned into bed and breakfast businesses.

My sister noted that she's seen a number of large homes going up for sale, probably because of heating costs.

After our leisurely walk, we took the dogs for a walk around the block. My sister and I called our mom to wish her happy Easter. Also, I needed to reschedule Mother's Day celebrations with her, since something came up that weekend. It took awhile, since we're both busy, but we finally settled on a date.

My mom's phone is always dying on her. I'm not sure if it's a battery or a hardware problem, but she was halfway through telling my sister a story about her dog when the phone died on her.

Since it was a nice day, my sister and I spent some time in her yard, chatting while she picked up brush and I played with her big white kitty, Ludo. He reminds me a little of our kitty, Luke, a friendly, easygoing sort. But definitely much more mellow than our little guy is, who turns a year old in May.

Then we each found something for lunch. I discovered it wasn't a good idea to microwave pan-seared tuna, since it cooked through, instead of keeping the nice rare center. Next time I'll have to remember to just eat it cold. Other than that, it was good. My sister had some yogurt, and The Gryphon had a sandwich.

About 3 p.m., we packed up the car and headed home. It seemed too soon (as it always does), but we had a long drive ahead. What's more, there was more traffic to face, so it took us a bit longer to get home, about four and a half hours.

At home, we watched The West Wing and The Next Food Network Star, along with an episode of Angel, before hitting the sheets.