follow the star
yeppppp, i went there with the cheesiest title imaginable for this little post about our trip to Bethlehem, PA last weekend to celebrate our fourth anniversary. it was such a good time. i think we probably would have had a phenomenal experience anywhere we had a whole 24 hours to ourselves, but when you throw in Oktoberfest and a bunch of museums? homerun for the Wills!
my vacation-planning style is equal parts Hardcore Booking Everything In Advance + Let's Leave a Little Free Time to See What Tickles Our Fancy. aka i spend ridiculous amounts of time on Trip Advisor poring over hotel reviews and coming up with a rough framework for activities before we leave, but if we stumble across something more awesome when we're actually there, well then it was Meant To Be. sadly, there weren't any rooms left at the historic Hotel Bethlehem when i started sleuthing last month, since our trip happened to fall over Columbus Day weekend. i'm determined to go back at some point and stay there, because the hotel is built on the site of the first house in the Moravian settlement, where Count Zinzendorf stayed on Christmas Eve in 1741 when he officially named the town Bethlehem. but we had an absolutely lovely experience at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott just ten minutes up the road, whose free hot breakfast consisted of perfectly seasoned scrambled eggs, biscuits & sausage gravy, and waffles (unlike many other free "hot" breakfasts i have grumpily consumed).
originally we had planned to drive out to Martinsburg on Friday night, drop Greta off with Nick's parents, and then drive the remaining 3 hours to Bethlehem. but as mice and men (and my friends and family) know well, actually getting out the door seems to take five times longer than i think it will. so by the time we got to Martinsburg, we figured we'd just spend the night there and start our actual Anniversary Celebration on Saturday. and i'm glad we did. leaving Greta was harder than i had imagined and i don't think i could have done it for two nights. it wasn't that i was worried about her -- i knew she'd have a great time, and i felt much better leaving her to sleep in a new pack'n'play in an unfamiliar room knowing that she had slept there with me on Friday night and done just fine. but i just missed tickling her little belly, kissing the delicious hollow at the nape of her neck, and melting at her secret little smiles.
all that aside, it was So. Good. SO. GOOD. to be able to focus just on my handsome husband. to explore the Bethlehem Steelworks, and drink liters of Yuengling Oktoberfest and eat German turnovers and potato pancakes with sour cream and pretzel-wrapped cheesesteaks, and peruse the handmade wooden birdhouses and glass decorations and German-themed t-shirts and hold hands and people-watch like we do best. to participate in a craft beer sampling session, make friends with two guys who were equally disgusted with the yuppie hipsters, and be given paper Oktoberfest flags by one of the women who traveled here from Northern Germany to provide consulting services for the event. to go to mass together. to hold hands while exploring historic downtown Bethlehem, touring the Moravian Museum (Gemein Haus) and walking around the grounds of the Burnside Plantation, where organ-builder David Tannenberg lived in the 1760s. to relax in the gorgeous October sun outside the Bethlehem Brewworks for lunch with a mimosa (for me) and a Diet Coke (for him). to just talk, and be together, and reminisce over our other travels together and dream of what's to come in the next few years.
and when we made it back to Martinsburg on Sunday evening, the look on Greta's face when we came through the door was about the cutest thing i've ever seen. she was happily sitting in her high chair with her new sippy cup from Nana with the light-up ice cube inside, eating a snack, but when she saw us, she gasped and smiled so brightly i thought she might actually burst into tears of joy.
so the moral of the story is: go to Bethlehem (or, you know, down the street to your favourite hole-in-the-wall diner). for an evening, for an overnight trip, for a weekend. and all those experts who talk about the importance of spending time together as a couple -- they know their stuff.
my vacation-planning style is equal parts Hardcore Booking Everything In Advance + Let's Leave a Little Free Time to See What Tickles Our Fancy. aka i spend ridiculous amounts of time on Trip Advisor poring over hotel reviews and coming up with a rough framework for activities before we leave, but if we stumble across something more awesome when we're actually there, well then it was Meant To Be. sadly, there weren't any rooms left at the historic Hotel Bethlehem when i started sleuthing last month, since our trip happened to fall over Columbus Day weekend. i'm determined to go back at some point and stay there, because the hotel is built on the site of the first house in the Moravian settlement, where Count Zinzendorf stayed on Christmas Eve in 1741 when he officially named the town Bethlehem. but we had an absolutely lovely experience at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott just ten minutes up the road, whose free hot breakfast consisted of perfectly seasoned scrambled eggs, biscuits & sausage gravy, and waffles (unlike many other free "hot" breakfasts i have grumpily consumed).
originally we had planned to drive out to Martinsburg on Friday night, drop Greta off with Nick's parents, and then drive the remaining 3 hours to Bethlehem. but as mice and men (and my friends and family) know well, actually getting out the door seems to take five times longer than i think it will. so by the time we got to Martinsburg, we figured we'd just spend the night there and start our actual Anniversary Celebration on Saturday. and i'm glad we did. leaving Greta was harder than i had imagined and i don't think i could have done it for two nights. it wasn't that i was worried about her -- i knew she'd have a great time, and i felt much better leaving her to sleep in a new pack'n'play in an unfamiliar room knowing that she had slept there with me on Friday night and done just fine. but i just missed tickling her little belly, kissing the delicious hollow at the nape of her neck, and melting at her secret little smiles.
all that aside, it was So. Good. SO. GOOD. to be able to focus just on my handsome husband. to explore the Bethlehem Steelworks, and drink liters of Yuengling Oktoberfest and eat German turnovers and potato pancakes with sour cream and pretzel-wrapped cheesesteaks, and peruse the handmade wooden birdhouses and glass decorations and German-themed t-shirts and hold hands and people-watch like we do best. to participate in a craft beer sampling session, make friends with two guys who were equally disgusted with the yuppie hipsters, and be given paper Oktoberfest flags by one of the women who traveled here from Northern Germany to provide consulting services for the event. to go to mass together. to hold hands while exploring historic downtown Bethlehem, touring the Moravian Museum (Gemein Haus) and walking around the grounds of the Burnside Plantation, where organ-builder David Tannenberg lived in the 1760s. to relax in the gorgeous October sun outside the Bethlehem Brewworks for lunch with a mimosa (for me) and a Diet Coke (for him). to just talk, and be together, and reminisce over our other travels together and dream of what's to come in the next few years.
and when we made it back to Martinsburg on Sunday evening, the look on Greta's face when we came through the door was about the cutest thing i've ever seen. she was happily sitting in her high chair with her new sippy cup from Nana with the light-up ice cube inside, eating a snack, but when she saw us, she gasped and smiled so brightly i thought she might actually burst into tears of joy.
so the moral of the story is: go to Bethlehem (or, you know, down the street to your favourite hole-in-the-wall diner). for an evening, for an overnight trip, for a weekend. and all those experts who talk about the importance of spending time together as a couple -- they know their stuff.
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