Saturday, January 30, 2010

Time To Visit

We're down in new Jersey this weekend for a chance to visit with Karen's family. Today we went off to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to take the kids skating. The rink is right next to the site of the long-abandoned Bethlehem Steel. The rink was very nice, the kids had fun skating, and the derelict buildings were, well, at once fascinating and sad.

The plant was put on a historical preservation list a few years ago, after more than a decade of neglect. The neglect shows. What's strange, though, is that in the middle of all of this deterioration, a new Sands casino has been build in part of the old steel plant. Perhaps this will stimulate an effort to preserve the site, if it is not already too far gone.

I wish I had more time to just explore places like Bethlehem. Karen and I were dying to stop and photograph the old plant, the row houses, and even the new casino, but had time only to catch fleeting glimpses as we drove back to New Jersey.

We'd love to have more time to travel. Not only to far-off places (would love to return to Scotland and Hawaii, for example), but to interesting places closer to home. Pennsylvania. Nova Scotia. Toronto. Even northern New Hampshire and Maine.

Something worth making some positive life changes for.

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