Darin and I took a short trip to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. This was my first time to the state of Pennsylvania, so this trip marked the beginning of our moving adventure. Even though there are things that make this move difficult for both of us, it is also a very exciting opportunity to explore a new place (and side of the country).
Flying in to Williamsport was beautiful. I feel fortunate that my first trip to the area was in the fall. They have mostly deciduous trees, so the changing leaves and leaf-strewn streets were incredible and really added to the character of the city.
As we drove into the city, I started to feel a bit hesitant about my decision to move because the surrounding towns and even Williamsport are pretty small. I think Darin got quite the scare because I was left speechless by the small size of the town. I didn’t want to judge too quickly though, so I just decided to wait to form an opinion about the area until after we went house-hunting and got a chance to see more of the area.
Our first night in town, we were pretty tired so we headed over to the Bullfrog Brewery. This is a pretty funky & cool pub atmosphere, which had live music playing the night we stopped in for dinner. Good beer, good food, & good music – what more can you ask for. We also saw a large mural in a square of buildings next door to the Bullfrog. We stopped and met the mural artist, who just happened to be painting. We learned that the mural represents the stories of inspirational people from Williamsport. The mural artist has his own studio – you can check out pictures at www.pilatomurals.com
House hunting was the main purpose of this trip, and we had a whirlwind tour of homes in Williamsport and surrounding areas. We had a really crazy, fun realtor, who made it enjoyable to walk through about 18 houses
over the course of three days. The first house-hunting day was a dousy…we looked at 12 houses that day! All three of us; Darin, the realtor, and I were exhausted and a little silly by the end of the day. After looking at all these houses, we narrowed down to two; one that I fondly referred to as Darin’s “man-house” with wood everything and a more family style house. Darin decided to put an offer on the family house and now he is working out all the details! This house is pretty cool – it has a pool, covered porch, large patio, and fenced backyard, in addition to lots of living area inside. I think Darin is most excited about the basketball hoop in the driveway! One bonus is that the house doesn’t have very much wallpaper (which people in this area seem to adore).
Check out the house to the right!
We just prepared all of our stuff to move last week and now most of our belongings are on a truck headed to Pennsylvania! After all of that chaos, it feels good to be living out of suitcases now. We are currently living at my parent’s house until we move. Darin is leaving this coming weekend and I will meet him out there right after Thanksgiving as long as I can find some good job prospects.
We plan to keep everyone updated as we move and get to know Pennsylvania. Stay in touch – we would both love to hear from all of you ;)
Darin & Nicole
