What is there to do in Northeastern Pennsylvania?

Cliff and I find ourselves staying at our friend's vacation home in Lake Ariel, PA about 20 miles east of Scranton. Cliff wanted to test drive a Passat TDI. Kelly VW in Scranton was happy enough to oblige. We checked out Scranton after. They were having a St. Patrick's Day parade. Lots of drinking and kinda roudy.....not our thing! Other than that, Scranton seemed kinda unexciting, ie..not much to see. But, then again, we are not familiar with this area, at all! We are in this area for the day tomorrow also. So, fellow TDIers, what is there to do on a Sunday in NE PA???

BTW: We noticed LOTS of VW in Scranton. It seems like somewhat of a college town. Saw a whole bunch of TDIs also!

Re: What is there to do in Northeastern Pennsylvan

A little late, but the answer is not much at all. Unless you like coal mine tours. Come back in the fall when you can drive around the mountains, see the foilage, and really use your torque!

PA seems to have lots of VWs period. I live near Allentown and the two dealers I checked even knew what 505.01 was.

Re: What is there to do in Northeastern Pennsylvan

Sorry I didn't get a chance to see this post earlier...St. Pats parade in Scranton is the 2nd largest in the country...so it's kind of difficult to do much in town on that day. There are 2 decent sized colleges in town...you were probably seeing mostly U of S students...that school is right up the street from the main parade route. There are plenty of things to do in the area...you just need to know WHAT you want to do or see....I have lived in a number of different places in my life and the Scranton area is not that much different than others...people always complain there is nothing to do...trust me...Scranton is a LOT better now than is was 20 years ago...it was a virtual ghost town in the downtown area then. Most of the new things in downtowm are geared towards nightlife...daytime things are elsewhere. If you find yourself in the area again and know ahead of time drop me a PM and I'll direct you to some places.

Re: What is there to do in Northeastern Pennsylvan

ofhs93, thanks for the offer. Will definitely take you up on it next time. We spent Sunday afternoon driving route 6 from Honesdale to Hadley to Milford b4 we got back on i-84 for the ride home. In the end it was OK. Rather relaxing weekend. Scranton probably would have been better if we could do more in and around town, I guess. Dunno, was interesting... Providence, RI is not the end all be all, but I do aprreciate it a lot more now. Wish I had a chance to explore more. The parade is probably a lot of fun, but appeared to be a bit too rowdy for us. Spring through fall does seem like it would be a better time to visit though

Re: What is there to do in Northeastern Pennsylvan

Yes...if you are an outdoors type person there are tons of things to do in the warm weather...in the winter your pretty limited unless you like to ski or snowtube. And that was Hawley BTW...not Hadley..you have Massachusets on your mind ...I actually went to college in Worcester and my GF at the time went to Mount Holyoke in South Hadley ...and yes the St. P's parade can be quite rowdy...specially if you were around there anytime after 11:30...the bars all open up at around 7am with 17 cent beers...needless to say..all of the drunks come out of the woodwork for beer that cheap haha..The other part of the answer of things to do is that Wilkes-Barre is sort of like a twin city with Scranton..it's about 15-20 minutes farther down I-81 south...and has about the same sized population around it. But most of the wintertime things to do are outside of both of the downtowns for both cities...WB has a nice Arena that is the home for our AHL hockey team (affiliated with the Penguins), and Arena Football team, and we get most of the wintertime national concert tours in that place..in the summer we have a really great outdoor venue up on Montage that is dedicated strictly for concerts...they usually get the large summer tours...Dave Mathews, Ozzfest, ect...,also there is Mountage Stadium...which has our AAA baseball team (affiliated with the Phillies) I forgot to mention Steamtown...which is a National Park..located right behind the downtown mall in Scranton...basically takes you through the history of the railroads in America..and why this area was at the heart of the railroad revolution in the 19th century...it's a really interesting visit if you are into history (I have always been) and in the warmer months they have Steam engine powered train excursions that are about 30 miles round trip...they are also going to have a steam powered trolley shuttle that takes you from downtown to the Montage stadium this summer for baseball games. And the aformentioned Lackawanna coal mine tour...which really is very informative and makes you really appreciate what our forefathers went through to build this country into what it is today. OK enough rambling...one more thing...that Rt. 6 drive from Milford all the way west accross the top of PA has been named one of the top 10 day trip drives by Car & Driver...especially in the Fall. Lots of things to see if you continue west from Lake Ariel.

Cow Tipping????

No...more like sending people from NJ on wild goose chases when they stop and ask for directions ....J/K..Dude I have lived in the Boston area...the Pittsburgh area...the Atlanta area...and have spent a LOT of time in the NYC area (my wife is from LI) and for overall quality of life I choose this area over all of them...Atlanta is RIGHT there though...thats a really great place to live down there.

I couldn't resist.

I know....very few people have the level of self restraint required to resist such a perceivably easy target

overall quality of life I...Atlanta is RIGHT there though...thats a really great place to live down there.

Click to expand...

Y'all like sprawl, eh?

One person's "sprawl" is another's affordable first home, decent public schools, reasonably safe neighborhoods, and the ability to work for a good wage. We all like that just fine.

There is a LOT of building going on in NE PA from what I saw. Builing crazy amount of vacation homes

DrStink..I lived in the Stn. Mountain/Lilburn area...for me at the time that was the perfect combo of Suburb and distance from Downtown...I could be inside of ATL city limits in less than 20 min but was still living in a nice sub development with good schools and safe surroundings and not paying through the nose for it. So yes...if that is sprawl then I am a fan of it...sorry. Thats not to say I would mind living in a dense area...My wife and I have friends that live in Battery Park city in NYC...as far south as you can go without swimming to the Statue of Liberty...I thnk thats a great place to live inside of NYC..it would be my choice if I were to be there...but the $1+ million price tag for a decent 1000-1100sq ft. 1 bedroom condo PLUS the 500-600 a month fees are not exactly in my price range. Quality of life is the key and we all have our own deffinition of it. Would I like to be able to hop on a cummuter train to get to work? Sure I would...but what would I be giving up to do that? Too much in my opinion (and thats not just based on money either)with our current mass transit system...if thats what you can even call it...system may be too strong a word...more like...regional pods that surround only the most densely populated areas and then only out to a certain distance.

Actually TDIinRI a lot of those homes you saw going up are year round houses...the Poconos is much less a vacation destination than a year round suburb of NYC now. I admit though that since 9/11 there has been a pretty big jump in emergency mansion building in the northern poconos by the high dollar NYC peeps looking for a place to run away to if the terrorists strike again...the # of $1 million plus homes being put up in Wayne and Pike counties over the last 3 years has shot up big time...I don't think there even WAS a homestead (these houses are not on 1/4 acre lots you know ) in either county that went for more than 650 or 750k beforehand. Basically...if you see a mansion going up in the northern portions then its a get away...if it's a normal house then it's a year round home...pretty much EVERYTHING being built in Eastern Pike and all of Monroe county is yearround living for people moving further away from NYC for lower taxes/better schools. Pike and Monroe counties are 2 of the fastest growning counties east of the Mississippi.