Mr. Laing Goes to Washington

2
Driving through Pennsylvania

Leaving Harrisburg, we drove by the State Capitol, just a couple blocks from our hotel and the theater complex.  The theater folks had had a barbecue there the first night.  In the heat.  By the fountain.  On the concrete.  Mother and I were glad to have had to have stayed at the hotel and had an air-conditioned buffet dinner in the restaurant.  But the capitol building was handsome and the little park across the street was inviting.  But it's HOT in Pennsylvania!

Well, maybe a bit ... imperial? ... from this angle?

But then we left the capital for the Pennsylvania countryside, driving through Lancaster County and Amish country on our way to Baltimore and Washington D.C.  And while there were a fair share of Amishland strip malls (which we hadn't expected), there were farms and roadside produce stands and real live people in horse-drawn buggies and bucolic countryside (which we had).

And a doll shop, with wonderful dolls in Amish outfits (made, they promised, by real live Amish seamstresses).

And so we left Pennsylvania for Maryland, through Baltimore (where we encountered areas of ... uh ... diversity, Baltimore Oriole banners, and members of my union, protesting or striking some poor business or other, using my increased union dues to pay for it, no doubt).  And so on to Washington, D.C.