Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Saturday, July 30, 2011
A Saturday free in July, we took full advantage of it to travel south. Harrisburg was our eventual destination, with a game at our third 'new' park of 2011 on tap. Along the way, we figured we'd waste some time in and around Hershey.
By the time we hit the road, it was around 9:30 or so (I worked the night before), which worked out great for our lunch timing! Jill found a great place for us to go for lunch - Devon Seafood Grill. Said to have as good a menu and meal as the Hotel Hershey, we figured we should give it a try, and we weren't disappointed! For an appetizer, we shared the goat cheese bruschetta with tomato-basil cruda, focaccia crisps, and kalamata olive. For lunch, Jill had the grilled Wahoo, with parmesan roasted yukon gold potatoes, and heirloom tomatoes with cucumber vinaigrette. I had the San Francisco style Cioppino, which had shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, fresh fish, and a red wine tomato sauce. Both meals were very good!
After lunch, we made our way over to the World of Chocolate at Hersheypark. One of our favorite destinations in this part of the country, it had actually been a bit since we were here. We did the chocolate ride, complete with a free sample at the end (always a bonus when doing the free ride!), and shopped around a bit.
Next up was the Outlets at Hershey, where we wandered in and around the stores there. The crowds there started to ramp up a bit later in the afternoon, mostly because the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block were performing at Hershey Stadium later that night. We figured this would be a good time to high tail it outta there and head for the ballpark.
The ballpark in Harrisburg had been recently (within the last couple of years) redone. Prior to that point, I probably would have been hard pressed to bug Jill about going to see a game here, mostly because pictures of it made it look like nothing more than a metal bleachered field. Arriving at the game, on City Island, we found that there was a soccer game as well at the same time, and the soccer field was right next to the ballpark. This made getting into the ballpark a bit slow, but at least we found a spot to park! Did the usual pics and grabbed a couple souvenirs once we got inside. Stayed until our usual seventh inning stretch, and once the bugs started falling from the lights we figured we'd get outta there. Drove straight home from the park (I had to work the next day).