Howard Johnson Inn Harrisburg

Rural America

by solopes

The dominating image of USA in Europe is made if skiscrapers, wide roads with big cars. But there's another America, where development keeps present, but the rhythms and social life are more cal and simple. Pennsylvania looks like a huge farm, where the Amish are just a detail

Erin go Braugh..cough gag gurrgle

by naplesnate about Molly Branigan's

The thing is with all restaurants in downtown Harrisburg they turn into the actual nightlife spots too, so keep that in mind when you're planning your visit to the lovely 'burg'.
Molly's is one of the only true Irish pubs because they are constatnly showing soccer (football for the rest of the world).
They offer a good range of what we consider irish meals with all the brews you might think of asking for...miller lite, coors lite etc. Bad joke but the place is good and worth the buck you spend here.
They offer trivia on Wednesdays and a real life DJ on weekends. Fish and Chips mate or is that Enlgish? don't get that confused in there cause we all know how mics feel about the brits...just shout 'go celtic' when in danger.

Harrisburg: an underrated capital city

by PA2AKgirl

"A little history..."

When you think of Pennsylvania cities, you probably don't think of Harrisburg. By no means is it as large as Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, but it's becoming, once again, a nice city to visit.
It wasn't the 1st or even the 2nd capital of Pennsylvania. Until 1799, Philadelphia was the government seat of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A few years before, it had been called "an unfortunate location" for the capital and Lancaster was voted to take its place.
However, after only 2 years, Lancaster wasn't considered a suitable capital either. Ideally, the lawmakers wanted to be based somewhere in the Susquehanna Valley. Harrisburg was chosen out of eight possible locations and officially became the capital in 1810, largely because of its location on the Susquehanna river.

Early on, Harrisburg was a commercially important city for boats, trains and later, cars and airplanes. It's about 1 hour from Baltimore, 2 hours from Philly and DC and not too far from New York City either. However, Harrisburg hasn't thrived as well as it could have. The Susquehanna river is too shallow in most places to run an efficient shipping operation and industries have come and gone with little success.

"Harrisburg Today..."

Growing up near this city, there was no reason for us to go to Harrisburg more than one time a year, if that. Thankfully, this is changing. Whereas in the past it was possible to drive downtown on the weekends and see no one at all, there are now people enjoying the city on their days off. The city has undergone a nice revitalitization or renaissance, but still has a little way to go

There are definitely things to do here now--City Island Park is probably one of my favorite places to go. Strawberry Square, the Capitol Complex, Pennsylvania State Museum, Museum of Science and Discovery are just a few places in the city. Hershey, Lancaster and Gettsyburg are just a short drive away, too.

Most recently, Harrisburg became very important to me on a personal level...Wanna know why?