Friday the 13th probably seems like the worst day in the world to celebrate St Valentine. Well, we don't have a lot of choice in the matter. Gina and I both had a free day. She's right in the middle of her busy season and is putting in all kinds of crazy hours at work. I have to go to Wales next week. As you can see, we have to take time where we can get it. The decision was to get into the car, drive away, and stop wherever our fancies led us.

Our fancies led us to Caledonia state park where we had a chance to see Thaddeus Steven's furnace. These furnaces are an amazing example of colonial technology and it was so cool to walk around on it. Steven's was an important abolitionist before the civil war, so Gen Jubal Early made a point of burning his business to the ground in the midst of the Gettysburg campaign. It is a wonder there is anything left of it to still see. (Perhaps, the didn't have enough time to tear the whole thing down)

For those of you who don't know, this part of Pennsylvania is a veritable goldmine for antiques. We found one of those cool, little antique malls with 200 different vendors and started looking around. We've been considering getting new lamps for in the living room since the old ones aren't working right and we're kind of tired of them anyway. We found this cool, Victorian style lamp (which is even older than the ones we already have). They actually come in a pair, but Gina only wanted to hold one of them for the photo. You know how windy it was today. We were also lucky in that we were able to find the PERFECT birthday gift for Dorothea. I forgot how much fun antiquing was!

Our evening ended over at Glenn and Chrissy's place. For those of you who haven't heard yet, they got a dog. She is this cute, little, lab/springer spaniel mix and they named her Nittany. (after Glenn's Alma Mater) This makes sense since one of Nittany's sisters went to another friend who is a Notre Dame graduate and her name is "Gipper". Nittany is a really well-behaved pup. She showered Gina with tons of doggy licks and kisses. For me, she chose to crawl over my shoulder, knock off my hat, and play with it. I'm not sure why. There must be something about the smelly, old hat that she found attractive. I guess it is justice since Gina hates me wearing that thing, anyway.