On the road again...Avenue 209 in Lock Haven!

Well, I kind of had to put things on hiatus for a few weeks because of illness and lack of planning, but I'm back now. I think honestly that the winter blues have been taking their toll on me, like they have on most of Central PA for December and January this year. I need to head back to work as I type this, so I'll make this critique nice and concise.

I really didn't have much faith in this town to produce a good coffeehouse. It's one of my potential grad school locations, so I won't knock it too hard; it's just that you could clearly see that Lock Haven is an old coal town that has seen its better days. At least that's how it looks in the dead of winter...maybe in the summer things will pick up a bit and parts of it won't look so urban-blighty. That being said, there were a few streets that had a good college town vibe. I could take it all in at once because my mom was kind enough to drive me up here as long as it was in pursuit of higher education!

Anyhow, the coffeehouse itself was nice. It looks like there are musical performances once in a while, so that's a plus. If I do come up to this place, I'll definitely be spending the majority of my socializing time here. The kid who made my coffee seemed kinda confused for some reason, but hey, hipsters are like that, and he definitely fit the description. That's a good sign actually...I didn't expect there to be much of a counterculture up in the woods this far (and Lock Haven is definitely up in the woods), especially before classes actually began. The coffee was good, the atmosphere was good; I just wish that the rest of the town looked as upbeat as this! Be careful though, they charge for the soy milk. Yes, you heard that right.

Coffee: Three Mugs
Atmosphere: Three Mugs

The side advertisement of the place...

Nice seating arrangement...

Music potential looks promising...

Funky tables...

Holiday Special

The winter solstice has come and gone and, since I'm actually writing this as of the new year, so have Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Eve! I, for one, am happy that 2010 is now in the history books. For most of the country, it was marked by political divisiveness including a surge of radical conservatism, weird weather (at least here in the Keystone State), and bad economic times continuing. I like to think that with this new year comes a new chance to come together and at least try to move things forward.

Anyone who was downtown in Harrisburg on New Years Eve could feel that sort of optimism. It may be a mere fancy of the desperate, but I think it was actually palpable in the air that night. Perfect strangers have been saying "happy new year" to me for the past two days, which is a good sign. Some people also got dramatic downtown, which is also a good sign in its own way. It means that people were expressing real emotion and not walking on eggshells. It also means that I do not envy the police their job of cleaning up and sorting out the late night drama. Did you hear the mayor get booed? I did. You could feel that coming like wave. Did she deserve any of it? It's honestly debatable. Did I find myself wishing that fellow Harrisburgeans had a bit more class that night? Well, I often find myself wishing that!

On a lighter note, this is also sort of a new beginning for me personally. I'm finally getting my grad school plans in gear (visiting schools, whittling down programs, etc.). I'll be doing that soon. If not this fall, then definitely next spring. I managed to buy the telescope that I've wanted for a year now, and now that all of my major bills are paid, I'll have way more ready cash for adventuring, unless the car has issues again. This adventuring includes, of course, the Coffeehouse Tour. Since I'll be going to different universities and college towns in the upcoming month or two, I'll be visiting some far-flung cafes and holes-in-the-wall and will be blogging about them as soon as I can get them up.

I hope that you all have a good new year, and a good cup of coffee this Monday morning when we all go back to the grind. We'll need it.