My Connections To York, Pennsylvania

I went for a late afternoon walk yesterday in downtown York. I'm in town for the semi-annual Train Collector's Association meeting. This meeting is the largest of its type in the country and maybe in the world. Attendance is usually something like 20,000. York is an historic city and the downtown is handsome with much ninteenth and early twentieth century architecture. Unfortunatley, many of the big bank buildings and other storefronts are vacant. York is struggling and it's sad to walk through the town and see how much of the once vibrant city is now abandoned. I have a long history with the York area. My father's sister once lived in the area and I first visited here when I was a child. It's curious how I have returned over and over again to the area much later in life. The photos below show the Yorktowne Hotel where I stay, a grand old style hotel that is nice even if it is showing its age a bit. I have a new favorite restaurant in downtown York: Bistro 19. They make a great Maritni. I had a berries and nuts salad and New Zealand green mussels for dinner last evening. The food is delicious. A York Peppermint Patty accompanied the dinner check. It tasted really good...it was fresh unlike the ones you get in stores...or maybe it was just that I was enjoying it in York itself.