Day 7
- Oct 4, 2023
- 3 min read
That's it, right?
Pretty much. I still have a morning in Harrisburg and I'll walk around the town a bit.
Ah, I forgot to do the "Tell me about Harrisburg" bit yesterday. Tell me about Harrisburg.
Harrisburg is Pennsylvania's state capital.
It certainly feels older than any of the other cities I've visited. With its old rowhouses, little streets, and easy walkability, you can tell it's been around for a while (and it has; Harrisburg was incorporated in 1791.) Harrisburg has just over 50,000 people, though it's metro area has nearly 600,000.
What can you do there?
I'm ready to get back home, but I'll stop in the State Museum of Pennsylvania first. I enjoyed this museum and I could talk a lot about it, but I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Will, I've been reading this for an hour. Can't you just wrap it up?" And I hear you. I'll keep it brief.
Here are three facts I learned at the museum:
Pennsylvania's first European settlers were not English, French, or Spanish. They were Swedish.
The world's first oil well was built in Titusville, PA.
80% of the hard pretzels on Earth were produced in Pennsylvania. That's wild.
Oh yes, they also had a dinosaur.
After a lovely hour-and-a-half in the museum, I ordered a Reuben at Roxy's Cafe...
...and started on the drive home. After nearly an entire week, I'm finally going home to stay.
Did you have a favorite place? Or a favorite game? A favorite day?
It's hard to pick one favorite -- I had a nice time everywhere. I will rank everywhere by three categories: stadium, game atmosphere, and stadium food.
Stadiums
Canal Park (Akron)
Peoples Natural Gas Field (Altoona)
FNB Field (Harrisburg)
UPMC Park (Erie)
Prince George's Stadium (Bowie)
The Diamond (Richmond)
As mentioned in the Akron writeup, Canal Park is just a small step above everyone in terms of amenities -- I bet it's nicer than many Triple-A ballparks. Peoples Natural Gas Field fits Altoona so well; it's small, cozy, and unique (it has a rollercoaster!). FNB Field gets a ton of extra points for its island location. UPMC Park and Prince George's Stadium both fall into the "nothing special, but nothing wrong with it" category, though Erie has modernized there's a little better. The Diamond should be replaced as soon as possible.
Gameday Atmosphere
Richmond Flying Squirrels
Altoona Curve
Harrisburg Senators
Bowie Baysox
Akron RubberDucks
Erie SeaWolves
This is tough to judge, as it's highly variable. I clearly favored teams I saw on weekends over weekdays, which is not fair. Richmond obviously has a large and dedicated staff devoted to keeping the audience entertained while not doing too much. It had the highest attendance (by far) of any game I saw and it's a shame they play in that stadium of theirs. Altoona's gameday staff performed similarly to Richmond's, it's just a little smaller. Harrisburg and Bowie both had particularly engaged fans and I think they both achieved the environment they were going for. I put Akron and Erie in a tough spot by seeing September weeknight games, so don't take their low rankings as an indictment of enjoyability. I still had a great time.
Stadium Food
Meatball sub (Harrisburg)
Curve Burger (Altoona)
Burrito bowl (Erie)
Poutine (Akron)
Philly cheesesteak (Richmond)
Crab dog (Bowie)
This was the most disappointing part of the whole trip. I was hoping to eat regional and interesting items, and I got some of that, but most of it just wasn't that good. There were two clear favorites. I gave the meatball sub the edge because of its uniqueness, but both it and the Curve Burger were well above average stadium food. The burrito bowl was fine and the poutine was a little disappointing. The cheesesteak was a lot disappointing. Crab dogs are an offense to all that is good in the world.
Wow, Will. You drove 1200 miles. You visited four states. You saw more live baseball in one week than you often do in a whole season. You must have learned something about yourself. Or about America. Do you have any takeaways?
Just one.
Never eat a crab dog.
Thanks for reading.
Comments