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Bethlehem Steels the Show: A Day Trip to the SteelStacks, Wind Creek Casino, and the Historic Bethlehem District
Mark McNease
I had some awareness of Bethlehem, PA, mostly because of the casino, now called Wind Creek Bethlehem. But a friend recently told us about her visit to the SteelStacks, complete with a tour of the magnificent rusting behemoth of the Bethlehem Steel plant, and we decided to make a day trip of it. It’s only about a 50 minute drive from our home, so it was easy, and very well worth it. It was the perfect definition of a one-day getaway. We walked over 20,000 steps (each, not combined!), as we strolled along the walkway abutting the massive factory, headed to the casino, then back and over the river to the north side of Bethlehem. There is a south side and we’re saving that for next time!
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Gay Travelers Magazine: Steven and Tom Visit The Wizard of Oz Museum
Reprinted with permission from Gay Travelers Magazine
By Steve Skelley and Thomas Routzong
The Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida near Cocoa Beach is filled with an amazing collection of memorabilia and a 20000 square foot room where you can enjoy an immersive Van Gogh experience and the immersive Wizard of Oz experience.
In 1900, L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was an instant hit with over three million book sales, a Broadway musical and an iconic 1939 movie. The Wizard of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral, Florida has an impressive display of autographs, clothing, dolls, comics, toys, maps, original props and costumes, collectible figurines, posters and first editions including the earliest recorded copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!
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An App for That (and a Website, Too): Mister B & B Helps Locate Accommodations for the LGBTQ Traveler
An App for That is a regular feature at LGBTSr highlighting useful apps and technology tips for our readers. Have an app to recommend? Email me at: Editor @ LGBTSr.com
My husband Frank and I love to travel (we just did another two-night stay at Philadelphia’s Morris House Hotel, and had the best meal of the year at Talula’s Garden). I enjoy short getaways we can drive to, but we also like cruising and the occasional vacation that requires a dreaded trip to the airport.
I’m a hotel guy myself. I love waking up in a hotel, working on a laptop while I have coffee in the room or a public space. And while we’ve never stayed at an Air B&B, I know a lot of people use that kind of service. The market for renting out rooms and homes has exploded over the last decade, giving travelers more options that they could have imagined just a few years ago. Enter Mister B & B, a service that connects the LGBTQ traveler with friendly accommodations in the destinations of their choice.
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Gay Travelers Magazine: Pride Journey – Colorado Springs
This article first appeared at Gay Travelers Magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Pride Journey: Colorado Springs
By Joey AmatoDid you know that Colorado Springs is also known as Olympic City U.S.A.? Neither did I. Not only is the city home to the U.S. Olympic Training Center, but Colorado Springs recently celebrated the grand opening of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, a stunning state-of-the-art building showcasing the history of the Olympic games as well as athletes that competed. The 60,000 square-foot facility focuses on the core values of the Olympic and Paralympic movements: friendship, respect and excellence, determination, equality, inspiration, and courage. The museum was voted “Best New Attraction” by USA Today and it’s easy to see why.
Visitors enter a grand lobby and take an elevator to the top level of the building where they can view a chronological history of the Olympic and Paralympic torches, medals, and other items. The museum is divided between the summer and winter games and the self-guided tour includes an emotional video highlighting the greatest U.S. Olympic triumphs as well as some struggles Team U.S.A. has faced along the way.
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On the Map: Laid Back in Lancaster County (PA)
This article is reprinted from LGBTSr.com
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
The frequent sight of horse-drawn buggies clopping and rolling along the roads is a perfect image for Lancaster’s life in the slow lane. This is Amish country, something you don’t have to verify with a Google search because the evidence is all around you: in the buggies crisscrossing the roads, in the clotheslines with daily wash fluttering in the breeze, in the houses without electricity or cars. It’s a way of life that can be appreciated without being romanticized: the lives the Amish choose to live are not easy. They may look simple, folksy and nostalgic, but they are lives of toil and prayer. That’s my caveat – to remember when you visit that beneath the calm, relaxed surface of this country life are days of work from sunup to sundown, and a chosen detachment from the lives most of us live.
My husband Frank and I recently took our third trip to the Strasburg/Lancaster area. Frank had been there before we met, but it was all new to me. Three years ago he took me there for a surprise trip and we stayed at the Red Caboose Motel, where each room is a caboose salvaged from trains that stopped running long ago. There are small cabooses, medium-size cabooses, and large ones that can accommodate big families or friends traveling in groups. There’s a restaurant on the property, Casey Jones Restaurant, set in a replica of a dining car, with an attached gift shop. (We ate there on Monday, since it was one of the few places open that night.) I loved the novelty of it all, but there are a LOT of horse flies! Each room/caboose includes a fly swatter, and you will use them. This is not just Amish country … it’s horse country, too.
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On the Map: The Marvelous Morris House Hotel (Philadelphia)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
As the most restrictive aspects of this pandemic-burdened year begin to lessen, my husband Frank and I are hitting the road again. For now we’ll be taking local-ish trips we can enjoy with just a few hours’ drive in the car. We have a cruise booked for December that was postponed twice because of Covid and the inability of cruise ships to dock in U.S. ports (combined with our own significant concerns), and I’m looking forward to an extensive trip report when we finally board two weeks before Christmas. Cruising is my favorite form of extended vacation, so stay tuned for a late December travelogue.
This time we took a two night trip to Philadelphia. For a number of years now we’ve treated each other to surprise getaways. One of us takes the other on a trip, and the person being surprised does not know where we’re going. A few months ago I’d seen a recommendation for an outdoor classical concert “under the stars” in Philly, and thought it would be a perfect way to start getting out there again.
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On the Map: The Marvelous Morris House Hotel (Philadelphia)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
As the most restrictive aspects of this pandemic-burdened year begin to lessen, my husband Frank and I are hitting the road again. For now we’ll be taking local-ish trips we can enjoy with just a few hours’ drive in the car. We have a cruise booked for December that was postponed twice because of Covid and the inability of cruise ships to dock in U.S. ports (combined with our own significant concerns), and I’m looking forward to an extensive trip report when we finally board two weeks before Christmas. Cruising is my favorite form of extended vacation, so stay tuned for a late December travelogue.
This time we took a two night trip to Philadelphia. For a number of years now we’ve treated each other to surprise getaways. One of us takes the other on a trip, and the person being surprised does not know where we’re going. A few months ago I’d seen a recommendation for an outdoor classical concert “under the stars” in Philly, and thought it would be a perfect way to start getting out there again.
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On the Map: The Marvelous Morris House Hotel (Philadelphia)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
As the most restrictive aspects of this pandemic-burdened year begin to lessen, my husband Frank and I are hitting the road again. For now we’ll be taking local-ish trips we can enjoy with just a few hours’ drive in the car. We have a cruise booked for December that was postponed twice because of Covid and the inability of cruise ships to dock in U.S. ports (combined with our own significant concerns), and I’m looking forward to an extensive trip report when we finally board two weeks before Christmas. Cruising is my favorite form of extended vacation, so stay tuned for a late December travelogue.
This time we took a two night trip to Philadelphia. For a number of years now we’ve treated each other to surprise getaways. One of us takes the other on a trip, and the person being surprised does not know where we’re going. A few months ago I’d seen a recommendation for an outdoor classical concert “under the stars” in Philly, and thought it would be a perfect way to start getting out there again.
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Provincetown Perspective: Day 1
We made it. I loved splitting the trip in two and spending a night in Mystic (Groton, actually), but it still feels like a chore getting here. P-Town is hopping as usual. It’s super gay, which it’s always been. There’s no place quite like it, and that’s saying a lot. Here are some early pix. The wifi here SUCKS, so I won’t be doing any more slideshows. It took an hour to upload these photos. Never again. But this place is fabulous, minus the drunk guy falling down at the piano and the vampire wannabe handing out menus at the dive restaurant we ate at.
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Gay Travelers Magazine Visits The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
This article first appeared in Gay Travelers Magazine
By Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a place that everyone should visit. Learn about the exciting “space race,” climb inside space capsules and a Space Shuttle, watch IMAX movies, dine on-site, eat with an astronaut or watch an actual thundering, ground shaking rocket launch.
Each year, more than 1.5 million guests from around the world experience their very own space adventure by exploring the exciting past, present and future of America’s space program at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Built in 1967, today the Visitor Complex is one of Central Florida’s most popular tourist destinations.
SUGGESTED ITINERARIES
ONE DAY VISITS
One Day Visit: Family with Children Under 10 Years of Age
- Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® presented by Boeing® – 1 hour
- Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour including Apollo/Saturn V Center – 2 hours
- Space Shuttle Atlantis® with Shuttle Launch Experience® – 2 hours
- Journey To Mars: Explorers Wanted – 30 minutes
- Children’s Playdome for Junior Astronauts – 30 minutes
- Dining and shopping – 1 hour
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Gay Travelers Magazine Visits The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
This article first appeared in Gay Travelers Magazine
By Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is a place that everyone should visit. Learn about the exciting “space race,” climb inside space capsules and a Space Shuttle, watch IMAX movies, dine on-site, eat with an astronaut or watch an actual thundering, ground shaking rocket launch.
Each year, more than 1.5 million guests from around the world experience their very own space adventure by exploring the exciting past, present and future of America’s space program at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Built in 1967, today the Visitor Complex is one of Central Florida’s most popular tourist destinations.
SUGGESTED ITINERARIES
ONE DAY VISITS
One Day Visit: Family with Children Under 10 Years of Age
- Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® presented by Boeing® – 1 hour
- Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour including Apollo/Saturn V Center – 2 hours
- Space Shuttle Atlantis® with Shuttle Launch Experience® – 2 hours
- Journey To Mars: Explorers Wanted – 30 minutes
- Children’s Playdome for Junior Astronauts – 30 minutes
- Dining and shopping – 1 hour
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Dining Remains an Event at Marsha Brown: 5 Yums
This marks the return of my popular restaurant reviews that ran for several years on my original blog.Reviews are based on a 5 Yum scale, 5 being must-go, 2 being save your money, 1 being call an ambulance.
Where: Marsha Brown, New Hope, PA
Price: $$$$
Fun new word: Housemade (my use, not theirs)My husband Frank decided to surprise me with dinner the night before our 5th wedding anniversary (I usually say marriage, since we didn’t have a wedding). I thought we were going to a Cuban restaurant in New Hope, but he stopped in front of the large sign outside Marsha Brown and said, “Here we are.”
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Rainbow Mountain Resort Still Has It: 5 Stars
This one’s for you, John Higgins“What I’ve always liked about Rainbow Mountain is that it attracts an older crowed. I’ll be 60 this year, and even though you’ll find plenty of young Qs there, it’s still a comfortable place to be older or, if you dare, old, and not feel like you’re on a gay cruise with thongs fluttering everywhere among a sea of pecs.”
I used to do restaurant reviews on my blog about a decade ago, giving them a ‘Yum’ rating (5 Yums was a must go, 2 was a stay away, 1 was a call an ambulance). I’m not crazy about stars, but I like them just a little better than thumbs. When I resume my restaurant reviews, look for those Yums to make a comeback.
That said, I’m giving Rainbow Mountain 5 stars, up, sideways, in the rearview mirror, whichever way you approach it. This LGBTQ-centric resort has been around since 1981 and, along with its fascinating history, it has a spirit you just can’t keep down.