Parchment Paths

  For my birthday this year a friend took me to a local cat café, Purrfect Mugs in Plains, PA.   For a surpise, she booked us time in the Cat Den.   Some cat cafes gave the felines mingling in the café, but at Purrfect Mugs they have their own separate room. It was $10 a person for almost an hour playing with the cats of all shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities.    My favorite was the adorably grumpy, big cat Klondike, though fluffy, sweet Foxy, Patsy Cline, and Linus were awesome. Honestly, they were all great cats, and aside from the resident cat Sterling, all of them are up for adoption. Note: the cats mentioned by name here may have already been adopted by the time you are reading this.  Before going in to visit the cats, we both ordered iced cinnamon roll lattes and blueberry almond cookies. They were both delicious and I was pleasantly surprised that we were allowed to take our drinks into the cat den.  While they don’t serve sandwiches or what I consider to be meal items,

  This July Dad and I visited the historic town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Renamed for 1912 Olympian, the town dates back to 1818. When the local railroad’s inventive new switchback railroad made the town both prosperous and famous  it became quite the tourist attraction.            Walking along the streets, you can still see the town’s Victorian roots.   Many of the surviving mansions are still sanding as Bed and Breakfasts, other businesses or private homes.           While Dad and I had some specific places we wanted to visit, me moslty meandered through the town.   We were both surprised how busy the town was for a Monday  and were glad we found a space in the parking lot by the train station. We paid $8 for the whole day and it made the trip much less stressful than if we would have had to hunt for street parking.   The town is awesome but be warned, parking is scarce if you can’t get into the lot, so get into town as early as you can.           After looking around a bi