If you are considering moving to NEPA, go for it. (Scranton: home, high school)

[memoriesbre]

Originally Posted by Dawne

If you get off I-81 at the Wachovia Arena exit, go past the arena and turn left at the light just before you'd enter the mall parking lot area (I forget the name of the street) Home Depot is just at the bottom of the hill on the left.

Dawne,
We saw all the stores from 81. Petco, HD, lots and lots of stores. Is this the same exit as the mall??

[ScranBarre]

Sounds like you're all just a tad confused. LOL! To get to that shopping area from I-81, the easiest way is to get off at the Highland Park Boulevard exit (Exit 168). At the end of the offramp, you'll be at a light. You can turn left on Highland Park Boulevard. By doing so, you'll access the following businesses:

Applebee's
Bennigan's
Bob Evans
Boston's Gourmet Pizza
Chuck-E-Cheese's
Cracker Barrel
FedEx/Kinko's
Jo-Ann Fabrics
Kohl's
Logan's Roadhouse
Odyssey Fitness
Office Depot
Omega Bank
PNC Bank
Radio Shack
Sam's Club
Starbuck's (The free-standing one)
Super King Chinese Buffet
Uno Pizzeria
Verizon Wireless
Wal-Mart Supercenter
Wegman's
Wendy's

Alternately, you can make a right onto Highland Park Boulevard and pass the arena. At the light that Dawne mentioned, you can then make either a left or right onto Mundy Street or head straight across to the Wyoming Valley Mall.

Left on Mundy:

Burlington Coat Factory
Gallery of Sound
Home Depot
Raymour & Flanigan Furniture
Price Chopper Supermarket
La Tolteca Mexican Restaurant (Yummy!)


Right on Mundy:

Ashley Furniture
Babies 'R Us
Barnes & Noble
Bed Bath & Beyond
Best Buy
Catherine's
Circuit City
Country Junction
Dick's Sporting Goods
Dress Barn
GameStop
Gentlemen's Club 10
Ground Round
Ken Pollock Nissan (Under Construction)
Lowe's Home Improvement
Michael's Arts & Crafts
Old Navy
Olive Garden
Orloski's Car Wash & Car Care Center
Outback Steakhouse
Panera Bread
Party City
Penguins Team Store
Petco
PetSmart
Pier 1 Imports
Shoe Department
Sleepy's Mattress Warehouse
Staples
Starbuck's (The one inside Barnes & Noble)
Target
T.J. Maxx

When you follow Mundy Street to the end after taking the right, you'll be brought onto Kidder Street. This corridor is slowly-yet-surely "drying up" due to the success of the Highland Park Boulevard/Mundy Street corridors, but there's still some businesses left. From here, you could take a left onto Kidder Street to access the following businesses:

Burger King
Days Inn
Dough Company Pizza
Friendly's
Holiday Inn
KFC
Lamp Factory
Lone Star Steakhouse
Long John Silver's
McDonald's
Pet Wonderland
Pets-N-You
Ruby Tuesday
TGI Friday's
Toys 'R Us
Valley Chevrolet

Inside the recently-renovated Wyoming Valley Mall are nearly 100 stores, including the following inside and around the periphery of the property:

Aeropostale
American Eagle
Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels
Cafe Europa
Chili's
Disney Store
Electronics Boutique
Express
Firestone
Foot Locker
FYE
Gap
GNC
Grotto Pizza
Hot Topic
JCPenney
Lane Bryant
Macy's
Office Max
Radio Shack
Sears
Shoe Department
Sunglass Hut
The Bon-Ton
The Limited
Vitamin World
Waldenbooks (Border's)
Zales Jewelers


There are dozens of more stores/restaurants in Wilkes-Barre Township as well; these are just the ones I can think of for now. Basically, we have everything here except for a Hooters, Hard Rock Cafe, IKEA, Dave & Buster's, and Planet Hollywood. However, I've heard rumors that a Hooters and IKEA are both proposed for Scranton in the upcoming years, so stay tuned!

[Dawne]

Wow, what a list!

That is the exit I meant, and Mundy Street was the one to Home Depot. I wasn't sure which stores she meant so I didn't comment on the rest. I do remember, though, that we went to an A.C. Moore that would have been left at the light right off the exit (Highland Park Boulevard).

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by Dawne

Wow, what a list!

That is the exit I meant, and Mundy Street was the one to Home Depot. I wasn't sure which stores she meant so I didn't comment on the rest. I do remember, though, that we went to an A.C. Moore that would have been left at the light right off the exit (Highland Park Boulevard).

Yep, yep! I forgot that one. Just think about how much tax revenue Wilkes-Barre Township rakes in! $52 EMS tax per employee x 1,000s of employees = KA-CHING! LOL! It also means traffic out the wazoo, but nobody seems to care about battling the gridlock for the everyday low, low prices.

[Dawne]

Funny story, but not at the time.

I took my two youngest kids (6 and 4 at the time) to see the Wiggles in concert at the Wachovia Arena. I was by myself as my 13 yo and my husband refused to go. Getting to the arena was a piece of cake. Parking was a breeze. Getting in was fine. The arena is just beautiful. It was daylight when we went in. We came out in the dark and I thought I'd avoid the traffic and head toward the mall rather than toward Highland Park Boulevard. Well, I didn't get stuck in traffic but somehow I ended up in the mall parking lot and drove around and around in the dark until I finally found my way back out again and onto Highland Park Avenue, which by that time was totally clear of all arena traffic. We hit I-81 southbound and as luck would have it traffic was moving well. I-81 northbound was closed due to an accident. So even though I got the grand tour of the mall parking lot (and lots of questions from the back seat - "Mommy, where are we?" "Mommy, didn't we just pass that store?") things went smoothly once we were on our way.

Oh, and the show was absolutely fantastic. I can honestly say it may be the best show I've ever seen. I think I had more fun than my kids did!

[memoriesbre]

Now I can't wait to head down that way. Should we take I-81 from Clarks Summit though? Or is there an easier way to get to I-81 from Tunkhannock?
Thanks for that list SWB. Going to print it out now

[memoriesbre]

SWB, how is that Super Kind Chinese Buffet? So far, we went to three and they were ok but not great. We went to the two in Tunkhannock and then one in Clarks Summit right near the Japanese Restaurant not far from Friendly's. It was ok but the buffet didn't have much.

[memoriesbre]

Oh my, I called the buffet "Super Kind" LOL
Maybe they are very nice there too Hee hee

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by memoriesbre

Now I can't wait to head down that way. Should we take I-81 from Clarks Summit though? Or is there an easier way to get to I-81 from Tunkhannock?
Thanks for that list SWB. Going to print it out now

Oh good Lord no! LOL! To go from Tunkhannock to Clarks Summit to pick up I-81 would be much longer than this way: Route 29 South out of Tunkhannock (pass the Wal-Mart) to Noxen, where you'd pick up Route 309 South. You'll follow that through Dallas and then it turns into the "North Cross-Valley Expressway." Get off at Exit 1, and then make a right at the end of the ramp. Total of about a half-hour vs. closer to an hour the way you would have been heading! LOL!

[in2dadark]

Originally Posted by memoriesbre

I have to say that overcast skies are not bad at all. Too much sunshine can hurt your eyes, literally. It makes you appreciate the sun when it comes out.

Laurie, it's wonderful here, truely. All the people that we have met are great.
I couldn't be happier. Can't wait for you to be in your new home. We can all get together maybe.

Paul, which Lowe's are you in??? I was looking for you at the one in Dickson City.
Is Dickson City considered Scranton?

I have to agree with that. Too much sunshine here in Fla. Looks good in photos etc. But I appreciate it when it's cloudy here. I like weather that actually changes. If the weather never changes, I'm not really sure it's even considered weather.
Can't wait to come up in 2 weeks.