Wilkes-Barre's Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by blip

Yeah, the house itself is beautiful. Curious to see its state beforehand-- have any before pictures?

Unfortunately I do not. It really did need a lot of work though. Before the Panzitta family purchased this dwelling good family friends of ours considered buying it to renovate it to their specifications, but they decided to instead purchase a newer-construction home that required no elbow grease and sweat equity. That family has earned a somewhat controversial spot in terms of West Pittston's small-talk and chit-chat, but they earn a lot of respect for me for restoring this home to its former grandeur instead of just tearing it down to put up some God-awful vinyl-clad McMansion that they're building all over the place near my Pittston Twp. home.

[Gerania]

Great pictures and even a few cherry blossoms.

Originally Posted by blip

some pics of the festival + WB below. not the best pics, as i somehow accidentally messed up the exposure on my cam, so a little washed out, plus the ones of the WB were snapped through a car window..

WB Cherry Blossom Festival 2009 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/37776539@N02/sets/72157617297627037/show/ - broken link)

bummer, apparently can't embed a slideshow (or videos) right in here, darn you city-data.

festival was fun: rides and ice cream always a hit with kids. there seemed to be less focus on the blossoms, and more on fried foods and exposed, overweight mid-riffs. dumb question: are those even cherry blossoms in kirby park? (the red-flowered trees near the entrance? was expecting light pink..) if so, the porta-potties in front of the ones nearest peak were a nice touch.

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btw, this was my first time in WB. it mostly felt like shelbyville to scranton's springfield-- oddly familiar but different names on things. its downtown felt roughly the same size to me, maybe a touch smaller on a cursory drive through.

but i'll have to give it this-- its downtown has a better streetscape than scranton's. it feels more city-like in some ways: it's got the big river right there. it's got some clear main thoroughfares that go all the way through it. it's a bit more compact and contiguous, esp the retail stretches. (perhaps b/c the insurance money from the flood rebuilt parts that would have been torn down anyway?) it seemed to have more tree-lined streets. kirby park is a nice, central park (i'd take that over nay aug.) and it's public square is a better public space than the butchered courthouse sq.

that's just the downtown streetscape, and i don't want to overstate the case as it's no paris either. similarly felt like a city past it's prime. and of course this doesn't say anything about the various businesses, neighborhoods, people, crime, etc., which i know little about, as i don't mean for this to turn into a scr vs wb thread..