Tucked Away

My original plan today was to visit various geocache locations in the area, not to search for the caches themselves but to visit the locations and see what might be photogenic there. The nearest cache is right across the street in the little gazebo park, and once I started taking pictures there I had a better idea - to visit some of the little tucked-away, off-the-beaten-path parks and picnic areas in Shippensburg (you can visit the web album here). So I got some shots of the concrete benches, just right for plunking down with a sandwich and a drink for a nice, shady lunch, and the little children sculpture in the gazebo park.

Next I headed off for a little park tucked just behind the Borough of Shippensburg municipal offices on North Fayette St. But on the way there I ran across some photogenic scenes: Daylilies on McCreary Ave. and a little Chipmunk on Burd St.

The little park behind the borough offices has a picnic pavilion and a playground, sandwiched between the office building and Branch Creek. The swings and stuff turned out not to be so photogenic, but the picnic pavilion turned out looking pretty good.

There's another little picnic area on the edge of the Shippensburg University campus, at the intersection of Burd Run and Fogelsanger Roads on Burd Run. I decided to head up there on the undeveloped section of the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail, and on the way I ran into an old friend - an Orchard Orb Weaver spider (Leucauge venusta), a very small spider who becomes gorgeous when you get closer to her via a macro lens.

The picnic pavilion and bridge on the Shippensburg University campus is a nice cool, shady spot beside Burd Run that looks like it would be a great place for a picnic on a hot summer day.

Back into town we go, to visit a little garden park tucked behind the Widow Piper's Inn, a colonial era stone house which served briefly as Cumberland County's first courthouse, at the corner of King and Queen Streets.

And back home we go, pausing on the porch to take a last shot of the gazebo park across the street. Now it's time for lunch!

© 2013 by A. Roy Hilbinger