• Roadside America

    I’ve been researching a story for the travel writing workshop I’m taking this semester at Hopkins, and I just have to share a brief post about it – this is one of the most curious things I’ve ever seen. Located just off Hwy. 78 in Pennsylvania, about halfway between Harrisburg and Allentown, Roadside America is touted as “The World’s Greatest Indoor Miniature Village.” And, after reading these reviews on Yelp, I had to check it out. Last week, I drove two hours to the middle of Pennsylvania to see what all the fuss is about. I must say, it’s fascinating. The exhibit is 8,000 square feet of miniature models, all…

  • What Lies Beneath

    I stepped through a narrow passageway and into a small room with thick stone walls. The warm, humid air weighed on my lungs with the mustiness of centuries past. The tour guide, a thin young man from California with Harry Potter glasses, who was living in Rome to study Latin, led the group past rows of pagan crypts, and as I peered through the openings that had been cut away in the stone, I saw some had hollowed-out spaces in the walls for crematory urns, while others housed elaborately carved sarcophagi. The guide shared the detailed history of the site, from 64 A.D. when Saint Peter was killed on the…