hello milkmommie! we live in wilkes barre. everyone is right. the crunchies are few and far between around here! lol but the more we can get the better, so come on up!!
one thing to consider about distance, around here it seems to take so much longer to get anywhere due to all the hills and twisty turny roads. i would think this would be a bit of an adjustment comming from nm! my brother and his wife were just in from co a few weeks ago and were amazed at the time it took to get anywhere due to the crazy roads(loads of construction too!) and the lack of a straight way to get anywhere. lol (and they grew up here too!)
all things considered, it's not too bad i guess. there is a wegmans and some of the local grocery stores are getting a bit better at carrying natural/organic foods. i've heard there's a natural food store over in luzerne that sells raw milk... i haven't made it over there yet. lol it is a shoppers paradise over here though. there are so many new stores and shopping centers, too many choices! lots and lots of restauraunts.
from what i've heard the hospitals stink up here. lol there are a few midwives floating around though. hopefully if we have a third we will be having a homebirth. it's also something i'm concerned about doing in pa. but i've known some people who have done it. i had both my babies at geisinger in danville, which has gotten really nice. they have some really nice midwives working out there. that would be my second choice to travel to if i couldn't work out a midwife to homebirth up here.
there aren't really too many fun things to do with kids around here though. we homeschool, so we are always searching! there is lots of wonderful nature to observe! there are some really nice state parks around here. well, you could come play with me! i'm sorely in need of some more good crunchy friends.
we are currently househunting around the wilkes barre area(we've lived up here for almost 2 years, renting). it's not my first choice, but we don't want to be too far from dh's work right now, and we can't afford anything too far outside of town right now(this is our first house
). we are sort of looking at the kingston area, as well as around nanticoke and surrounding areas down there. we have family up in the benton area, and as much as it pains me to say it, as i couldn't wait to get out of there when i was a teenager, it's pretty nice up around there. it's about 40 min from wilkes barre and the rest of the world though. from what i've seen the back mountain area is really nice. that's sort of through the mountain inbetween wb and scranton.
a 45 min drive east will put you in bloomsburg, which i really like. it was our major town that we traveled to growing up(we were out in the boonies), and we live there for a year before moving up here to wb. they seem to be a bit more progressive down there. it's a really nice little college town. great lll that i miss terribly, but with dh's work schedule and it being 45 min away i haven't made it down to any meetings in a year now(it's a night meeting). the lll up here is usually just me and the two leaders. lol but they are nice ladies and we have fun.
i think there is a larger group that meets somewhere in scranton? paquerette would know maybe?
well, i've probably babbled on long enough. hope half of that was coherent! lol if you have any questions feel free to ask away. good luck on your househunt! when will you be in?
