Our family adventures to Wilkes-Barre PA was the vacation our family needed to refuel and recharge. Our family loves to travel but COVID has altered our plans a lot and made safety the priority, especially when traveling with children. As parents with school-aged girls, we plan our travel around their school vacation but last April and this Summer, we decided to stay put and explore local.
According to Wikipedia, Wilkes-Barre is a city in the Pennsylvania county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley, it is the second-largest city (after Scranton) of the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania.
Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding Wyoming Valley are framed by the Pocono Mountains to the east, the Endless Mountains to the north and west, and the Lehigh Valley to the south. The Susquehanna River flows through the center of the valley and defines the northwestern border of the city.
The pandemic has taught me budget-friendly ways to save and get rid of debt. Our family adventures to Wilkes-Barre PA was the perfect challenge and plan for a family trip that would not break the bank. Hubby is from Barbados and I am from Cote D’Ivoire and whenever we travel, if it’s not with family or friends, we choose a beach destination.
As we were talking with the girls about our summer vacation plans, we narrowed our preferences to Ocean City MD, Cape May NJ or Cape Cod MA. We realize soon enough the increase in travel demand meant an increase in travel cost, especially for a family of 5. I was disappointed and wanted to call off our travel plans. Hubby and I had a family meeting with our girls and explained the situation and they were very understanding.
I just knew in my heart that we needed time away and jumped on Groupon. I have had this app for so long and usually forget to check it for deals. I started comparing prices and various dates for Ocean City or Cape May or Cape Cod but the price tag was way beyond our budget and accommodations. I decided to expand my search to PA because we had visited the Pocono Mountains before and enjoyed ourselves.
I was on a mission to make something happen and our family adventures to Wilkes-Barre PA was born from browsing the app. Groupon had a deal for 4 days and 3 nights stay at a secret 3-star hotel that offered the serene stay we wanted and I jumped on it. The deal for the stay for our family of 5 was too good to pass.
The 3 hours drive from Connecticut to Wilkes-Barre was a scenic haven. We checked in the hotel and freshened up before heading to our favorite supermarket, Wegmans, for dinner. I am always in foodie heaven whenever there is a Wegmans store near our travel destination. After dinner, we took a drive to a nearby creamery for our Saturday treat to our girls’ delight.
We spent Sunday of our family adventures to Wilkes-Barre PA hiking to the beautiful Frances Slocum State Park in the drizzling morning. It wasn’t the perfect weather for hiking and we ended up going back to the hotel to relax and rest. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and enjoyed the indoor pool before calling it the night.
We wanted to go for a run as a family and discovered Kirby Park, a wooded 52-acre park with a pond, sports facilities and trails to enjoy at our leisure. We learned that every year they host a 5K at Kirby Park on Labor Day and would love to plan to attend in the future. We spent the afternoon visiting the local Barnes and Noble with a trip to Wegmans for dinner.
We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel restaurant on Tuesday morning before checking out and heading to Wegmans to grab lunch for the road. Our family adventures to Wilkes-Barre PA was the getaway we needed to reconnecting with each other at our pace and it felt so good. .
