PADRE PIO'S RELICS

The relics of Saint Pio are touring the United States to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his passing on 23 September 1968.

Fifty years before that, on 22 September 1918, Padre Pio began to suffer stigmata.

Th relic above is one of the blood-soaked woolen gloves Pio wore, and behind it, his mantle.

Sep 20 - Diocese of Paterson - St. Peter the Apostle Church

179 Baldwin Rd., Parsippany, NJ 07054

Thursday, Sep 20: 8:30am - 6:30pm 

Saint Pio Comes to America - Saint Pio Foundation

Clubhouse on Wheels: THE PADRE PIO FOUNDATION OF AMERICA

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY CHAPEL

Sometimes you just need a quiet place to sit.

PRINCETON: EINSTEIN'S HOUSE

112 Mercer Street

Albert Einstein lived here from 1935 until his death in 1955.

All those stories about Einstein walking around the neighborhood in his pajamas... this was where.

He didn't even notice what he was wearing, or care.  Or notice what anyone else was wearing, or care.  That's because he was self-actualized.

PRINCETON: YANKEE DOODLE TAP ROOM

A Princeton institution, inside the Nassau Inn.

(Jeff Bezos was here)

PRINCETON'S COOLEST ZONE: MEDITERRA

PRINCETON NJ: PALMER SQUARE

NEW HOPE PA & LAMBERTVILLE NJ

Two very quaint, artsy towns separated by the Delaware River, not far from George Washington's crossing. 

LITITZ PA

The General Sutter Inn

A six-hour roll through West Virginia and Pennsylvania to the charming town of Lititz in Lancaster County, at the heart of Amish country.

The Moravian Church

Autumn, officially just a few days away, is already present.

GOODBYE, MARIETTA

(and its culinary calamities.)

(And to Chloe, Marietta's sweetest soul.)

And into Pennsylvania...

Crossing the Susquehanna River
Three-Mile Island

THE HACKETT HOTEL/GALLEY RESTAURANT

Also haunted (like all else in Marietta).

Lacey: server supremo and spiritual dynamo

The meals here were acceptable, and made all the better by an excellent server.

But at all cost avoid the Lafayette Hotel's River View Cafe:  The slice of pork in their "Cubanos" sandwich was quite likely a leather innersole shoe liner sautéed in lard, and has, tragically, stuck with my intestines for three days

MOUND CEMETERY (BY NIGHT)

Marietta's sacred Mound Cemetery is especially delightful (and more lively) at night.

That's because night is when the orbs come out to play!

A little trick to know about orb-watching.

You have to roam the graveyard and snap a lot of pics before you can expect orbs to show themselves.

They get curious or they need to see you're serious before they'll honor you with their presence.

Pretty soon, word whips round the orb community and you are inundated with them.

(You are their spectacle.)

And with such fine company, it is time to tackle the Conus Pyramid by dark...

...under the watchful gaze of this particular orb, the first to greet me, and the last to say goodbye.

MARIETTA RIVER TRAIL

Historic Harmar Village

LAFAYETTE: ROOM WITH A VIEW

River-boating and coal still very much alive in this neck of the woods.

MARIETTA: ST. MARY'S BASILICA

An astonishingly beautiful place of worship and palace of faith.

(And the only church whose doors were unlocked.)

MARIETTA: MOUND CEMETERY

The liveliest place in town.

More Revolutionary War officers lay buried in Mound Cemetery than any other graveyard.

Atop the Conus Pyramid, man-made (literally) by an ancient Native-American tribe called Adena, which existed between 1000 and 200 BC and who were extraordinarily tall (more than eight feet in height).

The remains of the Adena's ruling families and spiritual leaders lay buried here, a sacred site
surrounded at its base by a ceremonial circle.

About two thousand years after the Adena disappeared, Marietta's settlers began using the surrounding area to inter Revolutionary War veterans.

Apparitions are said to appear on top of the Conus Mound.