But because we're foodies, small town advocates, and just generally curious, we often make a day of it and explore local restaurants, businesses, and the like. 

A Saturday or two ago, we traveled to King's Gap State Park to shoot an engagement session for our clients Lacey and Michael, who will be getting married later this year. 

On the top of the park's mountain sits a beautiful mansion with a great view of the area. 

After a great session, we had worked up an appetite. Upon the recommendation of a friend, we decided to make a stop at King's Gap General Store, a great little place for hunters and locals to stop for anything from basic groceries, to sandwiches, to cigarettes. 

Boy, were we in for a treat. Turns out, it's the longest running general store in Cumberland County, and it shows no sign of stopping.

The store had much of its old world charm still in tact and was truly ingrained in the community.

And the food was great! We had to taste the local favorite sandwich: the Blockbuster. What's that you say? You've never heard of it? We hadn't either. Good thing Lacey and Michael filled us in. It's a hot ham and cheese sandwich, with onions, lettuce and tomato on a sesame seed bun. 

We could certainly see how THAT would get us ready for a good day of hunting. 

After a quick jaunt downstairs to browse their antiques, it was back to York for us. 

All in a day's work!

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Past "Day Trip" posts:

Ellicott City, Part 1

Ellicott City, Part 2

Gettysburg, PA

Peter's Orchards

Nomad Pizza Co.

Western PA

In early February, workers at the Codo 28 project behind Central Market discovered a corroded metal box buried in one of the walls. When they opened it, they were surprised to find a time capsule of sorts: newspapers, photographs, a funeral booklet, a letter, and a bottle of wine.

Seemingly unrelated, the box turned out to be a collection put together by Fannie E. Altland from the years 1890-1909. She gingerly writes in a letter to the box's discoverer:

"This building was built by Fannie E. Altland as a memorial for her father Oliver Stuck who for over 50 years conducted upon this site a very successful printing business being proprietor and editor of the Democratic Press.
Oliver Stuck was a good husband and a conscious father, a man of true principle and one beloved by all who knew him."

She went on to include copies of various York newspapers, including Stuck's Democratic Press, as well as her his funeral book and obituary.

There are many things that are lost, however. The bottle's cork has since deteriorated, leaking wine over the box's contents. Several photographs have also faded in time, leaving mere representations of those that were there.

York was lucky enough to have this discovery when it did, and we were of course proud to photograph it.

For more photos of the time capsule's contents, visit our gallery. 
For coverage of the discovery back in February, click here. 

We spent a great deal of time documenting the pieces and will be sharing them all in their high resolution glory in a few days, until then we thought we would tease you with just one.

Click for full size

Flair Fashions is a ladies boutique offering a wide array of the latest fashions from New York and LA.

They offer shoes, jewelry, handbags, and other accessories for all budgets.

Flair Fashions seems to be just the type of shop that will help get downtown York off the ground. Owner Andrea Giuffrida was happy to accept the award from Mayor Bracey on behalf of the city and Downtown Inc.

Some attendees even had time to shop- including the mayor herself!

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In this post:

Mayor Kim Bracey

Flair Fashions

Downtown Inc

The Saf-T-Tan / Making Waves Salon at 2520 N. George St. caught fire this evening at 11:42pm.

Many (seriously, lots) emergency units were at the scene.

According to YDR:

The business was reportedly closed at the time of the fire, and no firefighter injuries were reported as of about 12:45 a.m.

Whew! Thank goodness!

Click "read more" for plenty more pictures as well as full size menu photos. We are VERY happy about the changes made to this space. Maewyn's is warm and inviting and, if tonight is any indication, has wonderful staff and service. More thoughts to come tomorrow.

Update: Hey, look, The Susquehanna Photographic's Allison Bitzer is up on YDR

More photos after the jump...

We were thrilled to see so many people downtown last night for the Felice Brothers show at the Capitol Theatre. It was Cap Live's first ever sold out show, and the place was packed. Fans from all over gathered to rock out. If only it had been a bit warmer outside!

Meanwhile, another downtown business was busy behind closed doors: Maewyn's, the new tenant at the old Harp and Fiddle, put up their shiny new sign:

Maewyn's (may-wins) should be up and running soon and we're happy to see this downtown vacancy be filled once again.

We hope your weekend was as good as ours and that we can make February awesome!

Attendees were greeted by the lovely sounds of Cushla Srour on the flute.

Parade representative Sean Kenny happily announced that over 100 entries will participate in the celebration of Irish culture and custom. Planned acts inlcude Irish dances and several Celtic influenced bands.

Kenny also introduced this year's Grand Marshall: Paul Kilker, the grandson of two Irish immigrants that came to the states generations ago. 


Mr. Kilker has lived in York since 1987 and owns GGS Information Services- an endeavor for which he has earned much recognition. He has also co-sponsored the parade in past years, and can now add this to his long list of gifts to the community.

The parade will have a high tech spin to it this year: it will be partnering with My Y-fi to open the parade to those on the web. Bob Mock will be live-tweeting the event as well as uploading photos. 

We too will be at the parade and will be uploading some of our shots throughout the day. 

We are glad that we can give a nod to our Irish heritage by taking a part in this long lasting York traditon.

"May you have warm words on a cold evening,
a full moon on a dark night,
and the road downhill all the way to your door."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

We are a small company. Seriously small- it's just the two of us. 

That being said we are going to try and do as much as possible to help out with the Haitian relief effort. We've donated what we can and now we would like to encourage others to do the same.

If you donate $25 or more to the Clinton-Bush Haiti fund we will offer the same back in services. If you have a wedding, portrait sitting, or commercial job with us we will match your donation in a services discount. If you don't have anything planned with us, don't worry. We'll honor this as long as you save the email or printed receipt with your donation amount.

Sincerely,

Philip and Allison