PA STATE LAUREL FESTIVAL 2011

Every year in June, the sweet little town of Wellsboro celebrates the blooming of our state flower with the annual PA State Laurel Festival.  I say sweet because Wellsboro is one of the few towns in PA that I would love to live in.  Charming shoppes, streets lined with gaslights, and its own theatre are a few of its attractions. 

I planned a short vacation around the Laurel Festival and I wasn't disappointed.  The weather was summer perfect and the festival and parade were the highlight of our three-day weekend.  Held on the green in downtown Wellsboro, the weeklong event included a juried arts and crafts fair, queens pageant, concerts, and a two-hour parade.   

We drank three rounds of old fashioned soda pop straight from the tap after buying a metal mug that kept each flavor ice cold... orange, birch, and vanilla cream...yum.  When it came to food, the selection was overwhelming, but the smokey smell of bar-b-que meat enticed our taste buds.  I chose bison and my husband chose pork.  As Emeril says, "Pork fat rules."

It was a fun weekend full of color, flavor, blue skies and warmth.  What more could you want from a summer vacation?

 

Mountain Laurel, the flower responsible for all this fun

Master Minstrel Jerry Brown of Lancaster has a monkey on his back

My daughter loved this booth

Spoon flowers

Hand blown glass bubbles

He was surrounded by children all day

No Plain Plates can hang out here

Buy the mug,  free refills all day

The centerpiece of the park

She couldn't stop touching the curly ribbons hanging from her flowery headpiece

Parade ready... rain or shine

The lovely town of Wellsboro awaits a parade.  They set their chairs out the night before.

Uncle Sam on stilts

One of the many bands that entertained the crowd

Checking out the candy stash

Pretty girls in colorful dresses represented high schools from all over PA

Clowns love a parade

Bagpipe players