First Capitol

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Rooms and suites are nicely appointed with period furniture. Comfy king size beds come with a surplus of 6 pillows for slumbering enjoyment. Since the hotel is the tallest building downtown, many rooms have excellent views of the Courthouse domes or Reservoir Hill.

The lobby retains its original elegance and leads toward the Commonwealth Room, a four-diamond restaurant with excellent Sunday brunches.

Situated downtown the hotel makes a perfect weekend base for taking in dinner and drinks on a Friday night, and the Central Market and Rail Trail on Saturday.

The market is open year round on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 6am to 3pm. Telephone 717-848-2243. On Saturdays, parking is free in the garage across the street on Philadelphia St. The Heritage Bike Trail starts right down the street! (In addition to getting a great and inexpensive picnic lunch here, you can also rent a bike in the Market Annex!)

The Shoe House is a local architectural oddity with plenty of site history. The giant boot with windows fascinated me as a child, and honestly, it's still as intriguing to me as an adult because it’s just so strange. Strategically visible from Route 30, and with the official address of Shoe House Road (off of East Market Street, a.k.a. Lincoln Highway ), the footwear -inspired structure was the original marketing ploy of Mahlon ‘The Shoe Wizard’ Haines, a local shoe store proprietor. (Later, Mr. Haines went into development, hence the 'Haines Acres' region of East York). Built in the late 1940s, its initial use was supposedly for honeymooners (in addition to the hardly-subtle free advertising for the shoe store).

Throughout my lifetime it’s been an ice cream parlor, a foreclosed property, private home, and now appears to be open for public gawking during the spring, starting in May. I've actually never been inside -- somehow I resist fearing that it would dissolve some of the mystery, but it would be pretty curious to see how they fit three bedrooms in there.

If you're just doing a drive-by from the highway, keep your eyes peeled, if you drive in/out of town on Route 30 E or 30 W, it's right around signs for Hallam, PA, about 2 miles out of York. Or, you can just ask a local for directions to Shoe House Road.

This summer, Kelly's Inn located on Sherman Street hill, whose clientele largely appears to be those on shift breaks from the nearby Harley-Davidson factory, has become my personal favorite for best crab eating locale, based on strange ambience (i.e., quasi-biker bar) and best crab seasoning (plenty of rock salt!).

Prices this season are somewhat high, due to crab shortages in NC and MD, but most places offer some variety of sizes, such as 24s - 30s - 45s. In crab pricing lingo, this means a dozen for $24 will be comprised of relatively meager crabs, while a dozen for $45 will likely be monstrous in size and keep you busy for quite some time.

Eating hardshells is nothing like eating those one-shot deal stone crabs or jonah crabs in New England. Hardshells are meant to be eaten by the dozen, with lots of beer, as a communal event. Cultivating your own personal crab eating technique is also part of the ritual. For tools, generally a wooden mallet and dull knife will suffice, though creative use of your two front teeth is also recommended. In larger crabs there is plenty of room to discover delectable morsels in the legs, and most people are patient enough to spend time working on them (often teeth come in handy in this part). The general consensus is that the back fin is the best part, although lately I’ve heard arguments for the mustard colored goop instead… TO BE CONTINUED