Jim Thorpe, Poconos

Looking up Broadway St

To think I spent most of my life living only about an hour and a half away from it and just hadn't bothered to get up there to see it before -- can't wait now to go back for a closer look (but definitely in warmer weather!)  A charming little town, with spectacular mountain scenery.

My husband's bagpipe band was scheduled to march in the locally famous Jim Thorpe St Patrick's Day parade and I actually wasn't planning to go, but at the last minute (hours after hubby & the band had already hit the road), I decided to fire up the GPS and drive myself up there to try and shoot some photos for their website.

Well it was a windy and bitterly cold day but that didn't faze this party crowd in the least, and while they were all gathering in the streets sporting their green gear, leprechaun hats & green mardi gras beads, gulping Guinness, Harp & other assorted St Paddy's day staples - there was me, huddled against a building with my camera frozen fast to my fingers, wearing 3 layers of clothing and a heavy winter coat and still not even close to being warm, thinking they're all completely insane and wishing I'd thought to bring hubby's flask along to help keep me warm ;) but of course I still had the long drive back home to look forward to so that was out of the question anyway.

Before the parade got started I had a little time to wander away from the crowds to a side street for some pictures of the really cool houses & buildings, especially the lovely old church built into the side of the mountain.  It's the Episcopal Parish of St. Mark & St. John, which was built in 1848 according to their website, and it's a gorgeous old stone structure complete with gothic arches and towers, crosses, gargoyles and stone spire-like things and a huge pair of arched doors painted bright red that I couldn't seem to take enough pictures of, hehe... but the big surprise came when I got home and uploaded the pix to my computer...  opened up the first shot of the awesome red door when suddenly, as Moe Sizlac would say, wha-a-a-a-a???  Who was that man standing looking out the church window?!  There was no one standing there when I took the picture!

See if you can spot it too -- but make sure you click on it to open the enlarged version first.

Enhanced lighting, do you see him yet? Granted you need a really good monitor, I picked it right out on my new widescreen but not so much on the laptop or the older monitor.