Eager to stretch our legs after two days of driving, Jeanine and I joined Mayela and Stephen for a walking tour of historic downtown Harrisburg. We started from City Island and crossed the Susquehanna on an old railroad bridge. Minutes later we arrived at the State Capitol, designed in 1902 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative Renaissance themes throughout. The capitol houses the legislative chambers for the General Assembly, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, as well as the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. It is often referred to as a “palace of art” because of its many sculptures, murals and stained-glass windows. Our tour guide proclaimed it the most beautiful capitol building in the United States, a claim I found easy to believe.

After a bit more walking through the downtown area, we returned to City Island by way of the Market Street Bridge, a work of art in its own right. Mayela paused to make a snow angel before we departed for a second visit to Hershey, this time to tour the Hershey Museum.

After a half dozen attempts at the photograph below did the pair realize I was quite happy with the first shot. Neither complained.

Mayela and Stephen were treated to dinner by my mother and other sister, Alissa. We arrived shortly after they were seated to effect our second surprise of the weekend. All this a prelude to the main event, a concert by Mayela’s favorite group, We Banjo 3, a band from Galway, Ireland that plays traditional Irish, old time, and bluegrass music. The band is composed of two sets of brothers, Enda and Fergal Scahill and Martin and David Howley. I do not understand the name of the band as they are 4 in number and only 2 play the banjo. What I did understand by the end of the evening was what musical genius and flawless technique sounds like.