The last few times we have gone past Mt. Penn near Reading, PA., I saw a pagoda way up at the top and wondered about it. I mentioned to Sean how much I’d like to see it up close and so we took a day trip there a few weeks ago.

We drove through Reading, and I saw a lot of buildings and many churches I’d like to come back and photograph some other time. We tend to leave to go places late and then it’s a sped up trip or we get home way too late.

Anyway, we found the winding road leading up to the pagoda and found a parking spot.  What a glorious panorama view of Reading!

I think that is smog. 😦

We saw a teenager walking along that wall there-over 300 feet up! No security.

Completed in 1908 at a cost of $50,000, this pagoda was intended to be the hotel/restaurant centerpiece of a luxury resort. When plans for the rest of the resort were abandoned, the 7-story wooden building on 10 acres of land was donated to Reading in 1911. It is now part of the Mount Penn Reserve, 1,595 acres of municipally-owned land.

I pressed my camera on the glass so we could see inside the pagoda. We missed seeing it by a matter of minutes.

Sean wanted to see where the Reading Phillies played, so we went to see the stadium. GPS really help as it was a round about way to get there!

These dog tags were at least 4 feet long!

We didn’t see a game, but loads of people were flocking in to a 6 pm game an hour or so early.

I happen to take a shoot of this brick and Ryne Sandberg is the new Phillies manager in the big team. This was before that happened.

We then went over to the Reading Factory Outlet stores and I must say it’s getting like a ghost town there. It must have been a great place to shop years ago! Found good buys in a ladies’ store for my mom’s upcoming birthday. And also Van Heusen-got the guys’ great polo shirts for $7.99 each. They fit Brian so nicely.

We couldn’t decide where to eat and looked at a few menus. Went back to Chef Alan’s Bistro(from our trip in March) right there in West Reading as it was steak night! Good choice.

We did look for some caches, one near a basketball court and one near the firetower near the pagoda. Hit and miss-the miss was missing!

We checked out a park as the sun was setting.

Back to the Pagoda-wow!

LEDs were added under the red lights a few years back.

But look at this! There were fireworks at a fair and you can see them in red near the middle. We passed that fair coming back!

We seem to have more company here at night. They were acting pretty well. It’s kind of nerve wracking to know you are over 300 feet up and not seeing any security. I am sure they have to make their rounds. I hope they do!

I took these shots while resting my camera on a wall.

Check another one off the bucket list! Thanks Sean!