Monday, April 5, 2010

Visiting Easton

We were in Easton, PA a couple of weeks ago during Spring Break. We stayed one night at the Towne Place Suites which was really nice. Getting to the hotel via Route 22 seemed to take longer than necessary. Also, Rt. 22 was much busier than I-78.

We visited the Crayola Factory the next day. The demonstration of how crayons are made was surprising in that it hasn't changed much from the one we saw on Mr. Rogers. The intensity of the labor suprised me then and the fact that these jobs have moved offshore is not surprising. What is surprising is that the returns on investing in technology to save some jobs is so low that there has literally been no innovation in the manufacturing process in 30 years.

Easton reminded me a little of Waterville, ME where I went to college. Lafayette College is totally separated from the town and although the building where Crayola is located has revived the downtown somewhat it still looks a little bit depressed. What it needs is a supermarket or grocery store, I think.

The National Canal Museum was also fun. Upon entering, the kids got wooden boats about 12-15 inches long and moved them along a model canal/locks complete with rushing water. There were also hands on exhibits where they got to work with pulleys and experienced what it felt like to pull on a rudder to steer a canal boat. All in all we spent about 4 hours there. K2 had lunch and the McDonalds downstairs while M and K1 went across the street to a Dunkin' Donuts.

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