We're fans of Bedford Springs

As I mentioned in the last post, DB~ got a deal through Groupon for a one night stay at the Omni Bedford Springs in Bedford, PA. We went last weekend and enjoyed magnificent high 60's degree weather, in contrast to the mid 30's as I type this. We both took a 1/2 day off from work to make the 2 hour trip from Pittsburgh to Bedford.

Bedford Springs is about 3 miles outside of the main "downtown" area of Bedford. You have to turn off of Business 220 to get there, which appears to have been relocated as a result of the expanded resort as evidenced by the apparent fresh cuts through a mountain, so when you come around the bend you see this HUGE Georgian plantation in front of you. The Bedford Springs has 216 rooms and stretches 1/4 of a mile. It's a long and narrow structure that's hemmed in between Business 220 and a small mountain that is the source of the springs.

The Bedford Springs was purchased by the Omni Group, who completely renovated and nearly doubled its size in 2007. A world-class spa (you need to make reservations 4 to 6 weeks in advance, apparently) is within the hotel and there is a links style golf course adjacent. Bedford Springs has been built in sections over the years, with the first part originally built in 1806. Additional sections were built over the next 100 years.

The Bedford Springs has been host to 7 U.S. Presidents, 4 of which were sitting Presidents. Our room was down the hall from the Polk Presidential Suite. If I remember correctly, the last President to appear there was Reagan when he was Governor of California during a Maryland Chamber of Commerce meeting.

It's no secret to the loyal 7 readers of this blog that DB~ and I love to go geocaching. It's our "thing" that we share as a joint activity. Right on the property itself there were 4 caches, plus 1 that is offline, that we were able to do and enjoy the natural beauty of our surroundings.

As we were hiking on a trail during our first trail, a man jogged past us in the opposite direction. We both turned to each other and said "Was that...Andy Sheehan from KDKA?" I'm not a local news guy at all, but pretty much everyone knows him. It was definitely him. Surprisingly, we passed each other again so I said "Hi, Andy!". He slowed down his jog and looked at us as if he was trying to decide if he knew us, so DB~ blurted out "We're fans!!!". Which we're not. It was hilarious how she blurted it out like a little schoolgirl meeting Justin Bieber. After we cached, we showered up and went to the Jean Bonnet Tavern for dinner, which I covered in the last post.

The next day we enjoyed a nice complimentary breakfast, as part of the Groupon package, and then did some more caches on the periphery of downtown Bedford, including one of the more unique ones that I have done in my caching career (in terms of method of hiding it). We also explored downtown Bedford, had lunch in a nice little cafe, and poked around some stores. Neither one of us are really into antiques, so some of the town's appeal was lost on us, but we still enjoyed our 24 hours in Bedford.