Hey, I'll bet that headline fooled you! When I said "Skip It," I did not mean to remove Hawley from your itinerary. I wrote this blog after being inspired by a post by The Lovely Wife where she encouraged readers to take a moment from their serious day and let the inner child loose, and SKIP. *post is members only, sorry!* I took her up on her advice on Tuesday afternoon. I had been out touring homes & property for sale in Pike & Wayne county with the Weichert Realtors Paupack Group "Grand Caravan." (And boy howdy, does our office have a ton of great listings of homes for sale to choose from!!). Anyway, after a working lunch with some of my comrades at The Cuckoo's Nest (which claims the best food in Bohemia...it's actually the ONLY restaurant in Bohemia, but I digress) we ended back up... 08/02/2007

LAKE WALLENPAUPACK IS UNDER SIEGE. . .Existing lakefront homes, built on Lake Wallenpaupack in the late 1940's and 1950's are primarily lakefront summer cottages or cabins and are now prime targets for folks who want to build their dream home on the lake.Most of the existing cottages on the lake were built for summer use only with no insulation and little heat source, if any.  The cottages or cabins were built on piers, had inadequate plumbing and electrical systems and could not be utilized as a four-season home.  These cottages and cabins were built on prime lakefront parcels at Lake Wallenpaupack. With vacant land values exceeding $500,000 for a lakefront lot and with a cottage or cabin that might be valued at $50,000 - this creates an opportunity!People today want to be on the lake ... 08/01/2007

GEORGE KNOWS THE LAKE REGION . . .George P. Irish and his Assistants, Beth Derrick, Realtor and Liz Smith, Realtor sold over $42M in real estate in 2006!George is again producing record sales in 2007 . . ."This week we signed a contract for a Wallenpaupack Lakefront property.  The property will include a new 5600 Sq.Ft. home.  The sales price was nearly $2M."George also inked a contract for a new construction project at Lake Wallenpaupack's prestigious White Sand Springs.  The total sales price is over $600,000.Beth Derrick, George's Assistant, has earned the nickname, "The Promised Land Queen."  Beth has listed and sold over seven Promised Land properties in 2007 from a low of $65K to a high oF $159K.Cabins located in or near the Promised Land State Park are a hot property.George P. Ir... 07/28/2007

Lake Wallenpaupack is the hub of tourism and recreation for Wayne and Pike County in the Poconos of Northeast Pennsylvania.Lake Wallenpaupack was created by PPL in 1926 as a hydroelectric power project. Lake Wallenpaupack is a vital part of the local economy as well as an important electric-generating facility when demand for electricity is high. (PPL = Pennsylvania Power and Light Co.).Because Lake Wallenpaupack is a reasonable drive from Philadelphia and many parts of New York and New Jersey, it is one of the most popular recreational destinations in Northeast PA and in the Pocono Mountains. Lake Wallenpaupack Stats Pronounced "Wall-en-paw-pack" 5700 Acres Approximately 13 miles long Maximum depth of about 60 feet 52 miles of shoreline Lake Wallenpaupack Activities (Some restrictions... 06/19/2007

This is the second in a series of articles on gated communities in Pike and Wayne counties in the Poconos. Previously, I wrote about The Hideout in Lake Ariel, Wayne County. Fawn Lake Forest is a Pike County home owner community located about ten miles east of Hawley, near Lackawaxen, featuring two lakes, beach, swimming pools, tennis courts, and more.   Fawn Lake is a quiet lake of approximately 150 acres. Gasoline powered boats are not allowed on Fawn Lake, but sailboats, rowboats, and non-gasoline powered crafts are welcome. Fishing opportunities abound and the lake offers pickerel, bass, perch (my favorite), sunfish, and catfish. Fawn Bay Center overlooks Fawn Lake, and is where you will find the docks and a boat launch, tennis courts, the clubhouse, indoor swimming pool, gym with l... 05/29/2007

In the Heart of the  Pocono_Mountains  in Northeastern Pennsylvania Lies Lake_Wallenpaupack  and the home of Real estate agent Karen Rice of Weichert Realtors-Paupack Group  Karen has never considered herself a "salesperson" in the traditional sense; she does believe in DOING what she does best - serving customers.  Karen calls this "Do" diligence!   Caring and serving your customers first. That my friends is " Do Diligence. " For The Rest of the Story On Karen_Rice   follow this link. For Information about Lake Wallenpaupack go to www.wallenpaupacklakeproperty.com 05/28/2007

Pike/Wayne Realty, Inc. is Northeastern Pennsylvania's premiere real estate company.  Specializing in lake front properties in the Pocono communities, Realtors with Pike/Wayne Realty are experts in the Lake Wallenpaupack, Lake Ariel, Hawley, Greentown and Lackawaxen area real estate. If you're looking to buy a home in the Wallenpaupack area, view Pike/Wayne's many featured properties for sale.  If you don't see anything that catches your attention, you can be assured that Pike/Wayne's Realtors will find the right home for you. As a leading Wallenpaupack real estate company, Pike/Wayne Realty's progressive seller services will get you results. Karen Rice, Realtor, is a local expert in the Hawley-Wallenpaupack area, specializing in listing homes for sale.  A long-time resident, she knows ... 05/08/2007

 Northeastern Pennsylvania's Wayne County and Pike County have some beautiful, breathtaking scenes dotting the landscape. I can never get enough of the woods, the trees, the fields, the piles of moss-covered rocks, the brooks, the Lackawaxen River....There is one thing I do get enough of - winter. About this time of year many inhabitants of the Pocono Mountains get a little stir crazy. I for one feel assaulted when I go into the stores and see Easter Dresses that belong in stores in Texas, not Northeast PA! Good grief, it SNOWS on Easter here! What do you mean, putting out bathing suits and sun dresses and the sandals and tank tops? Are these stores MOCKING us?Fortunately, hope springs eternal - there are more warm days ahead for those of us freezing our patooties off in Hawley (current... 04/10/2007

How to pronounce Wallenpaupack: wall-en-paw-pack. I have heard all sorts of funny attempts, my favorite is "Wuh-linn'puhpack" said as quickly as possible, with the "linnpuhpack" said very in a very rushed and staccato way. Another one I have heard is "Wall-en-poo-pack", which would have made my kids laugh hysterically. The other day a client called and she said her last name was Porta. I was thinking...like a porta-bello mushroom? Or like Designed To Sell's adorable designer, Lisa LaPORTA? So, to be safe, I asked her to spell it - was I wrong. Her name was Porter. (Safe bet she was from Long-GUY-Land). My friend is an editor, and one of her projects was to edit data entry for a children's dictionary. She got a chuckle correcting the pronunciations that were given - she had to replace "h... 04/07/2007

You will find my hometown in the Pocono Mountains: Hawley, Pennsylvania.Until recently, Hawley did not have a traffic light. You can walk from one end of Main Street to the other in a few minutes (depending on your stride of course).When I was a little girl, Main Street used to host a bakery, a fish market, two paper stores, a department store (appropriately named, The Hawley Department Store, with a big HDS logo on the front), Teeters Furniture, The Hawley Diner, a couple of bars, a doctor's office, and a few other places that I've forgotten. While a few of these old time places remain, many have been replaced by antique stores, novelty stores, a pizza joint...While Hawley has changed and evolved a great deal, it still has that small town charm. Finally, we have a traffic light! Electr... 04/04/2007