My dear husband and I are contemplating a trip to Pennsylvania. We've never been there.

This may surprise some people, but PA has been called 'the ultimate Appalachian state." For us as geologists, the mere names resonate. Tuscarora, Kittatinny, Nittany. Delaware Water Gap. Fondly we recall ourselves as students, mapping cross-sections over what seemed an idyllic rural landscape.

I want to know this. If we visit the Ridge and Valley (geological term for the 'Appalachians') of eastern PA, will we find it all covered with McMansions? Have the outcrops been replaced by malls? What's it like now?

We think we'll fly to Philly and rent a car.

We also plan to birdwatch Cape May, NJ. If anybody knows anything other good birdwatching sites, would you please share?

PS This has no connection with the proposed Mudgather being talked about in a different thread.