A couple weeks ago we were finally brave enough to venture out into the great exciting world and do a day trip! And I have decided that I want to live in Lancaster, PA. It's Amish Country, and it is beautiful. Pastoral farms tucked into wooded hills, little farm stands and rustic stores on all the corners, but not outside of civilization's niceties (read: 2 major outlet malls). The little buggies zooming up and down the streets were pretty awesome, too.
Our first stop was the Amish Farm and House, where we took a tour and wandered around the farm. We went with some friends who are also doing an internship here, and who happen to have a redheaded little girl and a baby the same age as ours! The kids loved seeing all the animals and feeding the goats. I thought the tour was fascinating.
 |
| this was just a fake "boogey" at a gas station (notice the horse's perfectly manicured tail) but it was a good photo-op! |
|
After that, we stopped by the outlet malls and stayed only slightly longer than the half hour we allotted :) I did get some badly needed dress shoes out of it, though! Then we took off for a self-guided covered bridge tour. This meant a couple of hours of driving through the countryside while the boys traded napping in the back seat. I loved this! The bridges were neat but didn't do as much for me as the farms - seeing farmers tilling their ground either with tractor or horse-drawn plow, passing buggies everywhere (Archer yelling "There's a boogey! There's a boogey!") and just being in awe of the beautiful landscape.
After we had our fill of driving, we went to dinner at a little Amish buffet to try the local delicacies. A lot of it was fried or very sweet, but the bread pudding was to die for, and I rather liked the pickled beet eggs. Outside there was a mini farm/petting zoo that the boys wanted to stay at forever.
First real family trip on the East - a success! We would need that good mojo to cover some of this weekend's adventure . . . (duh duh duuuuuuhhh!)
