pennsylvania: day 1 lancaster

april we went to pennsylvania- and i've been meaning to write about it ever since....

so now is my time. 

dale had spring break conveniently over his birthday so we planned a lovely weekend during the first of the week (which really means we had our weekend monday-wednesday; confusing, but it happened-we live to destroy usual week schedules)

day 1 we got our rental car and drove to the lancaster 

we had both been to the area before and loved it so we decided that was a must do on our to do. 

amish country is beautiful

and fascinating

and peculiar

and i love it. 

we scoured the land for authentic amish goods. 

we tried

amish cured meats and sausages

delectable cheeses of all perfected varieties

shoo-fly pie

whoppie pies

apple cider to die for

some home brewed root beer we found on a quaint farm

and then there was the ice cream.... mercy- 

we enjoyed a tiny taste of rich fudge

one of our most fabulous of stops was a massive store that had hundreds of different bottled goods-

don't worry they let you sample all of them

don't worry we sampled all of them.... 

salsa's of every flavor- of the fruity and vegetable varieties

jams made of things you never thought would be delicious but were incredible

pickled everything

that store was beautiful with all of it's perfectly bottled goods adorning the shelves like domestic art work.   

we wanted to find mary some kind of home made doll so we drove around all over to find this doll shop only to find it right when it had closed. 

that's the thing with amish establishments late nights are not apart of the deal. 

we drove around passing by people in horse and buggie

i admired their perfectly growing fields. 

then there were their clothes lines..... those were some of the most beautiful things i've ever seen. 

picture this

perfect fields for as far as the eye can see

spotted with the type of red barns you see in movies

then there are these old lovely farm houses

out to the side they have a massive clothes line- 

lined with clothes grouped by color and running in order of size

moving at the whim of the wind

i still go into a daydream trance when i picture it. 

lovely doesn't even begin to describe it. 

i believe it's time for some pictures-

we went to this teeny amish shopping complex

we found these fabulous frozen treats

 mares was in dairy heaven

 samples- don't mind if i do.
100 different ones; well naturally i'll try all 100
perhaps a few of them twice or thrice

more samples- yes please.
salsa samples
triple yes please.

 the amish shopping complex we visited

 i love pottery.
i love it.

 because a sheep farmers daughter loves anything shaped like a sheep
especially butter....

 the sample store
mercy those bottled goods were extra impressive
and pretty as can be

we common, bit immature folk had to chuckle a little when we pulled into this park

 mares parties hard at parks

 ohhh these barns
i love them

 we saw this sign and knew we must quench our root beer thirst here

 we questioned our decision about a half mile down the road when we saw this sign

 this abandoned looking building where the "root beer" supposedly was didn't calm our worries

 but this goat interaction made us less leery. 

plus by the goat was a bench for root beer drinkers

 

when we went inside our feared troubles went away

it was lovely

 these were as cute as can be

pretty sure i wasn't supposed to take pictures, but that's when you know you really should....

 it was quite the experience sharing the road with horse and carriage

 this cutest little amish boy made my heart melt

who doesn't like mill's

 i love all national historic register recipients
especially one of the few remaining covered bridges

i love amish country.
i love it.
i find it really fascinating-
and it makes me think about my own religion and my farm life growing up- because i know a lot of people think we are extra peculiar; so in a small way i feel like i can relate to the amish.
they are a beautiful people, those amish.
it was a real pleasure to try some of their goods and see a bit of their lives.
quite a few of them seemed a bit skittish with us outsiders and really i can't blame them.
it was a very interesting and beautiful experience.

hope each of you are experiencing beautiful things every day. even if they are simple.